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Evolutionary Syntax

Online ISBN:
9780191800276
Print ISBN:
9780198736547
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Evolutionary Syntax

Ljiljana Progovac
Ljiljana Progovac
Professor and Director of the Linguistics Program, Wayne State University
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Published online:
20 August 2015
Published in print:
1 June 2015
Online ISBN:
9780191800276
Print ISBN:
9780198736547
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book makes a case for a gradualist, adaptationist (Darwinian) approach to the evolution of syntax/grammar, subject to natural selection. It provides a specific framework for studying the evolution of syntax, with postulates that are at the right level of granularity to allow a synergy among the fields of evolutionary biology, theoretical syntax, typology, neuroscience, and genetics. This book pursues an internal reconstruction of the stages of grammar based on the syntactic theory associated with Chomskyan Minimalism, to arrive at very specific, testable hypotheses, which are corroborated by an abundance of theoretically analyzed ‘living fossils’ for each postulated stage, drawn from a variety of languages. What also distinguishes this approach is that it shows how these fossil structures do not just coexist side-by-side with more modern structures, but that they are in fact literally built into the very foundation of more complex structures, leading to quirks and complexities that best befit a gradualist evolutionary scenario. Importantly, the postulated stages clearly reveal the selection pressures that would have driven the progression through stages. By reconstructing a particular path along which syntax evolved, this approach is able to shed light on the crucial properties of language design itself, as well as on the major parameters of crosslinguistic variation. As a result, this reconstruction can be meaningfully correlated with the hominin timeline, as well as with the quickly accruing genetic evidence.

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