[Xmca-l] Re: Michael C. Corballis

[Peter Feigenbaum [Staff]]

Andy,

I'm familiar with his 1991 book entitled *The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of
the Generative Mind*,
and I found his perspective on the evolutionary developments of brain,
mind, and language to
be reasonable, coherent, and very compelling. When I read it (about 25
years ago), I was
particularly focused on the evolutionary connections between handedness,
left hemispheric
dominance for language, and the evolution of the anatomical relations
between the brain regions
that control the fine motor movements of the thumb and those of the tongue.

So when I saw your question, I pulled the book off the shelf and re-read
the parts on the neural
foundations of language and mental representation - and found them to be
chock full of good
and useful ideas!  Alas, while I can attest that Corballis certainly has a
sound working knowledge
of the biological and neural structures of language, as well as the basic
psychological functions that are sub-served by these structures, this
seminal book doesn't really speak to his work as a linguist.

In fact, the book lists him as affiliated with the Department of Psychology
at the University of Aukland, and so I always assumed he was a
psychologist. But if he is indeed a linguist, and if he has carried the
quality and clarity of thought and understanding expressed in his older
work on evolution of the human brain into his later life, I'd wager he's a
pretty good linguist.

May I ask what prompted your question?

Cheers,
Peter



On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 3:13 AM, Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:

> Is anyone familiar with the work of Michael C. Corballis as a linguist? Is
> he any good?
>
> andy
>
> --
> ------------------------------
> Andy Blunden
> http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ethicalpolitics.org_ablunden_index.htm&d=DwMCaQ&c=aqMfXOEvEJQh2iQMCb7Wy8l0sPnURkcqADc2guUW8IM&r=mXj3yhpYNklTxyN3KioIJ0ECmPHilpf4N2p9PBMATWs&m=6rABLbgQXNmFR3I1MRyXWnwkYlMV8UA9eNMBReMJ2G8&s=_MacMRb35H57uhad46QsFEcixR0ZeRymdVs7-klmN8U&e=>
>



-- 
Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D.
Director,
Office of Institutional Research
<https://www.fordham.edu/info/24303/institutional_research>
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