The contribution of biolinguistics to the debate of performativity

Abstract

The performativity in Cognitive Sciences raised a great debate. The researchers questioned the role of the performance in cognition and strongly oppose cerebrocentrism, to support the embodied cognition. Moreover, recent research conducted in the biolinguistic field has examined the performativity in linguistic knowledge and provide a contribution to the controversy. In this framework of studies this paper analysed the performativity in the ontogenesis of language, adopting the perspective of biology. One of the different applications of naturalistic views to the performative theory of knowledge is the ethological comparison of the acquisition of species-specific vocal repertoire and the effect of the biological constraints on sapiens linguistic performances. The ontogenetic stages of language, both on structural and functional levels, and the data obtained from ethology show that vocal performativity is a knowledge process of linguistic cognition. Therefore, the linguistic act determines the neural circuits for cognitive processing of linguistic sounds.