Evolutionary Linguistics

Evolutionary Linguistics PDF Author: April McMahon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521814502
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
How did the biological, brain and behavioural structures underlying human language evolve? This is an introduction to the interdisciplinary debates.

Evolutionary Linguistics

Evolutionary Linguistics PDF Author: April McMahon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521814502
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
How did the biological, brain and behavioural structures underlying human language evolve? This is an introduction to the interdisciplinary debates.

Linguistic Evolution

Linguistic Evolution PDF Author: M. L. Samuels
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521099134
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Professor Samuels presents a comprehensive explanation of the reasons for linguistic change, applying his theory in particular to the history of English. He assesses and mediates between the conflicting dogmas of different schools of linguistics, and offers an alternative theory of linguistic change which is basically simple but has the scope to cover any type of change.

Why Only Us

Why Only Us PDF Author: Robert C. Berwick
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262533499
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it. “A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.” —New York Review of Books We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language. Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals. Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which views language as a particular object of the biological world; the computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding; the tension between Darwin's idea of gradual change and our contemporary understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.

The First Word

The First Word PDF Author: Christine Kenneally
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101202394
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
An accessible exploration of a burgeoning new field: the incredible evolution of language The first popular book to recount the exciting, very recent developments in tracing the origins of language, The First Word is at the forefront of a controversial, compelling new field. Acclaimed science writer Christine Kenneally explains how a relatively small group of scientists that include Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker assembled the astounding narrative of how the fundamental process of evolution produced a linguistic ape-in other words, us. Infused with the wonder of discovery, this vital and engrossing book offers us all a better understanding of the story of humankind.

The Origins of Complex Language

The Origins of Complex Language PDF Author: Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198238218
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This book proposes a new theory of the origins of human language ability and presents an original account of the early evolution of language. It explains why humans are the only language-using animals, challenges the assumption that language is a consequence of intelligence, and offers a new perspective on human uniqueness. Brilliantly executed, this book draws on evidence from archaeology, linguistics, cognitive science and evolutionary biology.

Ten Lectures on Cognitive Evolutionary Linguistics

Ten Lectures on Cognitive Evolutionary Linguistics PDF Author: Arie Verhagen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004422358
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
In these lectures, Arie Verhagen presents a version of cognitive linguistics that adheres to both the generalization and cognitive commitments that characterized the field from the start, and a biological commitment: understanding language as adaptive behavior of (human) organisms in the niche(s) that they inhabit. Drawing on the model of biological explanation (“Tinbergen’s four why’s”), Verhagen shows how proximate (individual level) and ultimate (population level) explanations apply to several features of language, shedding new light on basic notions like conventionality and entrenchment, norms/rules and habits, etc., and their causal connections. Topics include the relation between language, culture, and thinking, the role of language in social cognition and narrative, the evolution of sound structure and grammar, semantic change, and more.

Selfish Sounds and Linguistic Evolution

Selfish Sounds and Linguistic Evolution PDF Author: Nikolaus Ritt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521826716
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
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The Biology and Evolution of Language

The Biology and Evolution of Language PDF Author: Philip Lieberman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674074132
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
This book synthesizes much of the exciting recent research in the biology of language. Drawing on data from anatomy, neurophysiology, physiology, and behavioral biology, Philip Lieberman develops a new approach to the puzzle of language, arguing that it is the result of many evolutionary compromises. Within his discussion, Lieberman skillfully addresses matters as various as the theory of neoteny (which he refutes), the mating calls of bullfrogs, ape language, dyslexia, and computer-implemented models of the brain.

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language PDF Author: Chris Knight
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521786966
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Language has no counterpart in the animal world. Unique to Homo sapiens, it appears inseparable from human nature. But how, when and why did it emerge? The contributors to this volume - linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, and others - adopt a modern Darwinian perspective which offers a bold synthesis of the human and natural sciences. As a feature of human social intelligence, language evolution is driven by biologically anomalous levels of social cooperation. Phonetic competence correspondingly reflects social pressures for vocal imitation, learning, and other forms of social transmission. Distinctively human social and cultural strategies gave rise to the complex syntactical structure of speech. This book, presenting language as a remarkable social adaptation, testifies to the growing influence of evolutionary thinking in contemporary linguistics. It will be welcomed by all those interested in human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology, and general linguistics.

English Words Abroad

English Words Abroad PDF Author: Manfred Görlach
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027223319
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
English Words Abroad summarizes the methods developed for the innovative multilingual Dictionary of European Anglicisms (Görlach 2001, OUP) which combines data on English loanwords in sixteen European languages (four each for Germanic, Slavic, Romance and others). This summary allows us to quantify for the first time the extent of the lexical impact of loanwords on individual languages and cultures. The author discusses the elicitation of data from informants with a high linguistic awareness; criteria for inclusion; problems of integration on graphemic, phonological, morphological and semantic/stylistic levels; and speakers' reactions (purism, language, legislation). He then explores the possibilities of applying these methods to dictionaries of gallicisms and germanisms. The book includes a survey of the most recent dictionaries of anglicisms in European languages.