Language Evolution
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Language Evolution
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Author : Morten H. Christiansen
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2003-07-24
Language Evolution written by Morten H. Christiansen and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2003-07-24 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
What is it that makes us human? This is one of the most challenging and important questions we face. Our species' defining characteristic is language - we appear to be unique in the natural world in having such an incredibly open-ended system for putting thoughts into words. If we are to truly understand ourselves as a species we must understand the origins of this strange and unique ability. To do so, we need to answer some of the most intriguing questions in contemporary scientific research: Where did language come from? How did it evolve? Why are we unique in possessing it? This book, for the first time, brings together the leading thinkers who are trying to unlock the puzzle of language evolution. Here we see the latest ideas and theories from fields as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. In a series of seventeen well-written and accessible chapters we get an unrivalled view of the state of the art in this exciting area. Current controversies are revealed and new perspectives uncovered, in a clear and readable guide to the latest theories. This collection marks a major step forward in our quest to understand the origins and evolution of human language. In doing so it sheds new light on the process of evolution, the workings of the brain, the structure of language, and - most importantly - what it means to be human. Language Evolution is essential reading for researchers and students working in the areas covered, and has been used as a textbook for courses in the field. It will also attract the general reader who wants to know more about this fascinating subject.
Language Evolution
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Author : Salikoko S. Mufwene
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date : 2008-03-31
Language Evolution written by Salikoko S. Mufwene and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-03-31 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Languages are constantly changing. New words are added to the English language every year, either borrowed or coined, and there is often railing against the 'decline' of the language by public figures. Some languages, such as French and Finnish, have academies to protect them against foreign imports. Yet languages are species-like constructs, which evolve naturally over time. Migration, imperialism, and globalization have blurred boundaries between many of them, producing new ones (such as creoles) and driving some to extinction. This book examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. In a series of chapters, Salikoko Mufwene examines such themes as: - natural selection in language - the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution - multilingualism and language contact - language birth and language death - the emergence of Creoles and Pidgins - the varying impacts of colonization and globalization on language vitality This comprehensive examination of the organic evolution of language will be essential reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and for researchers on the social dynamics of language variation and change, language vitality and death, and even the origins of linguistic diversity.
The Evolution Of Language
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Author : W. Tecumseh Fitch
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2010-04
The Evolution Of Language written by W. Tecumseh Fitch and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-04 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This book brings together the most important insights from the vast amount of literature on the origin of language.
A Critical Introduction To Language Evolution
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Author : Ljiljana Progovac
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2018-12-18
A Critical Introduction To Language Evolution written by Ljiljana Progovac and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018-12-18 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This book provides a critical introduction to the current views and controversies regarding language evolution. It sheds new light on hot topics such as: How ancient is language? Did Neanderthals have some form of language? Did language evolve gradually and incrementally, through stages, or suddenly, in one leap, in all its complexity? Does language evolution involve natural selection or not? This book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in language evolution, especially those in the fields of linguistics, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience.
Language Evolution And Syntactic Theory
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Author : Anna R. Kinsella
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2009-07-23
Language Evolution And Syntactic Theory written by Anna R. Kinsella and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-07-23 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Discusses the relationship between Chomskyan syntactic theory and the evolution of language.
The Evolution Of Language Out Of Pre Language
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Author : Talmy Givón
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2002-01-01
The Evolution Of Language Out Of Pre Language written by Talmy Givón and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2002-01-01 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
The contributors to this volume are linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, primatologists, and anthropologists who share the assumption that language, just as mind and brain, are products of biological evolution. The rise of human language is not viewed as a serendipitous mutation that gave birth to a unique linguistic organ, but as a gradual, adaptive extension of pre-existing mental capacities and brain structures. The contributors carefully study brain mechanisms, diachronic change, language acquisition, and the parallels between cognitive and linguistic structures to weave a web of hypotheses and suggestive empirical findings on the origins of language and the connections of language to other human capacities. The chapters discuss brain pathways that support linguistic processing; origins of specific linguistic features in temporal and hierarchical structures of the mind; the possible co-evolution of language and the reasoning about mental states; and the aspects of language learning that may serve as models of evolutionary change.
Approaches To The Evolution Of Language
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Author : James R. Hurford
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 1998-09-17
Approaches To The Evolution Of Language written by James R. Hurford and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1998-09-17 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This is one of the first systematic attempts to bring language within the neo-Darwinian framework of modern evolutionary theory, without abandoning the vast gains in phonology and syntax achieved by formal linguistics over the past forty years. The contributors, linguists, psychologists, and paleoanthropologists, address such questions as: what is language as a category of behavior; is it an instrument of thought or of communication; what do individuals know when they know a language; what cognitive, perceptual, and motor capacities must they have to speak, hear, and understand a language? For the past two centuries, scientists have tended to see language function as largely concerned with the exchange of practical information. By contrast, this volume takes as its starting point the view of human intelligence as social, and of language as a device for forming alliances, in exploring the origins of the sound patterns and formal structures that characterize language.
A Modern Theory Of Language Evolution
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Author : Carl J. Becker
language : en
Publisher: iUniverse
Release Date : 2004-12
A Modern Theory Of Language Evolution written by Carl J. Becker and has been published by iUniverse this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2004-12 with Anthropological linguistics categories.
The discipline of linguistics is a perfect example of the limitations of the modern academy. The combination of social taboos that make certain subject matter unfit for general knowledge and discovery, and the ever-narrowing specialization of scientists leaves us with an intellectual institution that can no longer do anything but apply, repair, and justify the dogma of Victorian Cosmology that is the rule all must follow. Linguistics should be one of the most interesting subjects, considering it is the study of our most valuable and revealing cultural asset, language. However, recent publications from the linguistic department for public consumption have been some of the most trivial and boring intellectual expositions that have ever been put between two covers. Using the entire database of science, we look at the acquisition of language and how it forms our cultural perspective on life, including theories of language evolution. We develop the theory of the evolution of language from song, one of the few suppositions that Charles Darwin actually got right. From this basis we move on to the roots of Proto-Indo-European, which we call Bhear Tongue. Bhear Tongue is essentially the Eurasian language family dimly perceived by one of the greatest linguists of the twentieth century, Joseph Greenberg. From this perspective we can now retell the tribal stories from Iberia to Siberia, showing a common origin and motivation for human science and religion.
The Origins Of Grammar
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Author : James R. Hurford
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2012
The Origins Of Grammar written by James R. Hurford and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
The second in James Hurford's acclaimed two-volume exploration of the biological evolution of language explores the evolutionary and cultural preconditions and consequences of humanity's great leap into language.
Language Evolution
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Author : Rudolf Botha
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2016-03-03
Language Evolution written by Rudolf Botha and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-03-03 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Addresses the question: how can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it?