Variation, Selection, Development (eBook)

Probing the Evolutionary Model of Language Change

Regine Eckardt, Gerhard Jäger, Tonjes Veenstra (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2008
416 Seiten
De Gruyter (Verlag)
978-3-11-020539-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Can language change be modelled as an evolutionary process? Can notions like variation, selection and competition be fruitfully applied to facts of language development? This volume offers a rich spectrum of ways to elucidate these questions, confronting studies from the perspective of historical and creole linguistics with research in Artificial Intelligence and mathematical modelling of language change.

Regine Eckardt, University of Göttingen, Germany; Gerhard Jäger, University of Bielefeld, Germany; Tonjes Veenstra, ZAS Berlin, Germany.

Autor

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Regine Eckardt, University of Göttingen, Germany; Gerhard Jäger, University of Bielefeld, Germany; Tonjes Veenstra, ZAS Berlin, Germany.

Inhalt

Frontmatter 1
Contents 7
Introduction 9
Language change as cultural evolution: Evolutionary approaches to language change 31
Language change as a source of word order correlations 83
Evolutionary motivations for semantic universals 111
Back to nature or nurture: Using computer models in creole genesis 151
Economy of Merge and grammaticalization: Two steps in the evolution of language 187
Prehistoric and posthistoric language in oblivion 207
Grammaticalization, constructions and the incremental development of language: Suggestions from the development of Degree Modifiers in English 227
The two faces of creole grammar and theirimplications for the origin of complex language 261
Functional similarities between bimanual coordination and topic/comment structure 315
Inflectional morphology and universal grammar:post hoc versus propter hoc 345
Why don’t apes point? 383
Backmatter 403

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.8.2008
• Reihe/Serie: ISSN
• Reihe/Serie: ISSN
• Reihe/Serie: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]
• Reihe/Serie: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]
• Verlagsort: Berlin/Boston
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Historical Linguistics • Sprachgeschichte • Sprachwandel
• ISBN-10: 3-11-020539-4 / 3110205394
• ISBN-13: 978-3-11-020539-8 / 9783110205398