C1. The Conceptual Framework-VI.Conclusion T

In this chapter we have covered a vast territory citing embryological, anatomical, physiological, and genetic facts pertinent to a great variety of animals. The aim of these excursions was to provide a panorama of the many aspects of the study of behavior and the scientific approaches to this study. We wished to demonstrate the intimate relationship between behavior and biological phenomena in general. We shall, in subsequent chapters, focus on language, but from the foregoing discussions it will be apparent that a biology of language must go far beyond the traditional subjects, namely beyond a demonstration that man is not the only communicating animal, and that certain animal experiments are analogous to language acquistion. Instead, we may expect that language, just as the other types of behavior disucssed in this chapter, is determined to a large extent by biological potentialities.

在這一章，我們涵蓋了廣大的範圍，指出胚胎學、解剖學、生理學及遺傳學和許多動物有關。會提及這些那麼遠的學科，其主要目的是為了提供對行為研究及它的科學方法一個全面性的概觀。我們希望能證明行為和生物現象之間的密切關係。我們在後面的章節，將集中於語言部分，但是根據前面的討論，會很明顯的顯示出語言的生物面一定遠遠超過傳統的議題，也就是證明人類不是唯一會溝通的動物，並且某些動物實驗和語言習得類似。 取而代之的是，我們期待語言，就像本章討論到的其它行為一樣，是被生物的潛能性所決定。

We have come to the following conclusions in the previous sections. The central nervous system and other tissues in the body develop simultaneously and influence one another continuously during morphogenesis. Also, the internal architecture of bones is in part influenced by muscle tonus, which in turn depends on central nervous system activity. As soon as embryonic tissues are sufficiently differentiated movement and primitive stages of behavior appear, and these develop pari passu with further embryonic development. In mammals and most birds, individuals emerge into the world after a complex ontogenetic history in which behavioral differentiation played as important a role as tissue differentiation. Once the individual mammal attains freedom from the intrauterine influence, he is neither a passive tool that may be put to any arbitrary use nor a tabula rasa into which behavior can be arbitrarily inscribed. There are biological limits to its future behavioral repertoire, and these express themselves as species-specificities. Such specificities are ever present and there is no behavior (including language) that is exempt from them. In many animals there is a certain degree of plasticity, but the building blocks of any behavior however arbitrarily it might have been shapted by exterior forces, remain species-specific reflexes, sensitivities, and motor patterns. Genetic transmission appears to play an important role in the fundamental nature of behavioral building blocks and their propagation through animal populations. There is in certain instances a developmental connection between the morphological charateristics and the behavioral characteristics of a species. However, a simple inspection of form does not ordinarily allow us to predict the complete behavioral characteristics of the animal. But if the animal's behavior is well-known, some of its morphological characteristics can then be related to function.

從前面幾節，我們達成了以下幾個結論。中樞神經系統和其它身體上的組織同時發展並且在形態生成的過程中不斷地互相影響。此外，骨骼的內部結構會某種程度上地受到肌緊張的影響，而肌肉的緊張則取決於中樞神經系統的活動 。只要胚胎的組織一經過充分的分化，行為的動作和行為的原始階段就會出現，而且這些發展和進一步的胚胎發展同種速度。在哺乳類以及大多數的鳥類，個體的出生是經過一個複雜的發育歷程，而行為的分化在這個歷程中所扮演的角色就像組織分化一樣重要。一個個体哺乳類一旦不受母體的影響而取得自由，他就不是一個被任意使用的工具，也不是一個被任意銘記行為的白板。他更深一層的行為功能會受到生物上的限制，這些都能從他自己顯現出生物特有的性質。像這樣的特殊性一直都存在著，而且也沒有行為(包含語言)可以被免除。許多動物都具有某種程度的可塑性，但是生物的特殊性阻擋了任何的行為。基因的傳承似乎在行為建構材料的基礎本質中和動物族群的繁殖中扮演了重要的角色。 然而，對一個形式的簡單檢驗通常不允許我們預測動物完整的行為特性。 但是，如果動物的行為是眾所週知的，它的某些構詞特性就和功能有關。

In our investigations of biological foundations of language we shall examine anatomical and phsiological correlates: we shall attempt to follow the emergence of language through growth and maturation; and we shall attempt to see language in the context of the science of evolution. These and related matters must, by necessity, be treated in individual chapters. Yet none of these topics by themselves is likely to give us definitive clues to the biological nature of language. Each produces circumstantial evidence. only a synopsis of the entire material will give us a picture, however hazy, of the immensely intricate design of the whole.

