122226 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper (2014W)

In this course we explore to which extent the evolutionary origin of languages can help to understand why they are as they are. This question relates both to the evolutionary origin of the language faculty as a species specific endowment of homo sapiens, and to the evolution of particular languages – such as English – through processes of cultural transmission in communication and language acquisition. We shall discuss such fundamental questions as what language is for and what it is good at, in what way speakers profit from knowing and using it, and in what way languages and their constituents profit from being known and used. We shall discuss if language is best viewed as a passive tool, as a virus that infects people for the selfish purpose of its own replication, or whether its relationship to its users, or hosts, is mutually beneficial and thus symbiotic. We shall address all questions both in general terms, and with regard to specific constituents of English such as sounds, words, or syntactic constructions.