An edition of Natural causes of language (2014)

Natural Causes of Language

Frames, Biases, and Cultural Transmission

Natural Causes of Language
N. J. Enfield, N. J. Enfield
Locate

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today


Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
July 21, 2020 | History
An edition of Natural causes of language (2014)

Natural Causes of Language

Frames, Biases, and Cultural Transmission

What causes a language to be the way it is? Some features are universal, some are inherited, others are borrowed, and yet others are internally innovated. But no matter where a bit of language is from, it will only exist if it has been diffused and kept in circulation through social interaction in the history of a community. This book makes the case that a proper understanding of the ontology of language systems has to be grounded in the causal mechanisms by which linguistic items are socially transmitted, in communicative contexts. A biased transmission model provides a basis for understanding why certain things and not others are likely to develop, spread, and stick in languages. Because bits of language are always parts of systems, we also need to show how it is that items of knowledge and behavior become structured wholes. The book argues that to achieve this, we need to see how causal processes apply in multiple frames or 'time scales' simultaneously, and we need to understand and address each and all of these frames in our work on language. This forces us to confront implications that are not always comfortable: for example, that "a language" is not a real thing but a convenient fiction, that language-internal and language-external processes have a lot in common, and that tree diagrams are poor conceptual tools for understanding the history of languages. By exploring avenues for clear solutions to these problems, this book suggests a conceptual framework for ultimately explaining, in causal terms, what languages are like and why they are like that.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
96

Buy this book

Edition Availability
Cover of: Natural Causes of Language
Natural Causes of Language: Frames, Biases, and Cultural Transmission
2016, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
in English
Cover of: Natural causes of language
Cover of: Natural causes of language
Natural causes of language: Frames, biases, and cultural transmission
Publish date unknown, Language Science Press
in English

Add another edition?

Book Details


The Physical Object

Number of pages
96
Weight
0.227

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL55486657M
ISBN 13
9781523743766

Source records

Better World Books record

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

Lists

This work does not appear on any lists.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
July 21, 2020 Created by MARC Bot import new book