Evolutionary Syntax - Ljiljana Progovac

. .

Résumé :
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.

Biographie:
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).

Sommaire:
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