25.4907, Books: Natural causes of language: Enfield

Thu Dec 4 21:05:06 UTC 2014

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-4907. Thu Dec 04 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.4907, Books: Natural causes of language: Enfield

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Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:04:43
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [Sebastian.Nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Natural causes of language: Enfield

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Title: Natural causes of language 
Subtitle: Frames, biases, and cultural transmission 
Series Title: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science  

Publication Year: 2014 
Publisher: Language Science Press
	   http://langsci-press.org

Book URL: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/48 

Author: N. J. Enfield

Electronic: ISBN:  9783944675503 Pages: 97 Price: U.S. $ 0 Comment: Open Access

Abstract:

What causes a language to be the way it is? Some features are universal, some
are inherited, others are borrowed, and yet others are internally innovated.
But no matter where a bit of language is from, it will only exist if it has
been diffused and kept in circulation through social interaction in the
history of a community. This book makes the case that a proper understanding
of the ontology of language systems has to be grounded in the causal
mechanisms by which linguistic items are socially transmitted, in
communicative contexts. A biased transmission model provides a basis for
understanding why certain things and not others are likely to develop, spread,
and stick in languages. Because bits of language are always parts of systems,
we also need to show how it is that items of knowledge and behavior become
structured wholes. The book argues that to achieve this, we need to see how
causal processes apply in multiple frames or "time scales" simultaneously, and
we need to understand and address each and all of these frames in our work on
language. This forces us to confront implications that are not always
comfortable: for example, that "a language" is not a real thing but a
convenient fiction, that language-internal and language-external processes
have a lot in common, and that tree diagrams are poor conceptual tools for
understanding the history of languages. By exploring avenues for clear
solutions to these problems, this book suggests a conceptual framework for
ultimately explaining, in causal terms, what languages are like and why they
are like that.

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     General Linguistics
                     Historical Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=76714

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