W. Tecumseh Fitch
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William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch III (born 1963)http://homepage.univie.ac.at/tecumseh.fitch/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/FitchCV2011.pdf is an American
evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...
and cognitive scientist at the
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
(
Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
) where he is co-founder of the Department of Cognitive Biology. Fitch studies the biology and evolution of cognition and communication in humans and other animals, and in particular the evolution of speech, language and music. His work concentrates on comparative approaches as advocated by
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
(i.e., the study of homologous and
analogous Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject ( ...
structures and processes in a wide range of
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
). Fitch was born in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and received his
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
(1986) in biology and his
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(1994) in Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences from
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
. From 1996 to 2000, he worked as a
Postdoctoral fellow A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...
at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
and
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. He was a lecturer at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and a reader at the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
, before moving to a professorship at the
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
in 2009. He bears the name of his third generation great grandfather, Civil War General
William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...
, as did his father and
grandfather Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic ...
before him.


Ability of monkeys to speak

Fitch and colleagues used x-ray recordings of a macaque monkey named Emiliano producing various sounds to make a model of Emiliano's vocal tract. The model showed that a macaque could produce a variety of vowel and non-vowel phonemes adequate for intelligible speech. In a simulation, "Emiliano" said "Will you marry me?" in a recognizable manner, demonstrating that the anatomy of monkeys does not limit them from producing complex speech. In conclusion, Fitch stated that "If a human brain were in control, they could talk".


Bibliography

* Fitch, W. T. (2010) The Evolution of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Fitch, W. T. (1997).
Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques
" Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 102: 1213–1222. * Fitch, W. T. (2000).
The evolution of speech: a comparative review
" Trends Cog. Sci. 4, 258–267. * Fitch, W.T. and D. Reby (2001),
The descended larynx is not uniquely human
. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, 268(1477): 1669–1675. * Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N. & Fitch, W. T. (2002). "The Language Faculty: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?" Science 298: 1569–1579. * Fitch, W. T., & Hauser, M. D. (2004).
Computational constraints on syntactic processing in a nonhuman primate
. Science 303: 377–380. * Fitch, W. T. (2005).
The evolution of language: A comparative review
" Biology and Philosophy 20: 193–230. * Fitch, W. T. (2006).
The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective
" Cognition 100: 173–215.


See also

*
Biolinguistics Biolinguistics can be defined as the study of biology and the evolution of language. It is highly interdisciplinary as it is related to various fields such as biology, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, mathematics, and neurolinguistics to ex ...
* Biomusicology *
Cognitive biology Cognitive biology is an emerging science that regards natural cognition as a biological function. It is based on the theoretical assumption that every organism—whether a single cell or multicellular—is continually engaged in systematic acts of ...
* Comparative psychology * Digital infinity * Descended larynx *
Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...
*
Hoover (seal) Hoover ( – July 25, 1985) was a harbor seal who was able to imitate basic human speech. Cundy’s Harbor On May 5, 1971, Scottie Dunning discovered a tiny male harbor seal pup on the shore of Cundy's Harbor, Maine. After a failed attemp ...
*
Origin of language The origin of language (spoken and signed, as well as language-related technological systems such as writing), its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study th ...
* Origin of speech *
Origin of music Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of l ...
*
Vocal learning Vocal learning is the ability to modify acoustic and syntactic sounds, acquire new sounds via imitation, and produce vocalizations. "Vocalizations" in this case refers only to sounds generated by the vocal organ (mammalian larynx or avian Syrinx (bi ...


References


External links


Homepage of W. Tecumseh Fitch
at homepage.univie.ac.at
Darwin's Theory of Music and Language Evolution

Science at the interfaces: the biology of music and language
— a keynote speech at the
EuroScience EuroScience (the founding organisation of ESOF, EuroScience Open Forum) is a pan-European grassroots organisation for the support and promotion of science and technology in Europe. The membership of EuroScience consists of individuals interested in ...
Open Forum (ESOF) 2010 in
Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, W. Tecumseh Brown University alumni Academics of the University of St Andrews Harvard Fellows Academics of the University of Vienna Evolutionary psychologists Evolutionary biologists American cognitive scientists 1963 births Living people European Research Council grantees