Mark Aronoff (Stony Brook University) is in town, and will give a talk on “Partial organisation in languages”. Full title and abstract below. Tuesday 20th, 11am, DSB 1.17.

Partial organization in languages: La langue est un système où la plupart se tien(nen)t

Grammarians and linguists for the last several millennia have assumed that languages are fully organized discrete systems, where all the pieces fit together.  Certain aspects of at least some languages are not discrete and may be undetermined.  Real and convincing cases of such subsystems in languages support the claim that at least some aspect of the structure of languages results from undirected cultural evolution and that languages are not entirely the product of either the language organ or socially driven communicative needs.  This talk will center on analyses of morphological roots systems in a selection of languages and on the English comparative construction.

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