Ecological and Evolutionary Perspectives on Language

Date: 27-May-2005 - 27-May-2005
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Contact: Umberto Ansaldo
Contact Email: u.ansaldo@uva.nl
Meeting URL: http://www.hum.uva.nl/aclc/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Linguistic
Theories; Philosophy of Language

Meeting Description:

Biological metaphors and patterns of explanation have in recent years
increasingly entered the theorizing about the human language faculty, both with
regard to its inherent structure and its ecological dimension. Once we start to
think about language as a species-property of humans, however, we see that much
of the descriptive apparatus of linguistics is still non-unified with biology.
Moreover, all the central questions of the philosophy of biology, such as the
structure of evolutionary explanation as such or the inherent problems of
adaptationism, also arise. This workshop aims to bring these issues into sharper
focus as well as to stimulate further research in this area at the University of
Amsterdam and beyond.

Friday 27 May 2005
Universiteit van Amsterdam, Bungehuis room 101
Spuistraat 210, 1012VT Amsterdam

9.45 Welcome remarks

10.00 - 11.00 Salikoko S. Mufwene (University of Chicago)
Language acquisition as imperfect replication: What creoles are telling us

11.15 -12.30 Open forum and panel discussion

14.00 - 15.00 Daniel S. Nettle (University of Newcastle)
The evolution of linguistic complexity

15.15 - 16.30 Open forum and panel discussion

17.00 Drinks

Organizers: U. Ansaldo (ACLC/ NGO), W. Hinzen (CSCA/ ILLC)