Epilogues between Language and Necessity
Questions raised by the brief history of the verb can be grouped into three distinct research areas: questions about the formal mechanisms that interact in structuring sentences; questions about how these mechanisms are implemented physically in the brain; questions about what these sentences tell us in general about natural language as a biologically determined phenomenon, and ultimately about the position of humankind itself in nature. This chapter attempts to identify possible questions for each of the abovementioned lines of research, taking into account what has been learned in the journey through the history of the verb to be. The discussions cover the formal properties of grammar, the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying the formal principles of grammar, and evolutionary aspects of language.