Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow, our visiting PhD student Maria Grazia Rossi will be giving the LEC talk.

Tuesday 1st November, 11.00-12.30
DHT Conference Room

Against Identification of Language Change and Language Evolution

The idea that learnability, cultural stability and transmissibility of
languages are basic constraints to understanding the issues of the
evolution and origins of the complex human linguistic structures is a
very promising idea in the field of evolutionary linguistics. Adopting
this point of view, most scholars argue that (1) what matters in the
explanation of language evolution are the changes of linguistic
structures in the historical time and that so (2) language itself must
be considered primarily as a cultural adaptation. I critically discuss
a specific assumption behind this argument, namely the thesis of the
identification of language change and language evolution. And I will
tackle this issue by focusing my attention on the wider implications
that can be drawn from this identification in understanding the nature
of language and grammar. Specifically, I try to widen the implications
of my argument against identification of language change and language
evolution within the debate on the nature of protolanguage. I argue
that once we admit the difficulties of this identification, we can use
them as a magnifying glass to discuss about protolanguage.

Cheers,
Simon

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