The Evolution of Human Communication Systems

One-Pot Synthesis of 1-Aminophosphinic acids using 50% Hypophosphorus Acid under microwave irradiation

“…All melting points were obtained by 8 Hz, C-P), 108. 2,112.8,114.5,115.9,120.8,129.7,131.7,137.9,147.3 (d,Jc p=13.8 6,57.4 (d,Jc p=99.4 Hz, C-P), 114. 8,115.1,115.2,115.5,130.5,132.9,141.3 (d,Jc p=14.5 rapidly in a microwave oven.…”

“…In recent years, the synthesis of a-substituted phosphoryl derivatives (phosphonic and phosphinic acids) has attracted considerable attention, due to their potential biological activities with broad application as enzyme inhibitors, antimetabolites and antibiotics. Among the afunctionalized phosphinic acids, a-aminoalkylphosphinic derivatives have potential biological activities such as antibacterial, herbicidal and fungicidal [2][3][4]. 1-Aminoalkylphosphinic acids, the phosphinic acid analogues of l-amino carboxylic acids, are important compounds that exhibit a variety of interesting and useful properties.…”

Evolutionary principles and the emergence of syntax

“…Gardner & Gardner (1969) reported that the chimpanzee Washoe spontaneously used gestural signs and combined them into short chains in a nonimitative and nonrandom manner. The enthusiasm about having discovered protolinguistic capacities in apes comparable to early stages of human language acquisition (e.g., Dingwall 1979;Lieberman 1984;Passingham 1979;Premack 1980) was, however, dampened by objections from Seidenberg & Petitto (1979) and Terrace et al (1979), who argued that chimpanzee "speech" is essentially imitative (i.e., triggered by subtle prompts from experimenters), full of meaningless repetitions, and nonspontaneous. The field seemed to have reached a consensus in the mideighties according to which pongid 'language acquisition' was not comparable to that in children because it was based on explicit training and conditioning, and because productive syntax was beyond the capacities of pongids (cf.…”

Speaking of language: Thoughts on associations

“…(1) Natural vocalizations. In spite of the complex sociocultural structures established by chimpanzees in the wild (involving tool construction and use, cooperative hunting, food sharing, social and kinship relations; Dingwall 1979;Goodall 1971;, it is commonly assumed that communicative behavior in monkeys and apes is strictly nonhomologous to human language, mainly because it is essentially affective (whereas most of human speech is cognitivereferential), nonvolitional, and controlled by subcortical brain structures (Dingwall 1979). Homology refers to "behaviors that are similar in closely related species, that can be related to structures showing a high degree of concordance in a number of parameters, and that could -together with their structural correlates -be traced back to a common ancestor" (Dingwall 1988, pp.…”