Since this line of theory and research in linguistics is big right now (especially visible via the Evolang conferences of the past few years--co-evolution in complex adaptive systems, domain-general processes, cultural transmission, semantics over syntax, etc.) and I believe Terrence Deacon's got a new book coming out...
Language Acquisition Meets Language Evolution
Abstract: "Recent research suggests that language evolution is a process of cultural change, in which linguistic structures are shaped through repeated cycles of learning and use by domain-general mechanisms. This paper draws out the implications of this viewpoint for understanding the problem of language acquisition, which is cast in a new, and much more tractable, form. In essence, the child faces a problem of induction, where the objective is to coordinate with others (C-induction), rather than to model the structure of the natural world (N-induction). We argue that, of the two, C-induction is dramatically easier. More broadly, we argue that understanding the acquisition of any cultural form, whether linguistic or otherwise, during development, requires considering the corresponding question of how that cultural form arose through processes of cultural evolution. This perspective helps resolve the "logical" problem of language acquisition and has far-reaching implications for evolutionary psychology."
Lots of other good papers by Christiansen and Chater, et al., developing this theory here: http://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/mhc27.html
Related: Terrence Deacon, whose book The Symbolic Species is oft referenced by contemporary evolutionary linguists, is about to release another book, discussing the role of 'relaxed selection': http://onthehuman.org/2010/02/on-the-hum...-language/
"... language is in effect an emergent function, not some prior function just requiring fine-tuning. Our various inherited vocalizations, such as laughter, shrieks of fright, and cries of anguish, are comparatively localized in their neurological control (mostly subcortical) as are other modes of communication in animals. In comparison, language depends on a widely dispersed constellation of cortical systems, each of which can be found in other primate brains, but evolved for very different functions. These brain systems have become collectively recruited for language only because their previously evolved functions overlapped significantly with some processing demand necessitated by language, though evolved for quite different functions altogether. Indeed, the neural structures and circuits involved in the production and comprehension of language are homologous to structures found ubiquitously in most monkey and ape brains: old structures performing unprecedented new tricks... "
Oh, I just noticed Roy Harris has a new book, Rationality and the Literate Mind: http://books.google.com/books?id=447meLq...navlinks_s ^_^
Language Acquisition Meets Language Evolution
Abstract: "Recent research suggests that language evolution is a process of cultural change, in which linguistic structures are shaped through repeated cycles of learning and use by domain-general mechanisms. This paper draws out the implications of this viewpoint for understanding the problem of language acquisition, which is cast in a new, and much more tractable, form. In essence, the child faces a problem of induction, where the objective is to coordinate with others (C-induction), rather than to model the structure of the natural world (N-induction). We argue that, of the two, C-induction is dramatically easier. More broadly, we argue that understanding the acquisition of any cultural form, whether linguistic or otherwise, during development, requires considering the corresponding question of how that cultural form arose through processes of cultural evolution. This perspective helps resolve the "logical" problem of language acquisition and has far-reaching implications for evolutionary psychology."
Lots of other good papers by Christiansen and Chater, et al., developing this theory here: http://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/mhc27.html
Related: Terrence Deacon, whose book The Symbolic Species is oft referenced by contemporary evolutionary linguists, is about to release another book, discussing the role of 'relaxed selection': http://onthehuman.org/2010/02/on-the-hum...-language/
"... language is in effect an emergent function, not some prior function just requiring fine-tuning. Our various inherited vocalizations, such as laughter, shrieks of fright, and cries of anguish, are comparatively localized in their neurological control (mostly subcortical) as are other modes of communication in animals. In comparison, language depends on a widely dispersed constellation of cortical systems, each of which can be found in other primate brains, but evolved for very different functions. These brain systems have become collectively recruited for language only because their previously evolved functions overlapped significantly with some processing demand necessitated by language, though evolved for quite different functions altogether. Indeed, the neural structures and circuits involved in the production and comprehension of language are homologous to structures found ubiquitously in most monkey and ape brains: old structures performing unprecedented new tricks... "
Oh, I just noticed Roy Harris has a new book, Rationality and the Literate Mind: http://books.google.com/books?id=447meLq...navlinks_s ^_^
Edited: 2010-04-25, 6:03 am
