Linguistic evolution through language acquisition / edited by Ted Briscoe.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Briscoe, E. J., 1959- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Anthropological linguistics.

Evolution.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 349 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a study of how children acquire language and how this affects language change over generations. Written by an international team of experts, the volume proceeds from the basis that we can not only address the language faculty per se within the framework of evolutionary theory, but also the origins and subsequent development of languages themselves; languages evolve via cultural rather than biological transmission on a historical rather than genetic timescale. The book is distinctive in utilizing computational simulation and modelling to help ensure the theories constructed are complete and precise. Drawing on a wide range of examples, the book covers the why and how of specific syntactic universals; the nature of syntactic change; the language-learning mechanisms required to acquire an existing linguistic system accurately and to impose further structure on an emerging system; and the evolution of language(s) in relation to this learning mechanism.

Contents:

Introduction / Ted Briscoe

Learned systems of arbitrary reference: the foundation of human linguistic uniqueness / Michael Oliphant

Bootstrapping grounded word semantics / Luc Steels, Frederic Kaplan

Linguistic structure and the evolution of words / Robert Worden

Negotiation and acquisition of recursive grammars as a result of competition among exemplars / John Batali

Learning, bottlenecks and the evolution of recursive syntax / Simon Kirby

Theories of cultural evolution and their application to language change / Partha Niyogi

Learning guided evolution of natural language / William J. Turkel

Grammatical acquisition and linguistic selection / Ted Briscoe

Expression/induction models of language evolution: dimensions and issues / James R. Hurford.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-12850-1

1-280-42101-0

0-511-17754-2

0-511-02020-1

0-511-14792-9

0-511-32574-6

0-511-48652-9

0-511-04909-9

OCLC:

475916316