在我們對語言的生物基礎研究中，我們將檢視解剖和生理的相關之處；我們將試圖從發育及成熟的過程注意語言的出現。而且，我們將試圖檢視語言的進化面。這些以及相關的事物都一定且必需要在獨立的章節中討論。雖然這些主題都還沒有提供我們對語言的生物本質一些可靠的線索。每個主題都是有關的證據。然而，只有全部資料的概要才會給我們一個輪廓，雖然朦朧但卻是錯綜複雜的圖樣。

LB 066-071 T

Lesions in man’s left hemisphere, on the other hand, are conspicuous for their interference with verbal activity. Yet they are statistically less likely (Milner, 1962) (Weinstein, 1962) to interfere with general, nonverbal perceptual and cognitive functions than similar lesions in the right hemisphere, particularly in the temporal lobes. The lateralization of function is not present at birth and may be influenced by lesions and disease suffered in early childhood (Chapter four). It is interesting that the corpus callosum, the heavy strand of fiber tracts which most immediately connect the cortices of the two hemispheres, is not essential for the acquisition of speech. Several cases of congenital agenesis of the corpus callosum have been reported in the literature, and it is clear that this deformity need not result in language learning difficulties. It is not known whether it prevents the establishment of cerebral lateralization. (For the relationship between handedness and speech lateralization, see Chapter four.)

另一方面來看，人類左腦的損害，對口語動作的干擾是顯而易見的。然而在統計上，比起相似的損害在右腦，在左腦的損害較不可能干擾一般的、非口語感覺及認知功能，特別是在顳葉內。側化的功能並不是在出生時就出現而且有可能是受到器官損害以及幼年早期所患疾病的影響(第四章)。有趣的是胼胝體，這個含有大串的神經纖維是最直接地連結左右腦大腦皮質的道路，但對口語的習得卻不是必要的。據文獻上的報導，有幾個先天胼胝體發育不全的案例，而這種缺陷對導致語言學習的困難不是必要的。大家並不知道是否它妨礙了大腦側化的建立。(慣用手和語言側化的關係，見第四章。)

(5) Relative Size of the BrainThere has been much discussion about man’s relatively large brain and its specific relationship to language. Although the thesis of this book would be much strengthened if we could demonstrate a necessary and sufficient connection between these typically human structural and behavioral developments, a closer examination of the various aspects of brain size reveals several unsolved problems.

(5)腦的相對大小
已經有許多關於人類大腦以及它對語言特有關係的討論。若我們能證明這些人類結構和行為的發展之間有著必要且足夠的關聯，雖會會使這本書的論點更加穩固，然而對於腦的大小多種面向的嚴密調查更會透露出幾個尚未解決的問題。

First, there are problems of measurement. The relevance of average body weight in relation to brain weight is not obvious. For instance, the variance of body weights is much greater than that of brain weights. Even in a single, mature individual, the body weight may fluctuate considerably, whereas the brain weight tends to be quite constant. When different species are compared, additional problems emerge. The weight and volume of the body may vary with density of tissues (especially bones), and this can interfere with the commensurability of the brain-weight/body-weight ratios. For some animals it is advantageous to carry around a great deal of dead or energy-storing tissue, whereas others must travel as lightly as possible. Starck (1965) who has reviewed the recent literature on the encephalization problem has expressed similar criticisms and suggests that intra-cerebral proportions of tissues might provide more important and interesting quotients for taxonomic purposes than the brain-weight/body-weight ratio.

首先，是測量上的問題。平均體重和腦重量的關聯性並不明顯。舉例來說，體重的變動比腦重量的變動大多了。即使是一個單獨的、成熟的個體，體重也可能變動相當大，反之，腦重量卻傾向於相當地固定。當比較不同的物種時，就會浮現出附加的問題。身體的重量和體積可能會隨著組織的密度而不同(特別是骨骼)，並且這會干擾腦重量/體重比例的可公度性。對某些動物來說，能隨身攜帶大量的廢棄的或貯存能量的組織是有利的，反之，對於其它的動物來說卻是儘可能地愈輕便愈好。Starck(1965)重新檢閱了最近關於腦體重比增加化問題的文獻，他表達了類似的評論並且建議組織的腦內比率可能比 腦重量/體重 的比率更能提供分類目的一個更重要且有趣的數字。

