N. J. Enfield
2008
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31(5):519-520, 2008
Language is shaped by its environment, which includes not only the brain, but also the public context in which speech acts are effected. To fully account for why language has the shape it has, we need to examine the constraints imposed by language use as a sequentially organized ...MORE ⇓
Language is shaped by its environment, which includes not only the brain, but also the public context in which speech acts are effected. To fully account for why language has the shape it has, we need to examine the constraints imposed by language use as a sequentially organized joint activity, and as the very conduit for linguistic diffusion and change.
Transmission biases in linguistic epidemiologyPDF
Journal of Language Contact 2(1):299--310, 2008
Abstract: There is growing interest in approaching research on language contact and change through an epidemiological, population-based model which takes' linguistic items' or equivalent as a key unit of analysis. This paper explores a number of elements of such a ...