Language adapts : exploring the cultural dynamics of iterated learning
Human languages are not just tools for transmitting cultural ideas, they are themselves culturally transmitted. This single observation has major implications for our understanding of how and why languages around the world are structured the way they are, and also for how scientists should be studying them. Accounting for the origins of what turns out to be such a uniquely human ability is, and should be, a priority for anyone interested in what makes us different from every other lifeform on Earth. The way the scientific community thinks about language has seen considerable changes over the years. In particular, we have witnessed movements away from a purely descriptive science of language, towards a more explanatory framework that is willing to embrace the difficult questions of not just how individual languages are currently structured and used, but also how and why they got to be that way in the first place. Seeing languages as historical entities is, of course, nothing new in linguistics. Seeing languages as complex adaptive systems, undergoing processes of evolution at multiple levels of interaction however, is. Broadly speaking, this thesis explores some of the implications that this perspective on
Cornish, Hannah
iterated learning ; cultural evolution ; language evolution
Language adapts : exploring the cultural dynamics of iterated learning. Human languages are not just tools for transmitting cultural ideas, they are themselves culturally transmitted. This single observation has major implications for our understanding of how and why languages around the world are structured the way they are, and also for how scientists should be studying them. Accounting for the origins of what turns out to be such a uniquely human ability is, and should be, a priority for anyone interested in what makes us different from every other lifeform on Earth. The way the scientific community thinks about language has seen considerable changes over the years. In particular, we have witnessed movements away from a purely descriptive science of language, towards a more explanatory framework that is willing to embrace the difficult questions of not just how individual languages are currently structured and used, but also how and why they got to be that way in the first place. Seeing languages as historical entities is, of course, nothing new in linguistics. Seeing languages as complex adaptive systems, undergoing processes of evolution at multiple levels of interaction however, is. Broadly speaking, this thesis explores some of the implications that this perspective on
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