Papers by Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2015
Eslavistica Complutense, 2004
El análisis estilístico y conceptual de uno de los pasajes más relevantes de Yevgeni Oneguin, la ... more El análisis estilístico y conceptual de uno de los pasajes más relevantes de Yevgeni Oneguin, la muerte de Lenski en el duelo con Oneguin, constituye una aproximación muy fructífera a la manera en que se aúnan en Pushkin la labor de creación de la forma poética y la organización de la trama narrativa, con objeto de construir una obra híbrida, una novela en verso, que constituye una de las obras más señeras y una innovación fundamental en la historia de la literatura rusa.
de las técnicas de la biología molecular al análisis del lenguaje en la especie humana tiene plan... more de las técnicas de la biología molecular al análisis del lenguaje en la especie humana tiene planteado un doble objetivo. Por un lado, identificar aquellos genes responsables del desarrollo y/o el funcionamiento de los centros cerebrales encargados del procesamiento lingüístico, en consonancia con la idea de que la competencia lingüística es innata (esto es, está codificada genéticamente). Por otro lado, y haciendo uso de la historia evolutiva de dichos genes, reevaluar las inferencias que, sobre el origen y la evolución del lenguaje, se han realizado hasta la fecha a partir del análisis de los restos fósiles de homínidos primitivos.
Eslavistica Complutense, 2005
En las lenguas eslavas el número es un rasgo eminentemente nominal, caracterizado por un diseño c... more En las lenguas eslavas el número es un rasgo eminentemente nominal, caracterizado por un diseño conservador de su sistema de concordancia, que ha preservado gran parte de las caracteristicas ya existentes en el protoindoeuropeo. No obstante, a lo largo del tiempo puede observarse una tendencia generalizada hacia la reducción del número de valores de este rasgo, debido fundamentalmente a la erosión (y transfonnación) del dual. Por otra parte, debe cuestionarse la existencia del hipotético valor de paucal que se ha propuesto para determinadas lenguas del grupo, cuyas formas deberian reinterpretarse, en cambio, como vestigios morfológicos del antiguo dual, asociados ahora de forma muy restrictiva a determinados numerales.
Trabajos de Prehistoria, 2012
Molecular Cytogenetics, 2015
We report on a young female, who presents with a severe speech and language disorder and a balanc... more We report on a young female, who presents with a severe speech and language disorder and a balanced de novo complex chromosomal rearrangement, likely to have resulted from a chromosome 7 pericentromeric inversion, followed by a chromosome 7 and 11 translocation. Using molecular cytogenetics, we mapped the four breakpoints to 7p21.1-15.3 (chromosome position: 20,954,043-21,001,537, hg19), 7q31 (chromosome position: 114,528,369-114,556,605, hg19), 7q21.3 (chromosome position: 93,884,065-93,933,453, hg19) and 11p12 (chromosome position: 38,601,145-38,621,572, hg19). These regions contain only non-coding transcripts (ENSG00000232790 on 7p21.1 and TCONS_00013886, TCONS_00013887, TCONS_00014353, TCONS_00013888 on 7q21) indicating that no coding sequences are directly disrupted. The breakpoint on 7q31 mapped 200 kb downstream of FOXP2, a well-known language gene. No splice site or non-synonymous coding variants were found in the FOXP2 coding sequence. We were unable to detect any changes in the expression level of FOXP2 in fibroblast cells derived from the proband, although this may be the result of the low expression level of FOXP2 in these cells. We conclude that the phenotype observed in this patient either arises from a subtle change in FOXP2 regulation due to the disruption of a downstream element controlling its expression, or from the direct disruption of non-coding RNAs.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 2015
In their paper "Oral motor deficits in speech-impaired children with autism" (Front. Integr. Neur... more In their paper "Oral motor deficits in speech-impaired children with autism" (Front. Integr. Neurosci. 7:47). argue that expressive language deficits in a subgroup of people with autism result from the impairment of the oromotor function. As a matter of fact, the paper appeared in a Frontiers Research Topic that brings movement to the forefront of autism research. Ultimately, this collection of papers aims to support the view that movement and cognition should be considered jointly if we want to properly diagnose and treat this condition, and that motor abnormalities may constitute a significant and robust endophenotype for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (see . At the same time, advances in genome-wide technology have yielded an increasing amount of genes related to autism, which point to specific mechanisms and pathways underlying its associated deficits (Jeremy Willsey and State, 2014). However, as pointed out by Jeste and Geschwind (2014) robust endophenotypes of the disorder based on these findings are still forthcoming and the gap between the pathophysiology of autism and genes still remains open. The goal of this commentary is to contribute to bridge this gap between genes and ASD, focusing specifically on motor dysfunction and language deficits in people with autism. In doing so, we will adduce considerations from the fields of the biology of language and of language evolution (aka Biolinguistics). We hope that steps of the sort we take will eventually help us better understand the comorbidity, heterogeneity, and variability of ASD, but also the biological underpinnings of the human faculty of language.
Revista de neurologia, 2014
Revista de neurologia, Jan 16, 2013
Revista de neurologia, 2013
The Evolution of Language, 2014
Biological Theory, 2014
Recent advances in genetics and neurobiology have greatly increased the degree of variation that ... more Recent advances in genetics and neurobiology have greatly increased the degree of variation that one finds in what is taken to provide the biological foundations of our species-specific linguistic capacities. In particular, this variation seems to cast doubt on the purportedly homogeneous nature of the language faculty traditionally captured by the concept of ''Universal Grammar.'' In this article we discuss what this new source of diversity reveals about the biological reality underlying Universal Grammar. Our discussion leads us to support (1) certain hypotheses advanced in evolutionary developmental biology that argue for the existence of robust biological mechanisms capable of canalizing variation at different levels, and (2) a bottom-up perspective on comparative cognition. We conclude by sketching future directions for what we call ''comparative biolinguistics,'' specifying which experimental directions may help us succeed in this new research avenue.
THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference (EVOLANG9), 2012
The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics, 2013
The Evolution of Language, 2014
ABSTRACT Language does not fossilize. It is also a human-specific phenotypic trait. Consequently,... more ABSTRACT Language does not fossilize. It is also a human-specific phenotypic trait. Consequently, research on language evolution necessarily relies on indirect evidence. One such piece of evidence comes from the so-called “degraded” forms of language, like pidgins, homesigns, or agrammatic speech. Regarding the latter, it has been suggested that aphasic speech resembles protolanguage and that its recovery parallels early language evolution in the species (Code, 2011). In our talk we will examine how language disorders could be construed as real windows on language evolution. In doing so we will move from the phenotype to the biological underpinnings of the faculty. Linguistic data are controversial. It is not clear why hominin (proto)languages (if any) should have had (some of) the features observed in disordered speech. By contrast we find less problematic and more illuminating the biological evidence (brain anatomy, genes, and the like)…
Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, 2014
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Papers by Antonio Benítez-Burraco