Accessibility statement

The evolution of language

Aims

The evolutionary origins and processes that have led to the Homo Sapiens' linguistic capacity are currently being intensively investigated from a variety of perspectives, and with contributions from numerous disciplines including: linguistics, neuroscience, evolutionary and developmental biology, computational modelling, archaeology,  paleo-anthropology, psychology, the study of animal communication systems etc.

The aims of this course are:

  • To pull together the main contributions to the field as they stand today
  • To formulate and address the main issues concerning the origins of the language faculty, its evolution, its biological foundations, and the degree of its specificity to Homo Sapiens

By the end of the course students will:

  • Understand the main proposals about language evolution
  • Understand the main methods used in the study of language evolution
  • Understand the ways animal communication systems relate to the human language faculty
  • Understand the relation between biological evolution and linguistic evolution and cultural evolution

This module will be capped at 35.

About this module

  • Module name
    The evolution of language
  • Course code
    L14H (4190291)
  • Teacher
    George Tsoulas
  • Term(s) taught
    Autumn
  • Credits
    20