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The Evolution of Morphology
Editorial OXFORD U.P.
33,40€
- Publisher OXFORD U.P.
- ISBN13 9780199202683
- ISBN10 0199202680
- Type Book
- Pages 251
- Published 2010
- Language English
- Bookbinding Rustic
The Evolution of Morphology
Editorial OXFORD U.P.
33,40€
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Book Details
- A radically new proposal about the nature and evolution of language
- Carefully argued, informative, and innovative
- Provocative and iconoclastic
Having discussed the issue of good and bad design in a wider biological context, the author shows that conventional explanations for the nature of morphology do not work. Its poor design features arose, he argues, from two characteristics present when the ancestors of modern humans had a vocabulary but no grammar. One of these was a synonymy-avoidance expectation, while the other was an articulatory and phonological apparatus that encouraged the development of new synonyms. Morphology developed in response to these conflicting pressures.
In this stimulating and carefully argued account Professor McCarthy offers a powerful challenge to conventional views of the relationship between syntax and morphology, to the adaptationist view of language evolution, and to the notion that language in some way reflects 'laws of form'. This fundamental contribution to understanding the nature and evolution of language will be of wide interest to linguists of all theoretical persuasions as well as to scholars in cognitive science and anthropology.
Readership: Scholars and students of the evolution of language from advanced undergraduate level upwards, as well as linguists, cognitive sciencists and anthropologists.
- Publisher OXFORD U.P.
- ISBN13 9780199202683
- ISBN10 0199202680
- Type Book
- Pages 251
- Published 2010
- Language English
- Bookbinding Rustic
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