Hermann Ackermann, Wolfram Ziegler
Audra Ames, Sara Wielandt, Dianne Cameron, Stan Kuczaj
David Ardell, Noelle Anderson, Bodo Winter
Rie Asano, Edward Ruoyang Shi
Mark Atkinson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Andreas Baumann, Christina Prömer, Kamil Kazmierski, Nikolaus Ritt
Christian Bentz
Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Hanne Eckhoff
Richard A. Blythe, Alistair H. Jones, Jessica Renton
Cedric Boeckx, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Megan Broadway, Jamie Klaus, Billie Serafin, Heidi Lyn
Jon W. Carr, Kenny Smith, Hannah Cornish, Simon Kirby
Federica Cavicchio, Livnat Leemor, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Wendy Sandler
Zanna Clay, Jahmaira Archbold, Klaus Zuberbuhler
Katie Collier, Andrew N. Radford, Balthasar Bickel, Marta B. Manser, Simon W. Townsend
Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby, Marieke Schouwstra
Christine Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto
Christine Cuskley, Bernardo Monechi, Pietro Gravino, Vittorio Loreto
Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Sabrina Engesser, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon W. Townsend
Dankmar Enke, Roland Mühlenbernd, Igor Yanovich
Kerem Eryilmaz, Hannah Little, Bart de Boer
Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers
Maryia Fedzechkina, Becky Chu, T. Florian Jaeger, John Trueswell
Olga Feher, Kenny Smith, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Nikolaus Ritt
Piera Filippi, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Daniel Liu Bowling, Larissa Heege, Albert Newen, Onur Güntürkün, Bart de Boer
Piera Filippi, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel Liu Bowling, Stephan Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Bart de Boer, Christopher B. Sturdy, Albert Newen, Onur GÜntÜrkÜn
Molly Flaherty, Katelyn Stangl, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Marlen Fröhlich, Paul H Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M Wittig, Simone Pika
Victor Gay, Daniel Hicks, Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
Andreea Geambasu, Michelle J. Spierings, Carel ten Cate, Clara C. Levelt
Matt Hall, Russell Richie, Marie Coppola
Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle, Thomas Hartmann, Michael Pleyer
Wolfram Hinzen, Joana Rosselló
Rick Janssen, Bodo Winter, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik, Sean Roberts
Rick Janssen, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Jasmeen Kanwal, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby
Deborah Kerr, Kenny Smith
Buddhamas Kriengwatana, Paola Escudero, Anne Kerkhoven, Carel ten Cate
Adriano Lameira, Jeremy Kendal, Marco Gamba
Molly Lewis, Michael C. Frank
Casey Lister, Tiarn Burtenshaw, Nicolas Fay, Bradley Walker, Jeneva Ohan
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Giuseppe Longobardi, Armin Buch, Andrea Ceolin, Aaron Ecay, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Irimia, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Nina Radkevich, Gerhard Jaeger
Heidi Lyn, Stephanie Jett, Megan Broadway, Mystera Samuelson
Michael Mcloughlin, Luca Lamoni, Ellen Garland, Simon Ingram, Alexis Kirke, Michael Noad, Luke Rendell, Eduardo Miranda
Adrien Meguerditchian, Damien Marie, Konstantina Margiotoudi, Scott A. Love, Alice Bertello, Romain Lacoste, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, Jean-Luc Anton, Olivier Coulon
Jérôme Michaud
Ashley Micklos
Marie Montant, Johannes Ziegler, Benny Briesemeister, Tila Brink, Bruno Wicker, Aurélie Ponz, Mireille Bonnard, Arthur Jacobs, Mario Braun
Yasamin Motamedi, Marieke Schouwstra, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Roland Mühlenbernd, Johannes Wahle
Tomoya Nakai, Kazuo Okanoya
Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, Ryan Lepic, Tessa Verhoef
Alan Nielsen, Dieuwke Hupkes, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Bill Noble, Raquel Fernández
Irene M. Pepperberg, Katia Zilber-Izhar, Scott Smith
Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Bodo Winter, Dominic Massaro
Ljiljana Progovac
Andrea Ravignani, Tania Delgado, Simon Kirby
Terry Regier, Alexandra Carstensen, Charles Kemp
Lilia Rissman, Laura Horton, Molly Flaherty, Marie Coppola, Annie Senghas, Diane Brentari, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Gareth Roberts, Mariya Fedzechkina
Carmen Saldana, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Carlos Santana
William Schueller, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Catriona Silvey, Christos Christodoulopoulos
Katie Slocombe, Stuart Watson, Anne Schel, Claudia Wilke, Emma Wallace, Leveda Cheng, Victoria West, Simon Townsend
Ruth Sonnweber, Andrea Ravignani
Michelle Spierings, Carel ten Cate
Kevin Stadler, Elyse Jamieson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Monica Tamariz, Joleana Shurley
Monica Tamariz, Jon W. Carr
Bill Thompson, Heikki Rasilo
Oksana Tkachman, Carla L. Hudson Kam
Simon Townsend, Andrew Russell, Sabrina Engesser
Francesca Tria, Vittorio Loreto, Vito Servedio, S. Mufwene Salikoko
Anu Vastenius, Jordan Zlatev, Joost Van de Weijer
Tessa Verhoef, Carol Padden, Simon Kirby
Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Arkadiusz Jasinski
