PPT-Language Evolution and Linguistic Fossils:

How Humans Spoke at the Dawn of Language and Why our Grammars still Preserve Fossils of such Speech WSU Humanities Center 91713 Ljiljana Progovac progovacwayneedu Acknowledgements. Jordan Zlatev. Lecture 9. Controversies and hypotheses. 1. Controversies. What is language (again!)?. When language evolved?. How it evolved. ?. Why it evolved. ? . (Lecture 10). Can language evolution be divided in “stages”? Which? . Evidence for Evolution. What is Evolution??. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species.. “Evidence for Evolution”. We will look at major evidence supporting theories of evolution:. Fossil Record . Comparative Anatomy . Biogeography . Biochemistry. Evidence Supporting Theories of Evolution . Organism DNA. 1a. Some of the strongest evidence for evolutionary relationships comes from studying the DNA of different organisms.. 1b. The fact that all organisms use the same DNA molecule to code for genetic information suggests that these organisms share a distant ancestor.. Evolution. Evolution. Evolution as an Idea…. Aristotle . Living things are . “Immutable”. Buffon (1707-1788). Observed anatomical features that seemed to serve no purpose and wondered why they existed.. to . Language Evolution: Contact, competition and change. Salikoko S. Mufwene. University of Chicago. Language Endangerment: From . The Ecology of Language Evolution. to date. … still an embarrassing subject matter for linguistics. How Humans Spoke at the Dawn of Language, and Why our Grammars still Preserve “Fossils” of such Speech. WSU Humanities Center, 9/17/13 . Ljiljana. . Progovac. progovac@wayne.edu. Acknowledgements. Charles Darwin. video (6 ½ min). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/11/2/quicktime/e_s_2_56.html. Galapagos Islands. Ecuador,. South America. Galapagos Islands. Darwin: Reluctant Rebel. video (3 ½ min). 1. Blood . proteins in horses are chemically similar to blood proteins in monkeys. This similarity suggests that horses and . monkeys:.   .  . . a. can interbreed  .  . b. evolved at the same time  . Evolution. A Swedish botanist in the 1700’s who developed a classification system for the organisms known at this time . Carolus Linnaeus. A group of organisms so similar to one another that they can reproduce and have fertile offspring. Evidence. Evidence. . of . common ancestry . among species comes from many sources.. . 2. FIVE PIECES OF EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION. G – Geographical . distribution . F – Fossil . evidence (remains of ancient organisms). How Humans Spoke at the Dawn of Language, and Why our Grammars still Preserve “Fossils” of such Speech. WSU Humanities Center, 9/17/13 . Ljiljana. . Progovac. progovac@wayne.edu. Acknowledgements. Geologic Time and Evolution Earth Has a History Geologic materials record enormous changes. Earth is a complex, evolving system. Physical and biological systems continuously interact. Earth constantly changes and has done so through time. Chapters 14-18. Charles . Darwin. , DOB 1809, . On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. , . HMS Beagle –. 1831-36. Greeks – life arose in water and more complex followed simpler ones.