Recursion in Pragmatics

Levinson, Stephen C.

doi:10.1353/lan.2013.0005

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…But as soon as one subroutine calls another, as in the case of complex tool manufacture, genuine hierarchy is involved. See also Levinson (2013). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences

Dediu¹,

Levinson²

2013

Front. Psychol.

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256

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It is usually assumed that modern language is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with the emergence of modern humans themselves. Many assume as well that this is the result of a single, sudden mutation giving rise to the full “modern package.” However, we argue here that recognizably modern language is likely an ancient feature of our genus pre-dating at least the common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals about half a million years ago. To this end, we adduce a broad range of evidence from linguistics, genetics, paleontology, and archaeology clearly suggesting that Neandertals shared with us something like modern speech and language. This reassessment of the antiquity of modern language, from the usually quoted 50,000–100,000 years to half a million years, has profound consequences for our understanding of our own evolution in general and especially for the sciences of speech and language. As such, it argues against a saltationist scenario for the evolution of language, and toward a gradual process of culture-gene co-evolution extending to the present day. Another consequence is that the present-day linguistic diversity might better reflect the properties of the design space for language and not just the vagaries of history, and could also contain traces of the languages spoken by other human forms such as the Neandertals.

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“…But as soon as one subroutine calls another, as in the case of complex tool manufacture, genuine hierarchy is involved. See also Levinson (2013). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences

Dediu¹,

Levinson²

2013

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

256

182

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This prediction is strikingly borne out. In a highly significant article, Levinson (2013) demonstrates not only the generality of centre-embedding but also the generality of line crossing in spoken discourse. It may be inferred from this result that the no-crossing constraint has no pragmatic basis.…”

Section: Conclusion: Looking Behind the Scenes Of The No-crossing Conmentioning

confidence: 99%

How nominal compounds are modified by two adjectives

Berg

2014

Folia Linguistica

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Basing itself on a corpus of one thousand complex NPs, this study investigates the relationships that two attributive adjectives contract with the constituents of nominal compounds of varying size in English (e.g. new basic safety standards). Essentially, there are four logically possible relationships: (i) both adjectives modify the nominal head, (ii) both adjectives modify the nominal modifier, (iii) the first adjective modifies the head and the second adjective the modifier and (iv) the first adjective modifies the modifier and the second adjective the head (crossed modification). While options (i) and (iii) are strongly represented in the data, crossed modification is not at all present. Across all compound sizes, at least three factors shape the empirical patterns: a functional factor whereby major heads are more easily singled out than minor heads, which in turn are more available than modifiers; a structural factor whereby more deeply embedded constituents are less available than more independent constituents; and a proximity effect which encourages the modification of the first noun by the second adjective. There may be an additional saturation effect which discourages the modification of one noun by two adjectives. On the face of it, the non-occurrence of crossed modification may be connected to the well-known ban on crossing association lines. However, despite its descriptive adequacy, this principle is unconvincing. Instead, a functional explanation is proposed which centres on the possibility of working out modification relationships. Initial steps are taken towards developing a model of when (and why) the no-crossing constraint is inviolable, violable or non-existent.

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“…This nesting phenomenon raises interesting issues about indefinite possible recursion in the interaction system, for which see Levinson 2013.…”

Section: Minimal Oir Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Other-initiated repair in Yélî Dnye: Seeing eye-to-eye in the language of Rossel Island

Levinson

2015

Open Linguistics

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Other-initiated repair (OIR) is the fundamental back-up system that ensures the effectiveness of human communication in its primordial niche, conversation. This article describes the interactional and linguistic patterns involved in other-initiated repair in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea. The structure of the article is based on the conceptual set of distinctions described in Chapters 1 and 2 of the special issue, and describes the major properties of the Rossel Island system, and the ways in which OIR in this language both conforms to familiar European patterns and deviates from those patterns. Rossel Island specialities include lack of a Wh-word open class repair initiator, and a heavy reliance on visual signals that makes it possible both to initiate repair and confirm it non-verbally. But the overall system conforms to universal expectations.

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Recursion in Pragmatics

Cited by 59 publications

References 54 publications

On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences

On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences

How nominal compounds are modified by two adjectives

Other-initiated repair in Yélî Dnye: Seeing eye-to-eye in the language of Rossel Island

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