"Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguistics …
"Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change in a systematic way, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theo…
"Recent developments in contact linguistics suggest considerable overlap of branches such as historical linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, pidgin/creole linguistics, language acquisition, etc. This book highlights the complexity of contact-induced language change throug…
Leading primatologists, cognitive scientists, anthropologists, and linguists consider how language evolution can be understood by means of inference from the study of linked or analogous phenomena in language, animal behaviour, genetics, neurology, culture, and biology.
This volume of selected papers from the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Osaka, Japan, July 2011) presents a set of stimulating and ground-breaking studies on a wide range of languages and language families. As the scope of studies that can be characteriz…
"This book examines the grammatical changes that took place in the transition from Latin to the Romance languages. The emerging language underwent changes in three fundamental areas involving the noun phrase, verb phrase, and the sentence. The impact of the changes can be seen i…
For nearly half a century, Yokuts languages, especially Yowlumni (Yawelmani), have served as a "testing ground" in theoretical phonology. However, the data cited in this literature are, more often than not, forms contrived using rules adduced in the principle descriptive work (N…
Origins of Language: A Slim Guide offers a concise and accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language. Non-human animals communicate in simple ways: they may be able to form simple concepts, to feel some limited empathy for others, to…
"Languages are formed into discrete entities, as we know them nowadays, by the technology of writing in the service of power centers, usually state capitals. All the choices made on the way - planned or not - amount to standardization which intensifies as the literate percentage…
Fascinating and original, Scott-Phillips presents a novel thesis explaining the origins and evolution of language to answer the questions of why language is unique to humans and how language developed. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, biology, linguistics and anthropology, it…
Fascinating and original, Scott-Phillips presents a novel thesis explaining the origins and evolution of language to answer the questions of why language is unique to humans and how language developed. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, biology, linguistics and anthropology, it…
