VS-Language Change: Emergent Grammar
Ferdinand von Mengden
Kommentar
There have been various approaches for explaining how linguistic structures come about – how and why they vary and change. This class will approach this question from the perspective of system theory. The notion 'Emergent Grammar’ is derived from the idea that systems of any kind can be dynamic, fluid as well as open and adaptive. ‘Dynamic’ and ‘fluid’ means that they are never stable at any point and yet retain their functionality. ‘Open’ and ‘adaptive’ means that the system is in exchange with its environment, i.e. with factors and impulses that are themselves not part of the system.
What exactly does this mean when we want to study and understand how human language functions? How do expressions, their meaning and the grammar behind them come into being, vary, disappear, and yet obviously show enough resilience for enabling communication across generations of people? Rather than looking at cognitive processes of individual speakers in isolation, this seminar will focus on social systems as models for understanding the dynamic systematicity of human language. What are the complex and subtle ways in which social conventions interact with individual needs in communication? How does the complex feedback loop work between individual behavior, social conventions and the environment in which we communicate with each other?
Those who wish to participate but cannot come to the first class are kindly asked to notify me via email before the beginning of the lecture period.
16 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung
Weitere Suchergebnisse zu 'Geodynamische Entwicklung von Europa'