Abstract

The final chapter expounds on the concept of language as it relates to the book's central assertion. The opening section provides a discussion on origins of language. The author refutes the predominant theory on the origin of language which proposes that genetic change enabled the development of genetic instructions for creating a special grammar module in the human brain. The author proposes an alternative theory which points to the parable as the origin of language. The parable, which combines the dynamic and complex acts of narrative imagining and projection, provides a cognitive basis for the development of language with its meanings and constructions. Thus, the parable is said to precede the creation of grammar. Several illustrations and explanations are provided to support these concepts throughout the section. The chapter concludes with the assertion that parable — hence the literary mind — is the root of the human mind's basic cognitive processes.