{"id":384,"date":"2014-12-02T10:51:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/langsci-press\/?p=384"},"modified":"2014-12-02T14:12:16","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T12:12:16","slug":"new-book-natural-causes-of-language-by-n-j-enfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/langsci-press\/2014\/12\/02\/new-book-natural-causes-of-language-by-n-j-enfield\/","title":{"rendered":"New book: Natural causes of language by N. J. Enfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Natural<\/a><\/p>\n

Our series Conceptual Foundations of Language <\/a>Science has published its first book. Listen to the author’s video below to know what it’s all about, or check out the series’ own blog at conceptualfoundations.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What causes a language to be the way it is? Some features are universal,\u00a0some are inherited, others are borrowed, and yet others are internally innovated.\u00a0But no matter where a bit of language is from, it will only exist\u00a0if it has been diffused and kept in circulation through social interaction\u00a0in the history of a community. This book makes the case that a proper\u00a0understanding of the ontology of language systems has to be grounded in\u00a0the causal mechanisms by which linguistic items are socially transmitted,\u00a0in communicative contexts. A biased transmission<\/em> model provides a basis\u00a0for understanding why certain things and not others are likely to develop,\u00a0spread, and stick in languages.<\/p>\n

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