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Language Continuity: Universals of human communication

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2010/01/universals-of-human-communication.html

Universals of human communication. For many years, linguists (especially in the US) have discussed concepts such as Lang. UG), in an attempt to find features or patterns shared by all languages in the world. The idea seems interesting but. is there anything really 'univers. In a recent article. I personally think it is one of the most irrelevant concepts ever devised in linguistics. So it seems that there might be nothing really 'universal' about human language, but what about human communication? In our...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Languages, genes and cultures

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2012/04/languages-genes-and-cultures.html

Languages, genes and cultures. As you may know, in this blog I have often criticised many aspects of traditional historical linguistics, e.g. the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), including the imaginary set of laryngeals. One of my 'favourite' topics indeed) or the generally accepted chronology of IE expansion. I have written many posts criticizing these things, inspired by the work of some authors, like Mario Alinei. As I said, I'll publish more posts getting into the details of this importa...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Colin Renfrew. The Anatolian Hypothesis

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2009/05/colin-renfrew-anatolian-hypothesis.html

Colin Renfrew. The Anatolian Hypothesis. For many years, basically until the second half of the 20th century, the study of Indo-European (IE) was exclusively in the hands of linguists. They analyzed ancient languages, devising laws and family trees, and imagined the emergence and expansion of Indo-European as an event which involved a series of massive migrations or invasions occurring (what a coincidence! There’s no doubt that Renfrew’s theories about IE origins are an important step forwa. Well yes, if...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Imagining the birth of language

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2009/10/imagining-birth-of-language.html

Imagining the birth of language. One of the blogs I ususally follow is Babel's Dawn. Published by Edmund Blair Bolles. Focuses on a linguistic topic that has received considerable attention in the last couple of decades, and that I find quite interesting: the origins of human speech. And has recently attended the Ways to Protolanguage. Poland), publishing a series of interesting posts about the most remarkable proposals made in both events. In the last post. And here's an excerpt from my comment:. I thin...

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Language Continuity: A song in Iberian

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-song-in-iberian.html

A song in Iberian. It's true, I haven't published any posts in the last few months, and the main reason is that I've been busy with other things. For example, I've written and directed my first short film, and now I'm starting the production of a play that I wrote some years ago. But anyway, I'm back on Language Continuity. My re-activation coincides with an interesting event that will take place in my city ( Valencia. You can find the programme here. Joan Ferrer i Jané. And John T. Koch. Which is also w...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Grammar as an app

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2011/09/grammar-as-app.html

Grammar as an app. With or without the use of words, human communication. To generate these contrastive meanings and we use communicative elements accordingly. Many different scenarios have been proposed for the emergence of human language. In one of them, it is thought that at the beginning there were a series of words. I am aware that the term syntax. On the other hand, I define grammar. Of our logical thought to a specific subset of communicative elements: the verbal ones. 2) grammars do not emerge in...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Languages on horseback

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2011/06/languages-on-horseback.html

I have just finished reading David Anthony. S book The Horse, the Wheel and Language. 2007), a book that I mentioned briefly in a post. In their bones. I'm sure his ideas about the subject are valuable and must be taken into account in any serious research in that field. Now, what's the problem? In this respect, he follows Gimbutas. Note on illustrations: on the left,. The Large Blue Horses , a painting by Franz Marc. Posted by Jesús Sanchis. While I disagree completely about Alinei (his assumption of la...

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: From vocalizations to grammar

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-beginning-was-intonation.html

From vocalizations to grammar. In previous posts I have expressed some of my thoughts about the origins of ' language. Especially in connection with the wider concept of 'human communication'. Now it's time to put these ideas in order. As I see it, the story of 'human language' can be described as a three-stage process. Our ancestors used a variety of signals, e.g. vocalizations, screams, hand or facial gestures, tongue clicks. Are we narrating an action? Are we telling the others to do something? And it...

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Language Continuity: The birth of grammar

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2009/12/birth-of-grammar.html

The birth of grammar. Some time ago I wrote a post. With some of my thoughts about the origin of language, which was complemented with a series of comments (there is also a good summary. Written in Spanish by José Ángel García Landa in his blog). I'm not planning to write a complete theory about the origins of human language, but I like the idea of expressing some thoughts that may trigger debate. It's in the comments, in the exchange of ideas, that a 'theory' can best be shaped. Now, what I said ab.

languagecontinuity.blogspot.com

Language Continuity: Language in the dark

http://languagecontinuity.blogspot.com/2012/04/language-in-dark.html

Language in the dark. 2005), adult chimpanzees sleep 8.83 hours on average. As for the other primate species, there is a variety of sleeping patterns, depending on the type of adaptation (see table in Videan, 2005:10). Chimpanzees live in equatorial and tropical Africa, i.e. the place where the first humans developed as a species. The map on the right ( source. Now, what does all this have to do with language? From my Flickr photostream. Maybe the new conditions found by humans at northern latitudes adde...