Evolutionary linguistics

Evolutionary linguistics is the scientific study of the origins and development of language. The main problem in this research is the lack of empirical data: spoken language leaves no traces behind. This has led to an abandonment of the field for many decades. Recently, however, the field is reviving due to the development of new technologies.

References

Deacon, T., The symbolic species: the coevolution of language and the brain, Norton, New York (1997).

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Hauser, M.D., The evolution of communication, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1996).

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Hauser, M.D. Hauser, N. Chomsky and W.T. Fitch, The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?, Science 298 (2002), pp. 1569?1579.

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Jackendoff, R., Foundations of language: brain, meaning, grammar, evolution, Oxford University Press, New York (2002)

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Lieberman, P., Motor control, speech, and the evolution of language. In: M. Christiansen and S. Kirby, Editors, Language evolution: states of the art, Oxford University Press, New York (2003).

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Nowak, M.A. and N.L. Komarova, Towards an evolutionary theory of language, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 5 (2001) (7), pp. 288?295.

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Pinker, S., The language instinct, HarperCollins, New York (1994).

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Pinker, S. and P. Bloom, Natural language and natural selection, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13 (1990), pp. 707?784

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See also the UIUC Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography/Repository

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