16.603, Books: Ling Theories/Phonology: Ritt

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-603. Wed Mar 02 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.603, Books: Ling Theories/Phonology: Ritt

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1)
Date: 03-May-2004
From: Joyce Reid < jreid at camrbridge.org >
Subject: Selfish Sounds  and Linguistic Evolution: Ritt 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2005 09:47:01
From: Joyce Reid < jreid at camrbridge.org >
Subject: Selfish Sounds  and Linguistic Evolution: Ritt 
 



Title: Selfish Sounds  and Linguistic Evolution 
Subtitle: A Darwinian Approach to Language Change 
Publication Year: 2004 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
	   http://us.cambridge.org
	

Book URL: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521826713 


Author: Nikolaus Ritt, Vienna University

Hardback: ISBN: 0521826713 Pages: 342 Price: U.K. £ 55.00
Hardback: ISBN: 0521826713 Pages: 344 Price: U.S. $ 85.00


Abstract:

This new perspective on language change looks at a number of developments
in the history of sounds and words and explains them in terms of Darwin's
evolutionary theory. Nikolaus Ritt demonstrates how the constituents of
language can be regarded as mental patterns, or "memes", which copy
themselves from one brain to another when communication and language
acquisition occur. Challenging established models of linguistic competence,
Ritt's controversial approach will stimulate debate among evolutionary
biologists, cognitive scientists and linguists. 



1. Introduction
2. The historical perspective
3. Approaching 'language change'
4. The Darwinian approach
5. Generalising Darwinism
6. Towards an evolutionary theory of language;
7. What does all this imply for the study of language change?
8. How to live with feet, if one happens to be a morph-meme
9. The prosodic evolution of English word forms or the great trochaic
conspiracy
10. Conclusion. 


Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     Historical Linguistics
                     Linguistic Theories
                     Phonology
                     Sociolinguistics


Written In: English  (ENG)
	
See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=10011


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	Cascadilla Press          
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	Hodder Arnold          
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates          
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	Lincom GmbH          
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	Mouton de Gruyter          
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	Oxford University Press          
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	Rodopi          
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OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc., Umass
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	Kingston Press Ltd
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	Multilingual Matters
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	Pacific Linguistics
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	SIL International
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	Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ 
	



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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-603