A Unified and Integrative Theory of Language (Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics)

Language requires investigation within a broad framework, which can only be achieved if the elements studied belong to all realms of verbal (and to some extent non-verbal) communication. Grammar is merely the systematized aspect of language: by drawing on data from oral communication in a number of languages – with its phonological, pragmatic and gestural aspects – and taking into account palaeontology, anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology, it is possible to shed new light on the phenomenon of language, meant and designed for communication, and not merely grammar. This book explores why language operates the way it does, why it is acquired the way it is, how it evolved in the first place, and why it is that some phenomena in language are universal while others are not. The author also considers whether apparently separate defining properties of our species are in fact narrowly correlated aspects of one and the same biological reality, which converges in language. Finally, the book explores the possibility that language is both the reason and the effect of the intrinsic responsibility that we feel for our fellow beings, akin to that which in different contexts is called love for our neighbour, or altruism. Cover 1 Contents 7 Foreword 9 Acknowledgements 13 Abbreviations 17 Chapter 1: Preamble 19 1.1 Deconstructing Popper 32 1.2 Generative Grammar: Rise, Decline and Fall of the Structuralist Empire 35 Chapter 2: The Dynamics of Language 47 Chapter 3: The Quintessentially Pragmatic Nature of Language 51 3.1 Prolepsis 80 Chapter 4: The Emergence of the Language Ability and the Importance of Context 87 Chapter 5: Deictics vs Nouns, Deixis vs Conceptualization 97 5.1 An Application of Deixis: Definiteness 121 Chapter 6: Sub-Segmentals, Co-Segmentals and Segmentals 127 6.1 Focus Intonation 134 6.2 Tones 138 6.3 The Articulatory/Auditive Nature of Language 141 Chapter 7: Iconicity 145 7.1 Onomatopoeia, Reduplication and Phono-Iconicity 145 Chapter 8: The Interactive/Interlocutive Nature of Language 177 8.1 Dialogic Persons vs Non-Person 180 Chapter 9: Grammaticalization: Emergence of the Verb Category 191 9.1 On the Verb in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic 197 9.2 Zero Marking: Implications 206 Chapter 10: The Biological Nature of Language 209 10.1 Properties of Language 212 10.2 Multiple Encoding 214 Chapter 11: Language as Information Creator 219 11.1 Grice: Maxims? 222 Chapter 12: Language, Sex and Gender 225 12.1 Language and Taboo 228 Chapter 13: Language as Permanent Encounter, Cooperation or Love 231 Chapter 14: Epilogue 235 Bibliography 239 Index Nominum 255 Index Linguarum 259 Index Rerum 261

Language requires investigation within a broad framework, which can only be achieved if the elements studied belong to all realms of verbal (and to some extent non-verbal) communication. Grammar is merely the systematized aspect of language: by drawing on data from oral communication in a number of languages – with its phonological, pragmatic and gestural aspects – and taking into account palaeontology, anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology, it is possible to shed new light on the phenomenon of language, meant and designed for communication, and not merely grammar.

This book explores why language operates the way it does, why it is acquired the way it is, how it evolved in the first place, and why it is that some phenomena in language are universal while others are not. The author also considers whether apparently separate defining properties of our species are in fact narrowly correlated aspects of one and the same biological reality, which converges in language. Finally, the book explores the possibility that language is both the reason and the effect of the intrinsic responsibility that we feel for our fellow beings, akin to that which in different contexts is called love for our neighbour, or altruism.

This book investigates language in a broad framework, taking into account anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology. Using examples from oral communication in a number of languages, the author explores why language functions the way it does, why it is acquired the way it is, and why some aspects of language are universal.