Language Evolution
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The Oxford Handbook Of Language Evolution
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Author : Maggie Tallerman
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2011-11-17
The Oxford Handbook Of Language Evolution written by Maggie Tallerman 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 2011-11-17 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
In The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution, sixty leading scholars present critical accounts of every aspect of the field. The Volume's five parts are devoted to insights from comparative animal behaviour; the biology of language evolution (anatomy, genetics, and neurology); the prehistory of language (when and why did language evolve?); the development of a linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change. Research on language evolution has burgeoned over the last three decades. Interdisciplinary activity has produced fundamental advances in the understanding of language evolution and in human and primate evolution more generally. This book presents a wide-ranging summation of work in all the disciplines involved. It highlights the links in different lines of research, shows what has been achieved to date, and considers the most promising directions for future work. The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution will be valued by everyone interested in one of the most productive and fascinating fields in natural and cognitive science.
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.
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.
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.
The Origins Of Grammar
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Author : James R. Hurford
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2011-09-22
The Origins Of Grammar written by James R. Hurford and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-09-22 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This is the second of the two closely linked but self-contained volumes that comprise James Hurford's acclaimed exploration of the biological evolution of language. In the first book he looked at the evolutionary origins of meaning, ending as our distant ancestors were about to step over the brink to modern language. He now considers how that step might have been taken and the consequences it undoubtedly had. The capacity for language lets human beings formulate and express an unlimited range of propositions about real or fictitious worlds. It allows them to communicate these propositions, often overlaid with layers of nuance and irony, to other humans who can then interpret and respond to them. These processes take place at breakneck speed. Using a language means learning a vast number of arbitrary connections between forms and meanings and rules on how to manipulate them, both of which a normal human child can do in its first few years of life. James Hurford looks at how this miracle came about. The book is divided into three parts. In the first the author surveys the syntactic structures evident in the communicative behaviour of animals, such as birds and whales, and discusses how vocabularies of learned symbols could have evolved and the effects this had on human thought. In the second he considers how far the evolution of grammar depended on biological or cultural factors. In the third and final part he describes the probable route by which the human language faculty and languages evolved from simple beginnings to their present complex state.
Evolution Of Language The Proceedings Of The 8th International Conference Evolang8
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Author : Andrew D M Smith
language : en
Publisher: World Scientific
Release Date : 2010-03-18
Evolution Of Language The Proceedings Of The 8th International Conference Evolang8 written by Andrew D M Smith and has been published by World Scientific this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-03-18 with Computers categories.
This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts of the 8th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG8), held in Utrecht on 14-17 April 2010. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterized by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, biology, cognitive science, computer science, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, palaeontology, primatology and psychology.The latest theoretical, experimental and modelling research on language evolution is presented in this collection, including contributions from many leading scientists in the field.
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.
The Evolution Of Language
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Author : W. Tecumseh Fitch
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2010-04-01
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 2010-04-01 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the brightest chimpanzee, exposed to the same environment, will not. Why not? How, and why, did language evolve in our species and not in others? Since Darwin's theory of evolution, questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed at specialist audiences. The diversity of perspectives - from linguistics, anthropology, speech science, genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology - can be bewildering. Tecumseh Fitch cuts through this vast literature, bringing together its most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles of human history.
Language Evolution And The Brain
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Author : James W. MINETTinett
language : en
Publisher: City University of HK Press
Release Date : 2009-07-07
Language Evolution And The Brain written by James W. MINETTinett and has been published by City University of HK Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-07-07 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
A number of research groups around the world have begun to study how the brain acquires and processes language, but we still know comparatively little about it. Many such groups work on very specific, often narrow, problems. This approach is certainly necessary, but a broad perspective can be helpful, if not essential, too. This volume consists of an important collection of papers presented at the Seminar on Language, Evolution, and the Brain (SLEB), hosted by the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Kyoto, Japan, bringing together distinguished researchers with background in cognitive science, anthropology, linguistics, robotics, physics, etc. Major topics discussed here include: Creoles and pidgins, and their implications regarding language evolution. Quantitative analysis and modeling of various aspects of language evolution, including the evolution of lexical items and color terms, the emergence of linguistics categories, and the dynamics of language competition. The evolution of the human brain, and how that relates to language evolution. The evolution and the role of mirror neurons in both humans and non-humans. Evidence that the influence of language on color perception (an example of the Whorf Effect) is stronger for the right visual field than the left. This volume provides a multi-faceted discussion of how language evolves and shapes the brain that may entice university students and researchers to delve into this field with more background and curiosity.
Language Evolution
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Author : Rudolf P. Botha
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2016-03-03
Language Evolution written by Rudolf P. 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?