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Bernard Victorri
Director of Research, CNRS, Lattice Laboratory, France |
Bernard Victorri trained as a mathematician before becoming an
internationally renowned authority in the field of linguistics. In 1981
he obtained his Ph.D from the University of Montreal for work on
mathematical modelling of the cognitive processes. He was appointed
Professor of Mathematics at the Polytechnical School of Montreal while
also leading a group conducting research into modelling of
neurocognitive processes at the Montreal Institute of Biomedical
Engineering. In 1984 he returned to his native France to pursue his
research, first at the University of Caen and later as a director of
research at the CNRS. He has made major contributions to a wide variety
of new fields of study, including semantic modelling, analysis and
modelling of acoustic variation (prosody and intonation) and automation
of processes such as text translation, information extraction and
syntax analysis. His experimental and theoretical studies in modelling
of neuropsycholinguistic processes have led him to develop the theory
that all modern human languages originated from a single origin. He is
also particularly interested in elaborating the role of narrative
function in the emergence and structuring of human language. These two
ideas, recently expounded in the book "Les origins du langage" (2006) of which he is a co-author, provide the cornerstones of his arguments that the emergence of the narrative faculty has played a more important part in the evolution of modern mankind's social comportment than has the acquisition of a "higher intelligence" per sae. Bernard Victorri heads the "Languages, Language and Cognition" team at the Lattice Laboratory, CNRS. (Languages, Texts, Computer Processing, Cognition) since 2000. |