It may also be well to remember that data may be plotted in many different ways. The direct comparison of measurements may often obscure lawful relationships, particularly when these are nonlinear. Dodgson (1962), for instance, has plotted brain-weight/body-weight relationship on double-logarithmic scales (Fig. 2.24) in which an allometric connection seems to emerge (cf. Chapter six) between brain and body weights that holds for many primates including man. According to this representation, it would seem as if man had kept up with a trend common for the entire order, whereas the great apes were the deviants. However, we should not be so misled by this graph to think that there is nothing peculiar about the dimensions of man’s brain. It is of an extraordinary size and is quite obviously capable of functions that differ qualitatively and quantitatively from that of other animals.

牢記資料有很多不同的測劃方法是可取的。直接比較的測量方式通常會遮掩了法定的關係，特別是當它們是非線性的。例如，Dodgson (1962)，用雙對數標度 (Fig. 2.24)測劃了腦重量/體重的關係，在表中似乎浮現了腦重和體重之間有著異速生長的關聯，這適用於靈長類動物，而人類也包含在內。根據這個圖表，人類似乎有趕上整個普遍規律的趨勢，而大猿卻是反常。然而，我們不該受這個圖表的誤導而誤認為人腦的大小一點都不獨特。人腦異常的大小，因此很明顯地在品質上及數量上有不同於其它動物的功能。

A further reason why a simple comparison of a few selected weights is not very revealing is due to the changing proportions of organ weights, including the brain, through growth and development (for details, see Chapter four). The brain-body weight ratios are, for all mammals, different at birth than in maturity. Pertinent data for the primate order have been collected by Schultz (1941) who has shown that it is possible to match a quotient that is typical for mature man by a similar quotient of a subhuman primate but at a more primitive stage of development. Thus the growth histories peculiar to a species are more interesting than the comparison of any single absolute measurement. The growth history of the human brain is quite different from that of other primates.

將一些挑選出來的重量所作的簡單對照並不相當發人省思的更進一步原因是因為器官的重量 (包含腦) 的變化比率，是起因於成長及發展(詳情，見第四章)。對所有的哺乳類來說，腦-身體重量的比例在出生就不同，勝於成熟後。Schultz (1941)已經蒐集到相關的資料，他指出成熟人類的商數(指腦重量/體重)可能比得上低於人類的靈長類的類似商數，但是是在更早期的發展階段。因此，物種特有的成長歷程比完全單方面測量的比較更加有趣。人腦的成長歷程和其它靈長類相比是非常不同的。

A second realm of problems concerns the interpretation of the significance of relative and absolute increase in brain size. Man does not only differ from animals in his capacity for language but also in his general cognitive capacities. It may well be that the large-sized brain and the absolute increase in cell number and axodendritic density have increased man’s psychological storage capacity, the capacity for simultaneous processing of input and output, and the combinatorial possibilities among specific processes. In modern man, a failure of brain growth, such as in microcepyhaly, apparently results in lowering of these functions if the condition is severe enough. But it is interesting that language function is comparatively independent (in modern man—the argument must not be extended indiscriminately to fossil forms) from both brain size and variations in cognitive capacities. These phenomena are discussed in greater detail elsewhere in the book. Here we are merely interested in the relationship between brain size and language capacity.

第二個問題的範圍關係著理解相對的及完全的增加腦的大小的重要性。人類不同於動物的不只是語言的能力，還包含一般的認知能力。大尺寸的腦和細胞數目的絕對增加以及軸突末端與樹突交接處的密度已增加了人類心理上的儲存能力，這是同時處理輸入和輸出的能力，組合的可能。在現代人類中，大腦成長過程的失敗，像是小腦症，假設這個情況十分嚴重，很顯然地會導致這些功能的減弱。但是有趣的是語言的功能相對地獨立於(在現代人類中，絕不能任意的擴大這個論點) 腦的大小及認知能力的差異兩者。這些現象在本書的其它處有更詳細的討論。在這我們只關注於腦的大小和語言能力之間的關係。

Would it be possible at least to learn to understand a natural language such as English with a brain of markedly different weight and brain-body weight ratio? The answer is yes: as far as modern man is concerned, neither the absolute nor relative weight of the brain is the necessary factor for language-learning potentiality. There is a clinical condition, first described and named nanocephalic dwarfism (bird-headed dwarfs, as they are sometimes called), by the German pathologist, Virchow, in which man appears reduced to fairy-tale size. Seckel (1960) has recently described two such dwarfs and has reviewed the scientific literature on thirteen others. He ascribes the condition to a single-locus recessive gene for dwarfish stature without affecting endocrine organs and function. Adult individuals attain a maximum height of three feet, and about half of the described patients stand not much higher than two and a half feet at adult age; the shortest adult mentioned measured 23 inches.

