Linguistics and Evolution
Linguistics and Evolution
Evolutionary linguistics - an approach to language study that takes into account our origins and development as a species - has rapidly developed in recent years. Informed by the latest findings in evolutionary theory, this book sets language within the context of human biology and development, taking ideas from fields such as psychology, neurology, biology, anthropology, genetics and cognitive science. By factoring an evolutionary and developmental perspective into the theoretical framework, the author replaces old questions - such as 'what is language?' - with new questions, such as 'how do living beings become 'languaging' living beings?' Linguistics and Evolution offers readers the first rethinking of an introductory approach to linguistics since Leonard Bloomfield's 1933 Language. It will be of significant interest to advanced students and researchers in all subfields of linguistics, and the related fields of biology, anthropology, cognitive science and psychology.
- Incorporates the latest findings in the social and biological sciences into linguistic theory and practice
- Offers a dynamic conception of the subject matter of linguistics by developing the concept of 'languaging' first engaged by the neurobiologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela
- Replaces old questions such as 'what is language?' and 'what do we know when we know a language?' with new questions such as 'how do living beings become 'languaging' living beings?' and 'how do we become the particular 'languaging' living beings that we do?'
Reviews & endorsements
'This volume fulfils a most needed gap in linguistics and has a most important and controversial message for future linguists. I would definitely recommend it as required reading in an advanced linguistics course.' Yishai Tobin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
'… breaks the existing deadlock in linguistic theory and suggests an approach that will be in the center of debates for years to come. Highly informative and stimulating reading.' Bernard H. Bichakjian, Professor Emeritus, Radboud University and author of Language in a Darwinian Perspective
Product details
No date availablePaperback
9781107650114
313 pages
227 × 153 × 15 mm
0.51kg
9 b/w illus.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: historiography's contribution to theoretical linguistics
- Part I. Theoretical Considerations:
- 1. Language languaging
- 2. Developmental systems theory
- 3. A twist in the cognitive turn
- Part II. A Developmental Systems Linguistics:
- 4. Evolutionary scenarios I, the standard story and the self-reproductionist script
- 5. Evolutionary scenarios II, the emerging story and the self-realizationist script
- 6. The ontogenic script begins
- 7. The ontogenic script continues
- Part III. What To Do Next:
- 8. Revisit, Skinner, Chomsky and construction grammar
- 9. Revise, introductory linguistics textbooks.
