[lingtalks] A Talk by Derek Bickerton, presented by the UCLA Department of Linguistics and the UCLA Center for World

[Karma Dolma]

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The UCLA Department of Linguistics and the UCLA Center for World Languages

are pleased to announce

Are Creoles Exceptional Languages?

a presentation by

 

Derek Bickerton,

the author of

 



 

Friday, April 11, 2008

11:00am - 1:00pm

Rolfe 1200

 

Reception to Follow

 

Abstract:

Recent work by Mufwene, DeGraff and others have challenged the status of
Creoles as "exceptional" languages, languages deserving of study for
properties peculiar to them.  In their opinion, Creoles are simply cases of
language change.  I review the arguments pro and con and show that, while
there is obviously only one language faculty, the particular circumstances
that gave rise to creoles license their treatment as a category outside the
range of "normal" language change, which does not instantaneously introduce
grammatical structures wholly alien to the typology of the alleged 'parent".

 

About Derek Bickerton:

Derek Bickerton is known the world over for his work on creoles and on the
evolution of language. His books include:

*	Tropicana, A Novel., 1963 

*	Dynamics Of A Creole System, 1975 

*	Bickerton, Derek (1981). Roots of Language. Karoma Publishers. ISBN
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0897200446> 0-89720-044-6.


*	The language bioprogram hypothesis, in: The Behavioral Sciences 7,
173-188, 1984. 

*	Bickerton, Derek (1990). Language and Species. University of Chicago
Press. ISBN  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0226046109>
0-226-04610-9. 

*	Language and Human Behavior, 1995 

*	Lingua ex Machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the Human
Brain, 2000 (co-author with William H. Calvin
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Calvin> ) 

*	Bastard Tongues: A Trail-Blazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common
Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages, 2008. 

He is currently touring the country to promote Bastard Tongues.

More on Bickerton at http://www.derekbickerton.com/author.php

LA Times review of Bastard Tongues:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-rich30mar30,0,34541
58.story

NY Times review of Bastard Tongues:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Erard-t.html?ref=todayspaper

 

 

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