Bodo Winter, David Ardell
Bodo Winter, Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan
Marieke Woensdregt, Kenny Smith, Chris Cummins, Simon Kirby
Eva Zehentner, Andreas Baumann, Nikolaus Ritt, Christina Prömer
Keywords: teaching linguistics, language evolution, evolution of language, classroom, textbook
Short description: Survey of 14 popular introductions to linguistics. Shows that teaching of language evolution to students of linguistics needs improvement
Abstract:
Despite the vigorous development of language evolution research over the last three decades, very little of this progress has trickled into teaching linguistics: so far this important area of the academy has failed to accommodate the bulk of the empirical and theoretical advances. In this paper we report the results of a survey of fourteen popular introductory-level linguistic textbooks, which – with rare exceptions – show that the teaching of language evolution to students of general linguistics rests on out-dated and largely inadequate conceptual frameworks, and fails to communicate major theoretical breakthroughs and empirical results. Based on the feedback from the community of language origins researchers, we formulate an inventory of key messages that should be incorporated into textbooks and curricula.
We have evaluated fourteen introductory academic textbooks on general linguistics published in the last decade. We have established that:
— a majority of textbooks (e.g. Akmaijan et al., 2010) either fail to mention language origins/evolution completely, do it only perfunctorily, or anchor the discussion in inadequate theoretical contexts, such as the classifications by Max Müller or Charles Hockett (see Wacewicz & Żywiczyński, 2015, for why this latter influential framework should be abandoned);
— some of the recently published textbooks, including the most popular ones (e.g. Denham & Lobeck, 2013), show improvement in their coverage of language origins/evolution relative to their previous editions; this, however, mostly applies to their presentation of empirical findings rather than the theoretical backbone.
Overall, despite visible progress, the subject of the evolutionary emergence of language tends to receive inadequate treatment in linguistic textbooks. This leads to the propagation of such misconceptions as the continuity of language with monkey alarm calls, and the failure to understand the most fundamental prerequisites for the evolutionary language emergence, most notably those related to cooperativeness.
We call for a greater as well as more systematic representation of interdisciplinary language evolution research in basic level linguistic instruction. In particular, the following central messages should be included into teaching materials and curricula:*
• the newly constituted status of language evolution research, with its inherently interdisciplinary nature, methodological pluralism, and a growing reliance on empirical research (see e.g. Hurford, 2012);
• the cooperative underpinnings of language (e.g. Tomasello, 2008);
• the cognitive and socio-cognitive pre-adaptations (Dor et al., 2014);
• the role of cultural evolution (Smith & Kirby, 2008) and modelling approaches for simulating the emergence of linguistic structure (e.g. Steels, 2011);
• the very nature of language, as seen from the “origins” perspective.
Finally, linguistic textbooks would also benefit from showcasing some of the ways in which tools developed by linguists are applied in other related disciplines; for example, to analysing the compositional structure or turn-taking structure of monkey vocal signalling.
*This list will be supplemented with the results of a survey conducted among the participants of the Protolang language origins conference, 24-26 September 2015, Rome.
References
Akmajian, A., Demers, R., Farmer, A., Harnish, R. (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 6th edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dor, D., Knight, C. & Lewis, J., ed. (2014). The social origins of language: Early society, communication and polymodality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hurford, J. R. (2012). Linguistics from an evolutionary point of view. In R. Kempson, T. Fernando and N. Asher (Eds.), Philosophy of Linguistics (pp. 473–498). Amsterdam: North Holland/Elsevier.
Denham, K. & Lobeck, A. (2013). Linguistics for Everyone. An Introduction. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Smith, K. & Kirby, S. (2008). Cultural evolution: implications for understanding the human language faculty and its evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 363(1509), 3591–3603.
Steels, L. (2011). Modeling the cultural evolution of language. Physics of Life Reviews, 8(4), 339–356.
Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wacewicz, S. & Żywiczyński, P. (2015). Language Evolution: Why Hockett's Design Features are a Non-Starter. Biosemiotics, 8(1), 29–46.
Citation:
Wacewicz S., Zywiczynski P. and Jasinski A. (2016). Language Evolution And Language Origins In Teaching Linguistics At The University Level. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). Available online: http://evolang.org/neworleans/papers/62.html