How does the brain express structured events as ordered speech? My recent papers, Sequence as output, not limitation and Sequencing thought into speech: Hippocampal functions in linguistic linearization, motivate a question: could hippocampal mechanisms help connect event representations with linguistic linearization?
One possibility is that hippocampal relational binding and sequence coding help maintain participants and temporal relations as utterances unfold, in coordination with cortical language systems. This remains a hypothesis: organizing events in time is distinct from determining grammatical word order.
The evolutionary question is equally intriguing. Could ancient mechanisms for organizing experience have been recruited into language networks, with communicative and cultural pressures shaping how structured events become shareable utterances? This would shift attention toward changes in network coordination and representational use alongside changes in memory capacity.
What evidence would distinguish a contribution to linearization from broader effects on memory, discourse coherence, or speech planning? Could cross-linguistic studies, hippocampal lesion research, and comparative tasks help identify the relevant mechanisms?
I would welcome colleagues’ views on these distinctions and on experiments that could support or challenge this proposed link between memory systems and language evolution.