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Ljiljana Progovac proposes a gradualist, adaptationist approach to the evolution of syntax, subject to natural selection. It provides a specific framework for studying the evolution of syntax, combining the fields of evolutionary biology, theoretical syntax, typology, neuroscience, and genetics.
Ljiljana Progovac is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Program at Wayne State University in Detroit. She received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and her Ph.D. degree in linguistics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include syntax, Slavic syntax, and the evolution of syntax. She is the author of Negative and Positive Polarity (CUP, 1994) and A Syntax of Serbian (Slavica, 2005), as well as multiple journal articles and conference papers on language evolution, and is co-editor of The Syntax of Nonsententials (Benjamins, 2006).
1 Introduction; 2 The small (clause) beginnings; 3 The intransitive two-word stage: Absolutives, unaccusatives, and middles as precursors to transitivity; 4 Parataxis and coordination as precursors to hierarchy: Evolving recursive grammars; 5 Islandhood (subjacency) as an epiphenomenon of evolutionary tinkering; 6 Exocentric VN compounds: The best fossils; 7 The plausibility of natural selection for syntax; 8 Conclusion; Appendix: Testing Grounds: Neuroimaging
Show moreLjiljana Progovac proposes a gradualist, adaptationist approach to the evolution of syntax, subject to natural selection. It provides a specific framework for studying the evolution of syntax, combining the fields of evolutionary biology, theoretical syntax, typology, neuroscience, and genetics.
Ljiljana Progovac is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Program at Wayne State University in Detroit. She received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and her Ph.D. degree in linguistics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include syntax, Slavic syntax, and the evolution of syntax. She is the author of Negative and Positive Polarity (CUP, 1994) and A Syntax of Serbian (Slavica, 2005), as well as multiple journal articles and conference papers on language evolution, and is co-editor of The Syntax of Nonsententials (Benjamins, 2006).
1 Introduction; 2 The small (clause) beginnings; 3 The intransitive two-word stage: Absolutives, unaccusatives, and middles as precursors to transitivity; 4 Parataxis and coordination as precursors to hierarchy: Evolving recursive grammars; 5 Islandhood (subjacency) as an epiphenomenon of evolutionary tinkering; 6 Exocentric VN compounds: The best fossils; 7 The plausibility of natural selection for syntax; 8 Conclusion; Appendix: Testing Grounds: Neuroimaging
Show more1: Introduction
2: The small (clause) beginnings
3: The intransitive two-word stage: Absolutives, unaccusatives, and
middles as precursors to transitivity
4: Parataxis and coordination as precursors to hierarchy: Evolving
recursive grammars
5: Islandhood (subjacency) as an epiphenomenon of evolutionary
tinkering
6: Exocentric VN compounds: The best fossils
7: The plausibility of natural selection for syntax
8: Conclusion
Appendix: Testing Grounds: Neuroimaging
Ljiljana Progovac is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the
Linguistics Program at Wayne State University in Detroit. She
received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of
Novi Sad, Serbia, and her Ph.D. degree in linguistics from the
University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her research
interests include syntax, Slavic syntax, and the evolution of
syntax. She is the author of Negative and Positive Polarity (CUP,
1994) and
A Syntax of Serbian (Slavica, 2005), as well as multiple journal
articles and conference papers on language evolution, and is
co-editor of The Syntax of Nonsententials (Benjamins, 2006).
Evolutionary Syntax is a major contribution to the literature. It
offers a novel gradualist account of the evolution of syntax,
grounded in a thorough consideration of a range of linguistic
phenomena. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the
origin and evolution of the human capacity for language.
*Brady Clark, Northwestern University*
This is the book that brings Chomsky and Darwin together, arguing
that the basic tenets of the minimalist program and its hierarchic
sentence structure support a gradualist approach to the evolution
of language motivated by natural selection. A must read for
linguists of diverse persuasions, demonstrating to theoretical
syntacticians the relevance of evolution to the architecture of
grammar, while suggesting to students of the evolution of language
that valuable insights may be on offer from the minimalist
approach. Grammarians will also find novel analyses of "syntactic
fossils" such as compounds, root small clauses, and thetic
statements in this well-written book that is hard to put down.
*David Gil, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology*
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