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Abstract

Much of the current debate about the development of modern language from protolanguage focuses on whether the process was primarily synthetic or analytic. I investigate attested mech- anisms of language change and emphasise the uncertainty inherent in the inferential nature of communication. Both synthesis and analysis are involved in the complexification of language, but the most significant pressure is the need for meanings to be reconstructible from context.

@inproceedings{admsmith06evolang,
  author={Andrew D. M. Smith},
  title={Semantic reconstructibility and the complexification of language},
  year={2006},
  pages={307-314},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/admsmith06evolang.html}
}