Paper on language evolution in Nature Reviews Genetics

[Danielle E. Cyr]

Please don't apologize for sending this most interesting piece of information.
The only problem is that one needs to have a login ID and password to access
the online paper. Is there another way to get it? I can't wait to read what's
under this thrilling title and abstract.

Cheers,
Danielle Cyr


Quoting Andreea Calude <acalude at gmail.com>:

> Dear Funk-netters,
>
> Following the recent fascinating discussion sparked by the Evans/Levinson
> PNAS paper, I would like to take the somewhat bold opportunity to draw your
> attention to another interesting paper which is similarly published in a
> journal further afield of the typical focus of mainstream linguistics,
> namely in *Nature Review Genetics*, which concerns language evolution and in
> particular, what one can do with (/ask of) computational tools in this
> research area. At the risk of being blamed for self-publicising work which
> is coming out of the lab I am currently working in, please find below the
> details of the paper.
>
> With humble apologies,
>
> Andreea Calude
>
>
> Nature Reviews Genetics, advance online publication, Published online 7 May
> 2009 | doi:10.1038/nrg2560
> Human language as a culturally transmitted replicator
>
> Mark Pagel
>
<http://www.nature.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/nrg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nrg2560.html#top>
> Abstract
>
> Human languages form a distinct and largely independent class of cultural
> replicators with behaviour and fidelity that can rival that of genes.
> Parallels between biological and linguistic evolution mean that statistical
> methods inspired by phylogenetics and comparative biology are being
> increasingly applied to study language. Phylogenetic trees constructed from
> linguistic elements chart the history of human cultures, and comparative
> studies reveal surprising and general features of how languages evolve,
> including patterns in the rates of evolution of language elements and social
> factors that influence temporal trends of language evolution. For many
> comparative questions of anthropology and human behavioural ecology,
> historical processes estimated from linguistic phylogenies may be more
> relevant than those estimated from genes.
>
>
> --
> Dr. Andreea S. Calude
> School of Biological Sciences
> Philip Lyle Building, Level 4
> University of Reading
> Reading
> RG6 6BX
> United Kingdom
> --
> acalude at gmail.com
> www.calude.net/andreea/andreea.html
>


"The only hope we have as human beings is to learn each other's languages.  Only
then can we truly hope to understand one another."

Professor Danielle E. Cyr
Department of French Studies
York University
Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J 1P3
Tel. 1.416.736.2100 #310180
FAX. 1.416.736.5924
dcyr at yorku.ca