On Biology, History and Culture in Human Language
A Critical Overview
Juan-Carlos Moreno [+–]
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró [+–]
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary.
The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
Table of Contents
Preliminaries
Acknowledgements [+–] vii
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
Prologue [+–] ix-x
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
1
Language in nature and culture [+–] 1-20
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
1.1 Dante’s contribution to the nature/culture distinction in human language; 1.2 Characterizing natural and cultivated languages; 1.3 Natural Language as natural adaptive systems; 1.4 Dante’s panther and Gell-Mann’s jaguar
2
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
2.1 I-languages as cognitive organisms; 2.2 Diversity in nature and in language; 2.3 The Human Faculty of Language and the nature of Universal Grammar; 2.4 The minimalist anatomy of I-languages;
3
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
3.1 Languages as cultural objects; 3.2 Language evolution and language change; 3.3 The language uniformity hypothesis; 3.4 How to understand language change
4
Characterizing cultivated languages [+–] 87-100
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
4.1 A typology of cultivated languages; 4.2 The written language bias in contemporary linguistics;
5
The mismeasure of language diversity [+–] 101-133
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
5.1 The false problem of natural language complexity; 5.2 Language interbreeding; 5.3 Signed languages as natural languages; 5.4 The revival of relativism
6
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
6.1 All human natural languages (spoken and signed) are direct manifestations of the human faculty of language; 6.2 All human natural languages (spoken and signed) belong to the same linguistic species; 6.3 All known human languages are in the same stage of linguistic evolution; 6.4 Language change is not language evolution; 6.5 All human natural languages (spoken and signed) present a similar degree of grammatical development; 6.6 All human natural languages (spoken and signed) can be spontaneously acquired by human infants; 6.7 All human natural languages (spoken and signed) are constrained in their competence and performance by the psycho-physiological limitations of human beings; 6.8 E-Languages are not natural languages; 6.9 Only I-Languages are grammatical competences; 6.10 Cultivated languages are not natural languages;
End Matter
References [+–] 155-164
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
Index of Names [+–] 165-167
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
Index of Subjects [+–] 168-169
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
Index of Languages [+–] 170-171
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan-Carlos Moreno is Professor of General Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has also taken part as a scientific advisor in the World Languages Review project hosted by the UNESCO-Etxea (Basque Country). He has published 20 books on linguistics in Spanish and more than one hundred papers in Spanish and English.
University of Zaragoza
José-Luis Mendívil-Giró is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zaragoza. His research has focused on the theory of grammar and the nature and extent of linguistic change and diversity. He was the main researcher of the project Typology and internal variation of the case & agreement systems in the world’s languages (Spanish Government). He is the author of Origen, evolución y diversidad de las lenguas (Peter Lang, 2009), and the editor (together with C. Boeckx and M. Horno) of Language, from a Biological Point of View (Cambridge Scholars, 2012).
Human language is viewed and studied by some authors as a natural object and by other scholars as a social and cultural object. Actually, human language, as usually observed, manifests itself as a tightly entangled bundle of natural and cultural features. In the present essay we propose several ways to disentangle this complex feature bundle in order to show that often what seems contradictory is really complementary. The main goal of this book consists in showing that both views are correct and compatible if applied in a proper way. In order to do that it is necessary to differentiate two distinct entities: natural languages and cultivated languages. A natural language develops in childhood in a spontaneous way on the basis of the innate capabilities determined by the human faculty of language. In contrast, a cultivated language is culturally determined and must be acquired by the individuals through guided learning, since it is based on certain cultural elaborations of a natural language. We show that some of the most controversial topics in current linguistic research are vitiated by the failure to make this distinction or by a poor understanding of it.
