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-hu … -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=447meL … navlinks_s ^_^
Last edited by nest0r (2010 April 25, 6:03 am)
Nemotoad
Member
Registered: 2010-03-17
Posts: 66
Interesting, thanks nest0r (before someone else adds the same link and I thank them accidentally). I must say I'm somewhat curious, though not overly so, at what field of work/study you happen to be in. Linguistics? Neuroscience? Cognitive science? Psycholinguistics? Classicist? Animal husbandry? I feel some sort of intellectual drinking game could come out of this. Pardon me, I'm just impressed by all these scientific studies you've been linking to. ;)
I read The Symbolic Species a while back, good book. I haven't really been keeping up so thanks for the link to the new one. I know very little about this area, but there was an interesting paper I read recently about synaesthesia and the evolution of language:
http://www.imprint.co.uk/rama/synaesthesia.pdf
It's not a particularly rigorous theory but interesting nonetheless. I have a theory about how this can be practically applied to language learning that I'm still working out... :)
You might like this: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=82690
The gestural origins of language alongside these other modalities (or even, these other modalities being tied to perceptuo-motor processes) is being born out further by the research of Susan Goldin-Meadow, especially via that Al-Sayyid Bedouin sign language, as cited by the first paper as a fit for their model. There's still stuff to work out about the Baldwin Effect, but it looks like there's a rough consensus amongst these linguists, which surprised me, as I hadn't found a good hub yet and had been focused on all these fractured areas of contemporary linguistics. Very fascinating stuff. (See also: Paradigm Lost)
Bonus, while the cache is up: The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science
I've also been reading interesting stuff about print exposure and reading volume in terms of contributions to crystallized intelligence and vocabulary growth and the oft cited 'writing restructures consciousness' concept, rapid automatized naming (RAN) and logographic processing/visuospatial skills. So much amateur theorizing to be done at every level. ;p
Last edited by nest0r (2010 April 25, 4:41 pm)
Blahah wrote:
Nemotoad wrote:
I must say I'm somewhat curious, though not overly so, at what field of work/study you happen to be in. Linguistics? Neuroscience? Cognitive science? Psycholinguistics? Classicist? Animal husbandry?
nest0r is a web crawler bot with a heuristic keyword matching algorithm and a metalanguage discovery routine. Essentially he is programmed to follow links ad infinitum until the topic of a page matches a list of keywords he collects daily from the forums. He then assimilates any ridiculously overcomplicated words into his vocabulary before posting the link to the forums, describing it with the aforementioned words. I believe his official build name is techno-sesquipedalian bot 2.0.
nest0r activated... Metalanguage heuristic ad infinitum Blahah... computing.... Sesquipedalian are you kidding me assimilate routine matching, those words are like baby babbling to me, I just recycle them so people have keywords to Google with. End program.
Also, my acquaintance wanted me to tell you, and I quote: I feed it drugs of masses of flesh and external fear=cell: the techno-junkie device that controls//The internal organ consciousness of self was downloaded::the mimic of cadaver-feti that the logic circuit of self rapes::the hologram of memory lack to the head of amoeba DNA-channel in the virgin form::cut cable of the city that caused it excretes the nightmare of android nature//
If you need the audio for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWMTted_5tA
Last edited by nest0r (2010 April 26, 2:41 am)
