Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition
1st Edition
Published on 28. January 2005
978-0-511-03385-8 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
'The most important contribution of this book lies in the many detailed examples of the emergence of structured representations that it offers.' Journal of LinguisticsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 Tables, unspecified
File size
2,45 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-511-03385-8 (9780511033858)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2008
Cambridge University Press
€55.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
08/2002
Cambridge University Press
€143.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Ted Briscoe is Lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He has published around 50 research articles.
Content
1. Introduction Ted Briscoe; 2. Learned systems of arbitrary reference: the foundation of human linguistic uniqueness Michael Oliphant; 3. Bootstrapping grounded word semantics Luc Steels; 4. Linguistic structure and the evolution of words Robert Worden; 5. The negotiation and acquisition of recursive grammars as a result of competition among exemplars John Batali; 6. Learning, bottlenecks and the evolution of recursive syntax Simon Kirby; 7. Theories of cultural evolution and their application to language change Partha Niyogi; 8. The learning guided evolution of natural language William J. Turkel; 9. Grammatical acquisition and linguistic selection Ted Briscoe; 10. Expression/induction models of language evolution: dimensions and issues James R. Hurford.
