“How did they come to be that way?”
Evolutionary
linguistics seeks an answer by asking:
“Why are languages the way they are and not some
other way?”
The
central question for linguistics:
Evolutionary
linguistics
lSurvey
two approaches to the why question:
¡Standard
nativism
¡Evolutionary
nativism
lIntroduce
a new approach: the Iterated Learning Model
lPresent
two simulations of the ILM
lArgue
that language itself is an evolutionary system
This talk:
lIn particular, human language is unique in the
complexity of its
syntax.