Inhaltszusammenfassung

The view of language as a complex adaptive system has come to be one of the most important frameworks guiding research in evolutionary linguistics. Importantly, the complex adaptive system of language is itself a product of the interaction of three complex adaptive systems operating on three different timescales: The ontogenetic timescale of language learning and acquisition, the glossogenetic timesecale of language change, and the phylogenetic timescale of biological evolution. In the future...The view of language as a complex adaptive system has come to be one of the most important frameworks guiding research in evolutionary linguistics. Importantly, the complex adaptive system of language is itself a product of the interaction of three complex adaptive systems operating on three different timescales: The ontogenetic timescale of language learning and acquisition, the glossogenetic timesecale of language change, and the phylogenetic timescale of biological evolution. In the future, one of the main desiderata of evolutionary linguistics will be to unravel this complex web of interactions. In this paper, I give a brief overview of this emerging consensus. In addition, I argue that cognitive-functional and usage-based approaches in linguistics, which emphasize the importance of the dimensions of actual language usage and cognitive and social factors in language acquisition, processing, change, and evolution present an important addition to the emerging view in evolutionary linguistics of language as a complex adaptive system.» weiterlesen» einklappen

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Klassifikation

DFG Fachgebiet:
Sprachwissenschaften

DDC Sachgruppe:
Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistik