Events
Guest Talk - Let's Talk about Language: What is It, from an Evolutionary Perspective
| Title of the event | Guest Talk - Let's Talk about Language: What is It, from an Evolutionary Perspective |
| Series | Ling Talk |
| Organizer | RTG 2636 Form-meaning mismatches |
| Speaker | Salikoko S. Mufwene |
| Speaker institution | University of Chicago |
| Type of event | Vortrag |
| Category | Forschung |
| Registration required | Nein |
| Details | Linguistics in Göttingen and RTG 2636 "Form-meaning mismatches" are inviting to the guest talk by Salikoko S. Mufwene (University of Chicago) on "Let's Talk about ‘Language’: What is It, from an Evolutionary Perspective". What is the lecture about? In this talk, Salikoko S. Mufwene revisits the evolution of language, which he characterizes as technology for relatively explicit and high fidelity communication. He argues against the claim that languages emerged in mankind to enhance thought. He questions assumptions such as Universal Grammar, as well as Merge and Recursion as specific to language. He invites the audience to think over whether linguistic universals are consequences of the materials or modalities used for the technology or of the ways that the mind operates in coding and processing information. Ultimately, he raises the question of how to define language, especially whether the modality counts as part of the technology, which evolves like other technologies humans have invented. About the speaker: Salikoko S. Mufwene is the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor in the Dept. of Linguistics, the Dept. of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, and the College at the University of Chicago. His research area is evolutionary linguistics, focused on the phylogenetic emergence of languages and language speciation, and on language vitality. He has authored and (co-)edited dozens of books and has published hundreds of articles, book chapters, and book reviews. The latest are "Ecological Perspectives on Language Endangerment and Loss" (Springer Nature, 2025) and "Uniformitarianism in Language Speciation" (co-ed. with Enoch O. Aboh, Cambridge UP, 2025). He is a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America, of the American Philosophical Society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He assumed the Chaire Mondes francophones at the Collège de France for the 2023-24 academic year. |
| Date | Start: 06.05.2026, 16:15 Uhr Ende: 06.05.2026 , 17:45 Uhr |
| Location |
Verfügungsgebäude (Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7) 1.105 |
| Contact |
RTG 2636 Form-meaning mismatches rtg2636@uni-goettingen.de |
| File attachment | Mufwene Talk.pdf |