An Old Subject's Great Escape from Recent Disciplinary Boundaries

In this paper we argue that we can gain important insights on the evolution of language and cognition by integrating evolutionary linguistics and the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. In Cognitive Linguistics, language is seen as tightly integrated with cognition as a whole. Construction Grammar and usage-based approaches are closely related to the Cognitive-Linguistic paradigm. Construction Grammar proposes that knowledge of language can be defined as the knowledge of form-meaning pairings of different degrees of schematicity and complexity, whereas usage-based approaches stress that language acquisition and processing are based on instances of actual language usage. As we demonstrate in this paper, concepts from Cognitive Linguistics, construction grammar, and usage-based approaches can help in elucidating the cognitive and interactional factors involved in language evolution. The paper will focus on two main areas: In evolutionary linguistics, language is seen as a complex adaptive system whose structure emerges out of the interaction of three other complex adaptive systems at three different timescales: ontogeny, glossogeny, and phylogeny. Cognitive Linguistics can help in specifying common cognitive factors and processes that play a role on all three of these timescales. Secondly, a Cognitive-Linguistic and constructionist, usage-based perspective can shed light on the cognitive factors underlying the origin of the division of labour between contentful ("lexical") and procedural ("grammatical") constructions in language structure. In a Cognitive-Linguistic perspective, this development can be related to the trade-off between the cognitive factors of learnability and expressivity.

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal with this "Now-or-Never" bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible. This observation has strong implications for the nature of language processing: (1) the language system must "eagerly" recode and compress linguistic input; (2) as the bottleneck recurs at each new representational level, the language system must build a multilevel linguistic representation; and (3) the language system must deploy all available information predictively to ensure that local linguistic ambiguities are dealt with "Right-First-Time"; once the original input is lost, there is no way for the language system to recover. This is "Chunk-and-Pass" processing. Similarly, language learning must also occur in the here and now, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar. Moreover, this perspective provides a cognitive foundation for grammaticalization and other aspects of language change. Chunk-and-Pass processing also helps explain a variety of core properties of language, including its multilevel representational structure and duality of patterning. This approach promises to create a direct relationship between psycholinguistics and linguistic theory. More generally, we outline a framework within which to integrate often disconnected inquiries into language processing, language acquisition, and language change and evolution.

Historical syntax occupies a pivotal position within the larger field of research into the nature, use, and acquisition of language. It is responsive to theoretical advances in linguistic theory, language acquisition, and theories of language use, as well as to less adjacent fields such as statistical techniques and evolutionary biology. Linguistic theory has undergone deep changes since the early 1990s, given the widespread impact of Chomsky's Minimalist Programme, Kayne's Antisymmetry Theory, and Kayne's Theory of Overt Movement. This work has brought into sharper focus questions concerning the architecture of linguistic theory that have a direct impact on our understanding of the process of change. At the same time, the recently developed framework of Optimality Theory, which has had a major influence in phonology, is beginning to provide new insights and raise new questions as it is applied to syntax and historical change. This collection of new writing by largely generative-based syntacticians advances this work. This book contains selected material from the Fifth Diachronic Generative Syntax Conference (DIGS 5) held in 1998. The chapters have been chosen to reflect developments in the study of language change and variation, and to exemplify work in a wide range of languages, including Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Slavic, and Sinitic. The book is divided into parts dealing with theoretical frameworks, comparative change, features and categories, and movement. A substantial opening chapter by the editors provides a critical overview of the subject and introduces the following chapters.

Dynamical Grammar explores the consequences for language acquisition, language evolution, and linguistic theory of taking the underlying architecture of the language faculty to be that of a complex adaptive dynamical system. It contains the first results of a new and complex model of language acquisition which the authors have developed to measure how far language input is reflected in language output and thereby get a better idea of just how far the human language faculty is hard-wired.

