122250 AR Advanced Course in Linguistics (2020W)

Evolutionary theory has matured into a powerful thinking tool that throws light on phenomena that go far beyond the domain of biological life. The aim of this course is to learn how evolutionary thinking can advance our understanding of language. We raise questions such as the following: How and why has language emerged in the human species? Does the evolutionary origin of language help to understand what languages are for and why they are as they are? Are languages shaped by their speakers, or do their properties evolve for the selfish purpose of their own replication? Are the interests of speakers and languages aligned, or can they be in conflict? How does our view of languages change, if we think of them as heterogeneous populations of constituents rather than as abstract systems that have ‘ideal’ forms?

In the first phase, we familiarize ourselves with the essential aspects of evolutionary theory and establish its relevance for the domains of human culture and human languages. In the second phase, we select a variety of questions from the field of linguistics and discuss how they can be addressed from an evolutionary perspective. Finally, each participant selects a paper in classical linguistics, and discusses (first in a presentation and then in a short essay) (a) how it could to be reconceptualized in evolutionary terms, and (b) what one learns from the exercise. For each presentation, one or two participants act as discussants, whose task is to question and to challenge the points made by the presenter.