Frederick J. Newmeyer
2008
Conceptualization, communication, and the origins of grammar
Origin and Evolution of Languages Approaches, Models, Paradigms, 2008
2003
What Can the Field of Linguistics Tell Us About the Evolution of Language?
Language Evolution: The States of the Art, 2003
To a non-linguist, the question raised in the tide of this chapter must sound nothing less than bizarre. One's first reaction would undoubtedly be to wonder what other field, if not linguistics, would be in a position to theorize about language origins and evolution. After ...
2002
Uniformitarian Assumptions and Language Evolution Research
The Transition to Language 17.0, 2002
This chapter explores the consequences of the fact that most research into language origins and evolution has taken the uniformitarian position that the general nature of human language has not changed much over the millennia, it concludes that such a position is ...
2000
On the reconstruction of 'Proto-world' word order
The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form, 2000
It is a truism that hypotheses about the evolution of cognitive faculties are problematic in ways that those about purely physical features are not. The language faculty, as an evolutionary emergent trait, multiplies such problems by an order of magnitude. As a result ...
Review of three book-length studies of language evolutionPDF
Journal of Linguistics, 2000
If I find that a book I am reading for review is interesting, then I count myself lucky. If it turns out to be insightful, then I am fortunate indeed. The fact that I was given three books to review, each of which is not only interesting and insightful, but downright ENJOYABLE, ...MORE ⇓
If I find that a book I am reading for review is interesting, then I count myself lucky. If it turns out to be insightful, then I am fortunate indeed. The fact that I was given three books to review, each of which is not only interesting and insightful, but downright ENJOYABLE, ...
1998
On the supposed 'counterfunctionality' of universal grammar: Some evolutionary considerations
Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases, 1998
1991
Language and Communication 11(1-2):3-28, 1991
It is necessary to relate functional explanations to the whole issue of innateness, which has been so crucial in the development of formal explanations in linguistics. For instance, it is not excluded that functional principles might be innate.... This raises the interesting ...MORE ⇓
It is necessary to relate functional explanations to the whole issue of innateness, which has been so crucial in the development of formal explanations in linguistics. For instance, it is not excluded that functional principles might be innate.... This raises the interesting question of how innate ideas turn out to be `correct' (more accurately, functionally valuable) ideas, as the result of selectional pressure in evolution. (Comrie, 1983, p. 99.)