The English “good and” intensifier is discussed as an example of a form that is acceptable even though ungrammatical, both synchronically and diachronically. The construction is analyzed as a case of creative analogy: the extension of a grammatically generated form to a new function, one for which it has no direct grammatical justification. From the perspective of a “dynamic” theory of language acquisition and evolution, it is argued that such forms constitute a new sort of evidence regarding the nature of language universals.

How can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it? Rudolf Botha addresses this intriguing question in his fascinating new book. Inferences can be drawn about language evolution from a range of other phenomena, serving as windows into this prehistoric process. These include shell-beads, fossil skulls and ancestral brains, modern pidgin and creole languages, homesign systems and emergent sign languages, modern motherese, language use of modern hunter-gatherers, first language acquisition, similarities between language and music, and comparative animal behaviour. The first systematic analysis of the Windows Approach, it will be of interest to students and researchers in many disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, palaeontology and primatology, as well as anyone interested in how language evolved.

On Perceived Conceptual and Methodological Divergences in Linguistic Theory and Cognitive Science: Distributional Analyses, Universal Grammar, and Language Acquisition Authors Garrett Neske New York University PDF Article info Impact Citations Published at 24. March 2010 https://doi.org/10.5964/bioling.8761 Issue: Vol. 4 No. 1 (2010) Section: Briefs Keywords: language acquisition learning computational linguistics universal grammar development Share: Z PlumX Dimensions Views: Total Abstract PDF 10 7 3

This study aimed to investigate Chomsky’s claims about the evolution of language from biolinguistic perspectives based on the minimalist theory since Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch(2002) to Berwick & Chomsky(2016). I strived to catch up with the current issues on the language faculty including Merge and the lexicon. FLB was proposed as a derived uniquely human adaptation for language by many researchers in the other fields of study, while only FLN was proposed as uniquely human by Chomsky et al. The results from Moro’s experimental study(2015) also supported the autonomy of syntactic rules. To sum up, Chomsky’s studies were selectively reviewed and summarized from the viewpoint of the researcher who has studied 1990’s generative grammar, cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition and learning, and elementary English education.

In this chapter, I elaborate the population genetics perspective introduced in chapter 1 and adopted in the subsequent chapters. I submit more justification here for the position that there are indeed heuristic advantages in approaching language evolution on the model of population genetics, assuming that a language is a species but not an organism. However, I also argue that the linguistic species need not be a clone of any biological species, despite the fact that it shares several properties with the parasitic species. In fact, the proposed population genetics of language evolution is more than an analog of population genetics, although its heuristics has been very much inspired by the latter. A linguistic species must be defined on its own independent terms and its evolutionary properties hypothesized according to its own combination of ontological characteristics. These account for both the similarities and differences which it displays with its closest kin in biological evolution. The basic assumption is that there are general evolutionary principles which apply similarly to the linguistic and biological species. However, there are species-specific principles which distinguish them from each other, based in part on whether a species is of the Darwinian or Lamarckian kind, on whether traits are transmitted sexually or asexually, horizontally and/or vertically, on whether the default quality of copying in trait inheritance is with or without modification, etc. One cluster of factors that plays an important role in any theory of evolution is “ecology.”

This review discusses the implementation of biolinguistics in children’s language acquisition. The focus lies on the importance of biolinguistics in studying children’s language acquisition. Children’s language is considered important because, within the scientific concept of biolinguistics, will have an influence on the development of children’s language until the child is an adult. This review is based on The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics, which consists of three parts. The first section discusses the history of biolinguistics; the second chapter discusses the mind, brain and behavior in relation to language; and the third section discusses the evolution of language. This book aims to open our horizons about biolinguistics as a science that harmonizes language and knowledge, language development in children and the evolution of language in various species. In addition, the most profound meaning of this book lies in its emphasis on the function the human brain, where each part has its own specific role. Through this book we are asked to be grateful for God's gift to humans for giving the brain with a very extraordinary function. In line with its purpose, this book not only examines the integration between language and the human brain, but also inspires readers to appreciate the complexity of human cognition.

