| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 329 pages) : illustrations |
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data file |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-322) and index. |
| Summary |
This book takes an exciting new perspective on language change, by explaining it in terms of Darwin's evolutionary theory. Nikolaus Ritt shows 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 take place. |
| Contents |
Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Figures; Preface; 1 Introduction; 1.1 The benefits of language; 1.2 ... its shortcomings; 1.3 ... and ways of studying it; 1.3.1 Observation and inference in language modelling; 1.3.2 Modelling by inference: data problems; (1) GRAND LEG -- SEIZE OURS; 1.3.3 Modelling by inference 2: modelling what, how and why?; 2 The historical perspective; 2.1 Evidence of language change; 2.2 Language as a changing object; 3 Approaching 'language change'; 3.1 Preliminaries; 3.2 Establishing basic assumptions; 3.3 What 'language change' must represent. |
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3.3.1 Language as text3.3.2 Language as behaviour; 3.3.3 Language as competence; 3.3.4 Language as a biological capacity; 3.3.5 The competence-behaviour-text cycle; 3.3.6 Beyond the individual: language and the community or language 'as such'?; 3.3.7 Summary; 3.4 Reconstructing a particular 'phonological change'; 3.4.1 Language evolution as property replication; 3.4.1.1 What makes replicating systems special; 3.4.1.2 The study of replicating systems and the linguistic community; 3.4.1.3 Summary and outlook; 4 The Darwinian approach; 4.1 A linguist's view of evolutionary biology. |
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4.1.1 Why are life-forms as they are?4.1.2 Phenotypes and genotypes; 4.1.3 Genotypes and gene replication; 4.1.4 The (Neo- ) Darwinian theory of gene-based evolution; 4.1.4.1 The mechanics of gene replication; 4.1.4.2 Replication under constraints; 4.1.4.2.1 Constraints on replicator life-spans; 4.1.4.2.2 Limits on copying fidelity and the emergence of variation; 4.1.4.2.3 Differential replication; 4.1.4.2.4 First résumé; 4.1.4.2.5 Consequences of constrained replication: adaptation and 'phenotypic' (side- )effects; 4.1.4.2.6 Stable diversity. |
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4.1.4.2.7 Specifying the theory: replicator alliances and higher-level organisation4.1.4.3 Derived higher-level categories 1: 'genomes' and 'organisms'; 4.1.4.4 Derived higher-level categories 2: 'species'; 4.1.4.5 Derived higher-level categories 3: extended phenotypes, families, social groups, symbioses and the general 'fuzziness' of higher-level categories; 4.1.5 Summary and some further discussion; 4.1.5.1 The essentially reductionist character of Evolutionary Theory; 4.1.5.2 Emergent top-down constraints; 4.1.5.3 Explanatory limits of Evolutionary Theory. |
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4.1.5.3.1 The role of environmental contingencies4.1.5.3.2 Randomness and the impossibility of predictive laws; 4.1.5.3.3 The complexities of development; 4.1.5.4 Optimality in Evolutionary Theory; 4.1.5.5 Evolutionary Theory as a theory of change; 5 Generalising Darwinism; 5.1 The temptations of metaphorical transfer; 5.2 'Complex Adaptive Systems' and 'Universal Darwinism'; 5.2.1 Macro-level properties of Complex Adaptive Systems; 5.2.2 Life and language seen as Complex Adaptive Systems; 5.2.2.1 Species as Complex Adaptive Systems; 5.2.2.2 Languages as Complex Adaptive Systems. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Linguistic change.
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Linguistic change. |
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Evolution (Biology)
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Evolution (Biology) |
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English language -- Phonology, Historical.
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English language -- Phonology, Historical. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Electronic book.
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Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Ritt, Nikolaus, 1960- Selfish sounds and linguistic evolution. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge, 2004 (DLC) 2003055900 |
| ISBN |
0511193750 |
|
9780511193750 |
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0521826713 |
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9780521826716 |
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0511195826 (electronic book) |
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9780511195822 (electronic book) |
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0511194498 |
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9780511194498 |
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0511195168 (electronic book) |
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9780511195167 (electronic book) |
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9780511486449 (ebook) |
|
0511486448 (ebook) |
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1280477768 |
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9781280477768 |
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9786610477760 |
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6610477760 |
|
