How New Languages EmergeNew languages are constantly emerging, as existing languages diverge into different forms. To explain this fascinating process, we need to understand how languages change and how they emerge in children. In this pioneering study, David Lightfoot explains how languages come into being, arguing that children are the driving force. He explores how new systems arise, how they are acquired by children, and how adults and children play different, complementary roles in language change. Lightfoot makes an important distinction between 'external language' (language as it exists in the world), and 'internal language' (language as represented in an individual's brain). By examining the interplay between the two, he shows how children are 'cue-based' learners, who scan their external linguistic environment for new structures, making sense of the world outside in order to build their internal language. Engaging and original, this book offers an interesting account of language acquisition, variation and change. |
Contents
| 17 | |
Section 2 | 23 |
Section 3 | 40 |
Section 4 | 66 |
Section 5 | 87 |
Section 6 | 112 |
Section 7 | 113 |
Section 8 | 139 |
Section 9 | 161 |
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Common terms and phrases
analysis analyzed anaphor Anglo-Saxon Chronicle argued bounding nodes change in I-languages child Chomsky cladograms clitic coindexed complement copied corresponding creole languages cue-based cues daughter languages deleted develop discussed distinct domains Dutch elements embedded clauses emerge example explain expressions external language finite verbs forms French function German grammaticalization hear historical linguists I-languages identify Indo-European languages inflectional input Jim Kim Kim’s kind language acquisition language capacity language change Latin learnable learners Lightfoot main clauses markedness markers Middle English modal auxiliaries models morphology nineteenth century notion noun object-verb order occur Old English operation parameter settings parsing people’s person’s phrase pidgin position postulated poverty-of-stimulus problems pronouns properties Proto-Indo-European proto-language reconstruct Romance languages sets of sentences signed languages speakers speech split genitives structure syntactic syntax thematic role triggering experience unembedded variation verb-object order verb-second XP-V order yield
Popular passages
Page 21 - Es ist eingewendet, dass es noch eine andere wissenschaftliche Betrachtung der Sprache gäbe, als die geschichtliche.-" Ich muss das in Abrede stellen.
Page 68 - A grammar of the language L is essentially a theory of L. Any scientific theory is based on a finite number of observations, and it seeks to relate the observed phenomena and to predict new phenomena by constructing general laws...
Page 67 - One may arrive at a grammar by intuition, guess-work, all sorts of partial methodological hints, reliance on past experience, etc. It is no doubt possible to give an organized account of many useful procedures of analysis, but it is questionable whether these can be formulated rigorously, exhaustively and simply enough to qualify as a practical and mechanical discovery procedure.
Page 31 - ... human existence. That view of the nature of language which linguistic science establishes takes entirely away the foundation on which the doctrine of divine origin, in its form as once held, reposed. The human capacity to which the production of language is most directly due is, as has been seen, the power of intelligently, and not by blind instinct alone, adapting means to ends. This is by no means a unitary capacity ; on the contrary, it is a highly composite and intricate one. But it does...
Page 169 - On ne peut restituer par la comparaison une langue disparue : la comparaison des langues romanes ne donnerait du latin vulgaire ni une idée exacte, ni une idée complète ; il n'ya pas de raison de croire que la comparaison des langues indo-européennes soit plus instructive. On / ne restitue pas l'indo-européen.
Page 36 - Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history...
Page 101 - Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth : I love your majesty According to my bond ; nor more nor less.
Page 95 - It became a sort of watchword among the critics ; and, on the sudden, nothing was heard, on all sides, but the clinquant of TASSO. After all, these two respectable writers might not intend the mischief they were doing. The observation was just; but was extended much further than they meant, by their witless followers and admirers.
Page 31 - Neither the popular mind, nor elements of it, such as art, religion, etc., have any concrete existence, and therefore nothing can come to pass in them or between them. Away, then, with these abstractions
Page 31 - Das heisst durch hypostasierung einer reihe von abstractionen das wahre wesen der vorgänge verdecken. Alle psychischen processe vollziehen sich in den einzelgeistern und nirgends sonst.