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oapen-20.500.12657-332202022-04-26T12:24:57Z Natural causes of language: Frames, biases, and cultural transmission Enfield, N. J. causal processes ontology of language systems language biased transmission model Charles Darwin Evolution Historical linguistics Idiolect Ontogeny bic Book Industry Communication::C Language::CF linguistics 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. 2015-12-31 23:55:55 2018-12-12 10:19:03 2020-04-01T14:36:51Z 2020-04-01T14:36:51Z 2014 book 533873 OCN: 945782834 9783944675503 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33220 eng application/pdf Attribution 4.0 International 533873.pdf http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/48 Language Science Press 10.26530/OAPEN_533873 10.26530/OAPEN_533873 0bad921f-3055-43b9-a9f1-ea5b2d949173 7292b17b-f01a-4016-94d3-d7fb5ef9fb79 9783944675503 European Research Council (ERC) 97 240853 FP7 FP7 Ideas: European Research Council FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013) open access
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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.
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