Language as a Complex Adaptive System
Nick C. Ellis & Diane Larsen-Freeman 2010
E-Book: 282 English pages
Price: Free
Download: Language as a Complex Adaptive System (Ellis & Larsen-Freeman 2010).
- Explores a new approach to studying language as a complex adaptive system, illustrating its commonalities across many areas of language research
- Brings together a team of leading researchers in linguistics, psychology, and complex systems to discuss the groundbreaking significance of this perspective for their work
- Illustrates its application across a variety of subfields, including languages usage, language evolution, language structure, and first and second language acquisition
Reviews
“What a breath of fresh air! As interesting a collection of papers as you are likely to find on the evolution, learning, and use of language from the point of view of both cognitive underpinnings and communicative functions.” Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
“Readers of this book are certain to gain a great sense of increased understanding, not only of the workings of language but also of current research innovations within the Emergentist paradigm. All ten of the papers are clearly written so that those with little previous exposure to this type of work will be easily engaged and be able to follow the evidence and arguments presented.” (The Linguist List, 7 December 2010)