Syllabus
SYLLABUS
Session
Topic
Required Readings 1
What is emergence? Self-organizing systems, equilibria, and entropy 2
Chaos and complexity in language development
Steward, 2019 3
Percolation theory and complex networks
Siew et al., 2019 4
Darwinian selection and the origins of language
Hillert, 2015
Pagel, 2016 5
Co-opting brain structures in language evolution
Luef, 2018 6
A theory of mind, joint attention, referentiality
Tomasello, 2018
Rakoczy, 2017 7
The syntax of bird songs
Slater, 2013
Pepperberg, 2013 8
Socio-pragmatic origins of human communication
Dunbar, 2004 9
Are primates good models for language evolution?
Gibson, 2013
Schlenker, 2016 10
Universal Grammar and the shrinking language faculty
Christiansen & Chater, 2015
Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch, 2002 11
Recursion in language and elsewhere in the mind
Jackendoff, 2011 12
Emergent categories in first language acquisition
Student presentations 13
Second language as an emergent system
Student presentations
Annotation
Studies of the emergence of language focus on the evolutionary and developmental factors that affect the acquisition and auto-organization of a linguistic system. Emergent accounts of language emphasize the extent to which a complex set of communicative behaviors and forms arise from a few simple mechanisms.
Thus, they essentially describe moments in time when non-linguistic systems become linguistic. Language development is divided into distinct stages, where the appearance of one property depended on another that preceded it.
Identifying structures within emerging systems allows us to analyze interdependencies and contraints imposed by linguistic developments. Naturally, the study of the origin and emergence of language is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor.
Recent advances in the brain and cognitive sciences spurred a surge of scientific interest in language emergence, with evidence coming from comparative psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and theoretical linguistics. This seminar will survey a cross-section of modern theories, methods and research pertaining to the emergence of language from an evolutionary perspective.