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Book Cover
E-book
Author Givón, Talmy, 1936-

Title Bio-linguistics : the Santa Barbara lectures / T. Givón
Published Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., ©2002

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 382 pages) : illustrations
Contents Language as a biological adaptation -- The bounds of generativity and the adaptive basis of variation -- The demise of competence -- Human language as an evolutionary product -- An evolutionary account of language processing rates -- The diachronic foundations of language universals -- The neuro-cognitive interpretation of "context" : anticipating other minds -- The grammar of the narrator's perspective in narrative fiction -- The society of intimates -- On the ontology of academic negativity
Summary Is human language an evolutionary adaptation? Is linguistics a natural science? These questions have bedeviled philosophers, philologists and linguists from Plato through Chomsky. Prof. Givón suggests that the answers fall naturally within an integrated study of living organisms. In this new work, Givón points out that language operates between aspects of both complex biological design and adaptive behavior. As in biology, the whole is an adaptive compromise to competing demands. Variation is the indispensable tool of learning, change and adaptation. The contrast between innateness and in
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-375) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Biolinguistics.
Linguistics.
Linguistics
linguistics.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- General.
Linguistics
Biolinguistics
Evolutionstheorie
Systemtheorie
Sprachliche Universalien
Motivierung Linguistik
Funktionalismus Linguistik
Biolinguistik
Sprachwandel
Sprachvariante
Biolinguïstiek.
Taalgenese.
Linguagem.
Biologia.
Lingüística.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9789027296061
9027296065