Impossible Languages: the Brain and the Boundaries of Babel

What are human languages made of that there can be impossible ones? In this course, after a sketchy survey of the landmarks of linguistic thought, we will discuss the reasons that lead to the definition of the class of possible human languages. We will start from formal issues pertaining to the structure of grammars to proceed to the examination of the neurobiological foundations of language and some crucial experiments on the brain. Among the topics that will be discussed: the specificity of human language with respect to those of all other animals, the specificity of syntactic dependencies from any other human cognitive capacity, the stem mind of children for the acquisition of any language, the distinction between simulation and comprehension of language, the possible steps of evolution of language, the impact on perception and reasoning associated to any specific language, the risk of a linguistic based racism, and the relationship with artificial languages, including those invented for literary reasons. This journey to the Boundaries of Babel will overturn the traditional view of language and allow us to claim that flesh became words