Reviewed by: Second language acquisition by Roumyana Slabakova Tania Ionin Second language acquisition. By Roumyana Slabakova. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xxi, 483. ISBN 9780199687275. $40. Introduction This book is a textbook of second language acquisition (SLA) written within the theoretical framework of the generative approach to SLA research. The intended readers are advanced undergraduate students and graduate students who have some background in linguistics, in particular in syntax and semantics. The text is intended first and foremost for students with a prior background in generative linguistics. While the main linguistic concepts are explained when they are introduced, such explanations are necessarily brief, and students with no prior background in linguistics would find the more technical parts of the text somewhat difficult to follow. However, students or other readers who have a general interest in language and/or language acquisition, but lack a background in generative linguistics, should still be able to follow the main concepts presented in the book. This textbook is quite unique in that, while its focus is on theoretical research on SLA, it explicitly makes the link to potential pedagogical relevance of the research findings. Brief summary The book consists of thirteen chapters, divided into three parts. Each chapter ends with a section of exercises; at the end of the book are a glossary, references, and an index. Part I, ‘Language’, provides a brief overview of the relevant background information that readers need to have in order to fully appreciate the rest of the book. Ch. 1, ‘Language architecture’, lays out the central argument of generative linguistics for the innateness of language and introduces the reader to several famous proposals on the structure of the language faculty. Ch. 1 then addresses the task faced by a second language learner and lays out the logic of the methodology used in generative SLA research. Ch. 2, ‘Language variation’, walks the reader through the history of the generative study of language variation, from principles and parameters through the minimalist program. Like Ch. 1, Ch. 2 ends by considering the implications of the theoretical linguistic research for the learning task of a second language learner. The goal of Ch. 3, ‘The psychological reality of language in use’, is to prepare the reader for later chapters that address second language processing by reviewing the central models and findings of the literature on language processing and psycholinguistics more generally. Part II, ‘Language acquisition’, has the goal of placing the study of SLA into the study of language acquisition as a whole by considering a number of different language-acquisition scenarios. The focus of this part is on the respective contributions of age of acquisition and of input quantity and quality to the task of language acquisition. Ch. 4, ‘The critical period hypothesis’, goes over the history of critical period studies and addresses the debate about the existence of critical or sensitive periods in SLA. This chapter also considers the role of input, bringing together a number of quite distinct phenomena, including variable input, comparisons between heritage speakers and second language learners, and variability among native speakers at different educational levels. Ch. 5, ‘First language acquisition, two first languages’, provides an overview of the process of first language acquisition; most of the chapter is devoted to monolingual first language acquisition, but the last section discusses simultaneous bilinguals, who form a natural link between monolinguals and adult second language learners. In Ch. 6, ‘Child second language, multilingual and heritage language acquisition, language attrition’, a variety of other types of language acquisition scenarios are discussed. Throughout this chapter, and especially in the last section, the focus is, once again, on the relative contributions of age of acquisition and input quantity and quality to the outcome of the language acquisition process. The position taken in this chapter, and [End Page e198] throughout the rest of the book, is that the effects of age can potentially be overridden by rich input, and that universal grammar remains active in SLA by adults. Part III, ‘Second language acquisition’, is the heart of the book. In addition to providing an overview of SLA research in the core areas of linguistics (with the one exception of...

The study of iconicity, i.e., of a link between form and meaning in a word based on similarity, has gained increased attention in recent years. Although recent research has shown an important role of iconicity for first language acquisition, its role for the second language (L2) acquisition is still unclear, neither is it understood how the perception of imitative words depends on their iconic expressiveness. We applied a multivariate experimental plan with repeated measurements and experimental and control stimuli to study visual recognition of English iconic (imitative) words at four stages of de-iconization (SDs) by native speakers of Russian (N = 106) using a lexical decision task. The participants were presented with an experimental stimulus and had to decide as rapidly as possible whether a visually presented letter string was a word or not. The method of diachronic evaluation was used to group the pre-selected imitative words into four categories where SD-1 words are the most vivid imitative words with an evident (iconic) link between form and meaning, and SD-4 words are the words which have lost this link in the course of language (semantic and phonetic) evolution. The findings have revealed that proceeding speed and accuracy rates are strongly connected to SDs: the less iconic (imitative) a word is, the faster and more accurately it is recognized; most iconic words (SD-1) are characterized by the slowest RTs and lowest accuracy rates. The results suggest that iconicity does affect visual recognition of imitative words by second language learners.

