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Word Order, Action, and the Brain: A Reply to Arbib
Author(s) -
Kemmerer David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/lnc3.12132
Subject(s) - object (grammar) , verb , word order , action (physics) , subject (documents) , linguistics , representation (politics) , context (archaeology) , word (group theory) , psychology , order (exchange) , computer science , cognitive science , philosophy , history , political science , library science , law , finance , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , politics , economics
Abstract In a recent paper in this journal, I argued that the crosslinguistic prevalence of subject–object–verb and subject–verb–object word orders reflects the sequential and hierarchical representation of action in Broca's area. Arbib (2015) discusses that paper in the context of broader computational, neuroscientific, and evolutionary issues, and presents a critique of my specific proposal. Here, I respond to his concerns and defend my original account.