Skip to content
Home/ Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution
Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution

Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780192886491

This handbook provides a detailed account of the many methodological tools and approaches used in the field of language evolution. The field has seen a rapid growth over the last decade, with a greater focus on empirical data and interdisciplinary syntheses. This volume aims to make sense of these recent developments, to provide a clear map of the current research landscape, and to showcase some of the most important advances. Each chapter highlights a particular methodology and outlines a question or set of questions that can be addressed using that methodology, illustrated by a key example from the recent literature.

The volume is divided into three parts. Part I showcases the many ways in which humans can shed light on the evolution of language when placed in specific experimental settings, as well as discussing the use of clinical, genetic, observational and historical data. Part II is devoted to simulations and models that enable the careful control of biases, mechanisms, and environments, while Part III revolves around the idea that the study of non-human animals can provide valuable insights into the evolution of human language. The handbook as a whole demonstrates that multiple complimentary approaches are necessary to do justice to the complexity of language evolution.

About the author

Product details

Pub dateSep 30, 2025
ISBN-100192886495
ISBN-139780192886491
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-04-25 08:13
$203.30
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Linguistics - Psycholinguistics
See all
Language Acquisition: Knowledge Representation and Processing
Language Acquisition has been a much-disputed territory over which the conflicting claims of cognitive scientists, psychologists and linguists have long been fought. While for years each discipline has kept within its own theoretical frameworks, a fruitful recent development has been the increase in cross-disciplinary fertilisation of ideas between researchers of different orientations. It is in this spirit of collaboration that the GALA conferences on Language Acquisition have taken off. The aim of GALA '97 was to further promote cross-fertilisation across the different disciplines. The conference was an overwhelming success and this volume reflects both the eminence of the invited speakers and the richness of current debate. Presenting current cutting-edge research, the book fully illustrates the fruitfulness of the convergence of endeavours between researchers of different orientations. Containing a valuable introductory chapter from the editors that sets out the theoretical differences and standpoints on fundamental questions in language acquisition, the book presents eight papers based on the plenary lectures given at the conference. With contributions from major figures in the field, the book addresses the full range of core issues in Language Acquisition from the different viewpoints (lexical-semantic theory, generative grammar, optimality theory, experimental speech perception, computational modelling).
$163.80