Language evolution seminar

Speaker: Lauren Reed

Title: Handling the data: The role of emerging sign languages in the study of language evolution (Ron Planer and Lauren Reed)

Abstract: In constructing a theory of language evolution, emerging sign languages are a tempting place to look. In this talk, we sketch out the potential pitfalls of using these young but modern-day languages as windows into the past, and offer ideas of how they may nevertheless be used responsibly in constructing a theory of language evolution. In part, we illustrate this with examples from the second author’s fieldwork with deaf signers in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.

Contact

Seminars are organised by the Centre for Language Evolution

Matt Spike

Centre for Language Evolution