Linguistics

This book offers an introduction to the multidisciplinary subject of evolutionary linguistics, which seeks to explain the biological origins of language and its subsequent development in humans. Roughly six million years ago, a branch of hominids from the forests of East Africa started to thrive in the drier environment created by the East African Rift System. A host of physical developments culminated in the brains of early humans increasing dramatically in size and cognitive power. Influenced by a unique and complex social organisation, communication signals became much more diverse and dependent on memory and learning mechanisms. But language is not only used to interact with our fellow beings. It is also closely connected to our thoughts. This makes language a biological, social, cultural and cognitive phenomenon all at once. What precise role did each of these aspects play in the emergence of language and how were they all coordinated to produce the most sophisticated communication system in the animal kingdom? The book aims to answer these questions and open up the fascinating world of evolutionary linguistics. It is not only aimed at scholars of linguistics, but also students from other disciplines (e.g., psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology and cognitive science) who have an academic interest in language but may be approaching linguistics for the first time. In addition, the book should appeal to anyone with an interest in the workings of language in general, as well as advanced learners of English.

Applied Linguistics as Social Science surveys the increasing dialogue between linguistics and social theory. The book shows how social theory, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics share a set of common concerns, and how an analysis of these to produce a social scientific account of applied linguistics helps to explain the interaction between social structures, human agents and language. Foreword . Introduction . Making connections: some key issues in social theory and applied linguistics . Sociology and ideas about language . Language as a cultural emergent property . Researching language learning: theories, evidence, claims . Social categories and theoretical descriptions . Social domain theory: interpreting intercultural communication . Language in the world: properties and powers . A social realist approach to research in applied linguistics.

No mere history of applied linguistics, this volume presents a framework for interpreting the development of applied linguistics as a discipline.