Language evolution : contact, competition and change
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Language evolution : contact, competition and change
Continuum, c2008
- : hbk
- : pbk
Available at 32 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
ISBN on t.p. verso of hardback misprinted
Bibliography: p. [313]-336
Includes indexes
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780826493699
Description
Languages are constantly changing. New words are added to the English language every year, either borrowed or coined, and there is often railing against the decline of the language by public figures. Some languages, such as French and Finnish, have academies to protect them against foreign imports. Yet languages are species-like constructs, which evolve naturally over time. Migration, imperialism, and globalization have blurred boundaries between many of them, producing new ones (such as creoles) and driving some to extinction. This book examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. In a series of chapters, Salikoko Mufwene examines such themes as:natural selection in language. the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution multilingualism and language contact language birth and language death. the emergence of Creoles and Pidgins the varying impacts of colonization and globalization on language vitality.
This comprehensive examination of the organic evolution of language will be essential reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and for researchers on the social dynamics of language variation and change, language vitality and death, and even the origins of linguistic diversity.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- Part 1: Population Dynamics and Language Evolution
- 2. Language evolution
- 3. Population movements, contacts, competition, selection, and language evolution
- 4. How population-wide patterns emerge in language evolution
- 5. What do creoles and pidgins tell us about the evolution of language?
- 6. Race, racialism, and the study of language evolution in America
- Part 2: Competition, Selection, And the Development of Creoles
- 7. Competition and selection in language evolution
- 8. Transfer and the 'substrate hypothesis' in creolistics
- 9. Grammaticization and the development of creoles
- 10. Multilingualism in linguistic history
- Part 3: Globalization And Language Vitality
- 11. Language birth and death
- 12. Globalization and the myth of killer languages
- 13. Globalization and language vitality in Francophone Africa
- 14. A Case Study: The ecology of Gullah's survival
- Conclusions: The big picture and questions for future research
- Bibliography
- Index.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780826493705
Description
Languages are constantly changing. New words are added to the English language every year, either borrowed or coined, and there is often railing against the 'decline' of the language by public figures. Some languages, such as French and Finnish, have academies to protect them against foreign imports. Yet languages are species-like constructs, which evolve naturally over time. Migration, imperialism, and globalization have blurred boundaries between many of them, producing new ones (such as creoles) and driving some to extinction.This book examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. In a series of chapters, Salikoko Mufwene examines such themes as: natural selection in language; the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution; multilingualism and language contact; language birth and language death; the emergence of Creoles and Pidgins; and the varying impacts of colonization and globalization on language vitality.This comprehensive examination of the organic evolution of language will be essential reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and for researchers on the social dynamics of language variation and change, language vitality and death, and even the origins of linguistic diversity.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- Part 1: Population Dynamics and Language Evolution
- 2. Language evolution
- 3. Population movements, contacts, competition, selection, and language evolution
- 4. How population-wide patterns emerge in language evolution
- 5. What do creoles and pidgins tell us about the evolution of language?
- 6. Race, racialism, and the study of language evolution in America
- Part 2: Competition, Selection, And the Development of Creoles
- 7. Competition and selection in language evolution
- 8. Transfer and the 'substrate hypothesis' in creolistics
- 9. Grammaticization and the development of creoles
- 10. Multilingualism in linguistic history
- Part 3: Globalization And Language Vitality
- 11. Language birth and death
- 12. Globalization and the myth of killer languages
- 13. Globalization and language vitality in Francophone Africa
- 14. A Case Study: The ecology of Gullah's survival
- Conclusions: The big picture and questions for future research
- Bibliography
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"