eBook - PDF

Language Evolution

Name: Language Evolution
ISBN: 9781441175359

Contact, Competition and Change

Salikoko S. Mufwene,

376 pages
English
PDF
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - PDF

Language Evolution

Contact, Competition and Change

Salikoko S. Mufwene,

About this book

Languages are constantly changing. New words are added to the English language every year, either borrowed or coined, and there is often railing against the 'decline' of the language by public figures. Some languages, such as French and Finnish, have academies to protect them against foreign imports. Yet languages are species-like constructs, which evolve naturally over time. Migration, imperialism, and globalization have blurred boundaries between many of them, producing new ones (such as creoles) and driving some to extinction.

This book examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. In a series of chapters, Salikoko Mufwene examines such themes as:

- natural selection in language

- the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution

- multilingualismand language contact

- language birth and language death

- the emergence of Creoles and Pidgins

- the varying impacts of colonization and globalization on language vitality

This comprehensive examination of the organic evolution of language will be essential reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and for researchers on the social dynamics of language variation and change, language vitality and death, and even the origins of linguistic diversity.

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Yes, you can access Language Evolution by Salikoko S. Mufwene in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Linguistics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.