<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div align="CENTER"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><font size="5"><span style="font-size: 16pt; "><hr align="CENTER" size="3" width="95%">The Center for Human Development Presents<br></span><span style="font-size: 18pt; "><br></span></font></font><font size="6"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 24pt; "><b>Bill Croft<br></b></span></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><b><i>University of New Mexico</i></b></span></font></div><div align="CENTER"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><b><font size="4"><span style="font-size: 14pt; "><i>Department of Linguistics<br></i></span></font></b></font><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><br><b>Friday, December 5th <br></b></span><b><font size="1"><span style="font-size: 9pt; ">12-1pm (discussion 1-1:40pm)<br>room 003 in the Cognitive Science Building</span></font></b></font></div><div align="CENTER"><br></div><div align="CENTER"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; "><br></span></font></div><div align="CENTER"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">"Evolutionary Linguistics: An Emerging Paradigm for the 21st Century"</span></font></div><div align="CENTER"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center; "><div style="text-align: left; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Bold'; ">After a hiatus of nearly a century, linguists have returned Darwin's debt to historical linguistics by reintroducing neo-Darwinian evolutionary models to the study of language. These models are usually presented as evolutionary theories of language change, but in fact they are evolutionary theories of language itself. The crucial theoretical assumption that must be overcome is the linguistic equivalent of biological essentialism: that a language possesses an "essence" in the form of a set of rules governing a fixed grammatical structure. This view, which dominated 20th century linguistics, idealizes away from the all-pervasive variation that exists in human language behavior, and the dynamic, evolving system that results from that variation. I present an evolutionary framework for language based on the philosopher David Hull's General Analysis of Selection, outlined in <i>Explaining language change: an evolutionary approach</i>. The General Analysis of Selection abstracts away from biology-specific elements of selection processes, allowing evolutionary models to be applied in a systematic and consistent fashion to change by replication in other domains, including conceptual change in science and language change. One important element that does not carry over from biology (contrary to some views) are the actual mechanisms by which evolutionary change occurs. I will describe the types of mechanisms that appear to be operating in language change, based on recent research, including research in collaboration with a group of statistical physicists.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman Bold'"><br></font></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman Bold'"><br></font></div><div align="CENTER"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><u>Everyone is welcome. <br></u></span></b><font size="1"><span style="font-size: 9pt; "><br><b>Speaker list</b> and <b>papers</b> are available at <a href="http://www.chd.ucsd.edu/seminar/f08sched.shtml">http://www.chd.ucsd.edu/seminar/f08sched.shtml</a><br><br>For any<b> questions </b>about the seminar<b> contact Katie </b>at kgwagner<a href="x-msg://479/jlparris@psy.ucsd.edu">@psy.ucsd.edu</a></span></font></font></div><div><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><font size="1"><span style="font-size: 9pt; "><br> <br><hr align="CENTER" size="3" width="95%"><br></span></font></font></div></div></span></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></span></span></font></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>