Overview

With Serge Cleuziou, Jean-Paul Demoule and Pierre Encreve PAPERBACK PUBLISHED MAY 2009 Origin and Evolution of Languages has a strong interdisciplinary flavour designed to highlight the true complexity of the debates in the field. Many of the models and theories conjectured can only receive their validation from a convergence of arguments developed across disciplines. The book underscores this dimension by including contribution from disciplines that have been wary, traditionally, of extending beyond their borders: linguistics (different branches thereof), philosophy, history and prehistory, archaeology, anthropology, genetics, computer-modelling. The presentation is intended to encompass both the agreements and disjunctures characteristic of the field and insisted on laying open propositions that clearly differ from, possibly even enter into contradiction with one another. While several teams of researchers active in the fields of genetics, linguistics, anthropology and archaeology have come up with new proposals in favor of the ""New Synthesis,"" many competing hypotheses and models continue to be explored in areal linguistics, language contact, wave-like diffusion. On the anthropological scene, criticisms of the monogenetic model have set up new debates and counter-arguments. Approaching the issue of the origin and evolution of human languages within a Darwinian paradigm remains problematic. On the archaeological scene, not all reconstructions are proving compatible with current models for the circulation of techniques, myths and cultures. On the linguistic scene, raising again the issue of the origin / evolution of humankind and of languages in an evolutionary, cognitive, social and cultural perspective or in terms of generational transmission and acquisition, may induce a reconsideration of linguistic theories in search of universals as well as most theories of change and variation. All contributors are world-renowned experts in their domain.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bernard Laks
Publisher:   Equinox Publishing Ltd
Imprint:   Equinox Publishing Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9781845532048

ISBN 10:   184553204
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   01 May 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION SERGE CLEUZIOU (CNRS), Jean Paul Demoule (University of Paris 1), Pierre Encreve (EHESS), Bernard Laks (University of Paris 10) Part One : ab originem GENETIC EVOLUTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGES. L.L.Cavalli-Sforza, Genetics Dept. Stanford University LANGUAGES, GENES, AND PREHISTORY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EUROPE. Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and University of California Santa Barbara POOR DESIGN FEATURES IN LANGUAGE AS CLUES TO ITS PREHISTORY.Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, Linguistics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT THE EARLIEST HUMAN LANGUAGE BY COMPARING LANGUAGES KNOWN TODAY? Lyle Campbell, Linguistics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand CONCEPTUALIZATION, COMMUNICATION, AND THE ORIGINS OF GRAMMAR. Frederick J. Newmeyer University of Washington THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE AS A PRODUCT OF THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN COGNITION Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, University of California San Diego and Case University Part Two : post originem GENETICS AND LANGUAGE: COMPARATISM AND GENEALOGY IN PERSPECTIVE. Bernard Laks, University of Paris 10 SIMULATING THE EXPANSION OF FARMING AND THE DIFFERENTIATION OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.Domenico Parisi, Francesco Antinucci, Francesco Natale, Federico Cecconi, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council ON RENFREW'S HYPOTHESIS OF THE NEAR-EASTERN ORIGINS OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN URHEIMAT Jean-Paul Demoule, University of Paris 1 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES Merrit Ruhlen Stanford University LINGUISTIC HISTORY AND COMPUTATIONAL CLADISTICS Don Ringe and Tandy Warnow, University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas WHAT DO CREOLES AND PIDGINS TELL US ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGES? Salikoko S. Mufwene University of Chicago LINGUISTICS AND ARCHEOLOGY.Serge Cleuziou University Paris 1

Reviews

Parce qu'il est sans doute un exemple de positionnement strategique au sein d'une problematique eminemment discutable et discutee, je ne peux que recommander la lecture de cet ouvrage aussi bien aux etudiants et aux universitaires qu'a ceux qui souhaitent a la fois avoir un peu d'information de premiere main et prendre un peu de distance par rapport a ce qui est dit.' Robert Nicolai, Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Natures Sciences Societes

Author Information

Bernard Laks is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Paris X. He is head of the CNRS laboratory 'Models, Dynamics, Corpus'. Specialized in phonology and in cognitive linguistics, he has published on general and French phonology, harmonic and connexionist phonology, history of linguistics, sociolinguistics and variationism. His publications include Langage et cognition : l'approche connexionniste (Hermes, 1996), Phonologie autosegmentale : l'accentuatio (Editions du CNRS, 1997), Phonology from phonetics to cognition, co-edited with J. Durand (Oxford University Press, 2002) and Origine de l'homme, origine des langues, co-edited with B. Victorri (Langages Ndegree146, 2002).

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