Reflections on language evolution

Cedric Boeckx

ISBN 10: 3985540241 / ISBN 13: 9783985540242

Editore: Language Science Press, Language Science Press Okt 2021, 2021

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Neuware -This essay reflects on the fact that as we learn more about the biological underpinnings of our language faculty, the dominant evolutionary narrative coming out of the linguistic tradition most explicitly oriented towards biology ('biolinguistics') appears increasingly implausible. This text offers ways of opening up linguistic inquiry and fostering interdisciplinarity, taking advantage of new opportunities to provide quantitative, testable hypotheses concerning the complex evolutionary path that led to the modern human language faculty. The essay is structured around three main themes: (i) renewed appreciation for the comparative method applied to cognitive questions, leading to the identification of elementary but fundamental abstractions in non-linguistic species relevant to language; (ii) awareness of the conceptual gaps between disciplines, and the need to carefully link genotype and phenotype without bypassing any 'intermediate' levels of description (certainly not the brain); and(iii) adoption of a 'philosophical' outlook that puts the complexity of biological entities front and center. 76 pp. Englisch.

Codice articolo 9783985540242

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Reflections on language evolution
• Editore: Language Science Press, Language Science Press Okt 2021
• Data di pubblicazione: 2021
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 3985540241
• ISBN 13: 9783985540242
• Rilegatura: Buch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 246 L x 175 A x 11 P (millimetri) 246 millimetri di larghezza per 175 millimetri di altezza per 11 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 339 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

This essay reflects on the fact that as we learn more about the biological underpinnings of our language faculty, the dominant evolutionary narrative coming out of the linguistic tradition most explicitly oriented towards biology ("biolinguistics") appears increasingly implausible. This text offers ways of opening up linguistic inquiry and fostering interdisciplinarity, taking advantage of new opportunities to provide quantitative, testable hypotheses concerning the complex evolutionary path that led to the modern human language faculty. The essay is structured around three main themes: (i) renewed appreciation for the comparative method applied to cognitive questions, leading to the identification of elementary but fundamental abstractions in non-linguistic species relevant to language; (ii) awareness of the conceptual gaps between disciplines, and the need to carefully link genotype and phenotype without bypassing any "intermediate" levels of description (certainly not the brain); and(iii) adoption of a "philosophical" outlook that puts the complexity of biological entities front and center.