HOME   ::  Edited Book List   ::   Book Chapter
Hurford, J. and Kirby, S. (1999) Co-Evolution of Language Size and the Critical Period. In David Birdsong, editor, Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis, pages 39--63. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bookmark:  

Full-text
   URL: http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~jim/birdsong.s.ps
   Cached: PDF-339K    PS-448K    PS.gz-129K   
   SAVE AS an easy-to-recall long filename:
      Filename format: author--year--title   PDF-339K    PS-129K    :: About GZip'd PS
      Filename format: author--year--title--journal|proceedings|...--pages   PDF-339K    PS-129K   

Related links
  Web search: Google Web Search   ::   Google Scholar
  Within this site: Cited by (7)    References (14)

Paper at a Glance 

CO­EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE­SIZE AND THE CRITICAL
PERIOD 1
James R Hurford and Simon Kirby,
Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
jim@ling.ed.ac.uk , simon@ling.ed.ac.uk
to appear in David Birdsong (ed.) New Perspectives on the Critical Period Hypothesis and Second Language Acquisition Lawrence Erlbaum.
1 Introduction: gene­language co­evolution. Species evolve, very slowly, through selection of genes which give rise to phenotypes well adapted 2 to their environments. The cultures, including the languages, of human communities evolve, much faster, maintaining at least a minimum level of adaptedness to the external, non­ cultural environment. In the phylogenetic evolution of species, the transmission of information across generations is via copying of molecules, and innovation is by mutation and sexual recombination. In cultural evolution, the transmission of information across generations is by learning, and innovation is by sporadic invention or borrowing from other cultures. This much is the foundational bedrock of evolutionary theory. But things get more complicated; there can be gene­culture co­evolution 3 . Prior to the rise of culture, the physical environment is the only force shaping biological evolution from outside the organism, and cultures themselves are clearly constrained by the evolved biological characteristics of their members. But cultures become part of the external environment, and influence the course of biological evolution. For example, altruistic cultures with developed medical knowledge reduce the cost to the individual of carrying genes disposing to certain pathologies (such as diabetes); and such genes become more widespread in the populations maintaining such cultures. Assortative mating can affect biological evolution, and particular cultures may influence the factors which are sorted for in mating. (For a careful discussion of the effects of cultural evolution on natural selection, see Cavalli­Sforza and Bodmer, 1971:774­ 804) ...
BibTex
@incollection{hurford99coEvolution,
  author={J. Hurford and S. Kirby},
  title={Co-Evolution of Language Size and the Critical Period},
  year={1999},
  pages={39-63},
  editor={David Birdsong},
  publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum},
  booktitle={Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99coEvolution.html}
}

 HOME   ::  Edited Book List   ::   Book Chapter Comments to: junwang4 you-know-at gmail.com Last update: 10/27/09