Selfish sounds and linguistic evolution : a Darwinian approach to language change / Nikolaus Ritt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ritt, Nikolaus, 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Linguistic change.

Evolution (Biology).

English language--Phonology, Historical.

English language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 329 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Selfish Sounds & Linguistic Evolution

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book takes an exciting perspective on language change, by explaining it in terms of Darwin's evolutionary theory. Looking at a number of developments in the history of sounds and words, Nikolaus Ritt shows how the constituents of language can be regarded as mental patterns, or 'memes', which copy themselves from one brain to another when communication and language acquisition take place. Memes are both stable in that they transmit faithfully from brain to brain, and active in that their success at replicating depends upon their own properties. Ritt uses this controversial approach to challenge established models of linguistic competence, in which speakers acquire, use, and shape language. In Darwinian terms, language evolution is something that happens to, rather than through, speakers, and the interests of linguistic constituents matter more than those of their human 'hosts'. This book will stimulate debate among evolutionary biologists, cognitive scientists and linguists alike.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. historical perspective

3. Approaching 'language change'

4. Darwinian approach

5. Generalising Darwinism

6. Towards an evolutionary theory of language

7. What does all this imply for the study of language change?

8. How to live with feet, if one happens to be a morph-meme

9. prosodic evolution of English word forms or the Great Trochaic Conspiracy

10. Conclusion.

Notes:

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

Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-322) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14698-4

1-280-47776-8

0-511-19516-8

0-511-19582-6

0-511-19375-0

0-511-31419-1

0-511-48644-8

0-511-19449-8

OCLC:

171138746