OPEN SEMINAR
O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês convida a comunidade acadêmica para assistirem ao Open Seminar que será apresentado pelo Prof. Uli Sauerland amanhã, dia 18/02, às 14h, na Sala Machado de Assis (4º andar, CCE-B). Segue abaixo divulgação da palestra:
Levels of Compositionality
Uli Sauerland, Center for General Linguistics, Berlin, Germany
Recent research has shown that several species other than homo sapiens use signals with internal structure to communicate (e.g. Arnold and Zuberbuehler 2006, Current Biology). Are such systems precursors to human language? Are they already languages? I review Noveck et al.’s (2001, Nature) formal model of the evolution of compositionality — i.e. a communication system with internal structure –, but argue that it must be revised. The revised model distinguishes two levels of compositionality: one based solely on coordination, the other allowing also subordination. I then show an overview of research seeking to establish that human languages universally make use of subordination, specifically some of my fieldwork results on Pirahã. As a result, we gain a more fine-grained understanding of human linguistic ability.