We first address diverse criteria on what a theory of language evolution should explain, focusing on six divides: evolution did/did not yield a Universal Grammar; brain evolution is/is not important; language is to be viewed as speech or multimodal communication; language evolution is/is not best understood solely with reference to tools for communication; we do/do not need a notion of protolanguage as a precursor to language; and protolanguage was/was not in great part holophrastic. We argue against a role for an innate Universal Grammar in language acquisition and language change, and then present a brief case study of the emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language in a few decades. Finally, we present the mirror system hypothesis on the evolution of the language-ready brain locating it within the 6 divides and charting a path for biological evolution supporting mechanisms for simple and complex imitation, pantomime, protosign and protospeech in turn, claiming that this provided an adequate base for true languages to emerge through cultural evolution.

This chapter views the interactional instinct as related to a constellation of conceptualizations that see language, language evolution, language acquisition, and language use from an interactive socioaffective perspective (e.g., the pedagogical stance/natural pedagogy, willingness to communicate). In this chapter, we examine the interactional instinct in relation to six other perspectives: the social instinct, the interactional engine, the cultural intelligence hypothesis, the interaction hypothesis, relational models, and the perspective of language as shaped by the brain. We see these various perspectives as correlated variations on language acquisition and use, which capture different facets of these phenomena.

Journal of Morphology and Anatomy is a peer reviewed, open access journal that aims to understand human anatomy by analyzing its structure, function, development and evolution. The Journal also publishes original research articles on macroscopic anatomy, histological development, Morphological Sciences, Cell and Molecular Biology, Macroscopic Human Anatomy, and Microscopic Human Anatomy. Topics related to Macroscopic Animal Anatomy, Microscopic Animal Anatomy, History of Morphological Sciences, Morphology and Arts, Education in Morphology. It also publishes about the techniques for the Study of Morphology, Clinical Anatomy, Compared Anatomy, Pathological Anatomy, Anatomy and Anthropology, Embryology and Cell Biology. Morphology Applied to other Sciences like phonology, syntax, and semantics, the acquisition and processing of morphological information, mental lexicon, and morphological variation and change, models of morphology, morphological typology, the position of morphology in the architecture of the human language, and the evolution of language. The volume 3 includes the various aspects of morphology and anatomy has discussed by the authors from different parts of the world. In the research article, Mngu-Suur KR, et al. studied Morphometric Study the Male Reproductive Organs of the African Striped Ground Squirrel (Xerus erythropus) [1]. Iyiola S, et al. has discussed about the proliferation index of breast cancer among the Nigerian women is similar to other women from most parts of the world. The delay in presentation leads to high grades and advanced disease at presentation which eventually cause death [2]. Iyiola S et al. in their research article evaluated Mini Chromosomes Maintenance Complex Binding Protein as an Alternative Breast Cancer Cells Proliferative Marker to Monoclonal Ki67 [3]. Nnadozie O, et al. investigated Assessment of the Morphological Development of the Thymus in Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) [4]. Abera M, et al. reviewed Maize Lethal Necrosis a Viral Disease, an Emerging Treat to Maize Production in Ethiopia in their review article [5]. Pares-Casanova PM has demonstrated in his research article about the results of this study raise future questions about the influence of skull biomechanics on its asymmetrical development, but also about how management, ingesta-specific properties (such as abrasiveness) and domestication can influence this response [6].