02017oam 2200289z- 450 991087979540332120240606104135.00-19-108997-4(CKB)4910000000065786(BIP)050720767(EXLCZ)99491000000006578620220223c2015uuuu -u- -engEvolutionary SyntaxOxford University Press1 online resource (280 p.) 0-19-873655-X In this book, Ljiljana Progovac proposes a gradualist, adaptationist approach to the evolution of syntax, subject to natural selection. She provides a specific framework for its study, combining the fields of evolutionary biology, theoretical syntax, typology, neuroscience, and genetics. Theauthor pursues an internal reconstruction of the stages of grammar based on the syntactic theory associated with Chomskyan Minimalism and arrives at specific, testable hypotheses, which are then corroborated by an abundance of theoretically analysed "living fossils" drawn from a variety oflanguages. Her approach demonstrates that these fossil structures do not just coexist alongside more modern structures, but are in fact built into the very foundation of more complex structures, leading to quirks and complexities that are suggestive of a gradualist evolutionary scenario. By reconstructing a particular path along which syntax evolved, Evolutionary Syntax sheds light on the crucial properties of language design itself, as well as on the major parameters of crosslinguistic variation. As a result, this reconstruction can be meaningfully correlated with both the hominintimeline and the ever-growing body of genetic evidence that is available.Grammar, comparative and generalLinguistic changeLanguage arts & disciplines415Progovac Ljiljana185615BOOK9910879795403321Evolutionary Syntax4207405UNINA