是否以明顯不同的腦重量及腦-身體重量的比例來學著理解一個自然的語言，像是英語，是有可能的?答案是肯定的。就現代人類而言，絕對的及相對的腦重量這兩者都不是語言學習潛力的必要因素。有一個臨床的病症，最初被德國的病理學家，Virchow，描述及命名為小腦侏儒症(有時又被稱作鳥頭樣侏儒)，這個病狀是人腦會縮小到像不真實的大小。Seckel(1960)最近描敘了兩個像這類的侏儒者並且評論了關於十三個侏儒者的科學上的文獻。他將這種病況歸因於像侏儒身高的隱性基因缺乏影響內分泌的器官及功能。成人最高的身高可達到三英尺，而這些描敘的病患中，大約有一半在成人年齡站立著仍沒有高於兩尺半；前提中最矮的成人測得為23英吋。

Nanocephalic dwarfs differ from other dwarfs in that they preserve the skeletal proportions of normal adults. The fully mature have a brain-body weight ratio well within the limits of a young teen-ager. Yet their head circumference and estimated brain weight barely exceeds those of a newborn infant as shown in Fig. 2.25. On microscopic examination, these brains have an unremarkable histological appearance; both the size of individual nerve cells and the density of their distribution is thought to be within normal limits. However, these brains probably differ substantially from normal adult ones in the absolute number of cells. Intellectually, these dwarfs show some retardation for the most part, often not surpassing a mental age level of five to six years. All of them acquire the rudiments of language including speaking and understanding, and the majority master the verbal skills at least as well as a normal five-year-old child. From table 2.2 it is apparent that neither the absolute nor relative weights of brains and bodies reveal the nature of the relationship between speech and its neurological correlates. Apparently, the organization of the brain is more important for language than its mass, and the entire matter must be discussed in the light of developmental processes and growth. Perhaps growth brings about organization within the brain which does have structural correlates on a molecular level, and in this sense speech and language may have a concrete structural basis. But at the present time, we have no techniques which could demonstrate the structural characteristics of a brain whose owner learned to speak at a normal age to distinguish it from certain brains whose owner had a congenital language disability without other neurological abnormalities.

小腦侏儒不同於其它的侏儒的地方是他們仍存有正常成人的骨骼比例。完全發展成熟的腦-身體重量比例正好在青少年的範圍內。他們的腦圓周和估計的腦重量僅僅超越剛出生嬰兒的腦，如表 2.25所示。在小腦症的調查中，這些腦有著一般的組織學外觀；神經細胞的大小及它們分佈的密度這兩者都被認為是在正常的範圍內。然而，這些腦大致上不同於正常成人可能是在於細胞的完全數量。智能上來說，這些侏儒在大部分都顯示了一些遲緩，通常不是出眾的。他們全都習得了語言的基礎，包含說話及理解，並且大部分都掌握了至少像正常五歲兒童的口語技巧。顯然地從表2.2中指出絕對的或相對的腦-身體重量兩者皆不能顯示口語和神經之間關係的本質。看來，腦的組織對語言比對它的本體更加重要。但在現階段，我們並沒有儀器可以證明並且區分能使人類在適當年齡學會說話的腦結構特性及某些具有先天語言障礙卻沒有其它神經異常者的腦結構特性。

Preface- Paragraph 8 T

Throughout these years, I have enjoyed the financial support of the National Institutes of Health, U. S. Public Health Service, grants MH-02921, M-5268, 1-K-3-MH-21700, and National Science Foundation GS-300. Finally,I would like to express my gratitude to Eleanor F. Rosenberger, who has been responsible for typing and retyping the manuscript, for a gigantic editorial job and for patient library research.

Cambridge, Mass. E.H. L.

整整這些年來，我享有了來自美國國家衛生院及美國公共衛生服務處財務上的資助，補助了研究計劃MH-02921、M-5268及1-K-3-MH-21700，美國國家科學基金會補助了研究計畫GS-300。最後，我想表達我對Elanor F. Roseberger的感激之情，他負責了打字及校正原稿、大量的編輯工作以及耐心的圖書研究。