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Description

Function, Selection, and Innateness is a powerful demonstration of the value of looking at language as an adaptive system, which reaches the heart of debates in linguistics and cognitive science on the evolution and nature of language. Why are all languages alike in some ways, different in others? Why do languages change? How did they originate and evolve? Kirby argues these questions must be studied together. He combines functional and formal theories in order to develop a way of treating language as an adaptive system in which its communicative and formal roles have crucial and complimentary roles. He then uses computational models to show what universals emerge given a particular theory of language use or acquisition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 A Puzzle of Fit
2 The Impact of Processing on Word Order
3 Hierarchies and Competing Motivations
4 The Limits of Functional Adaptation
5 Innateness and Function in Linguistics
6 Conclusion

@book{kirby99functionSelection2,
  author={S. Kirby},
  title={Function, Selection and Innateness: the Emergence of Language Universals},
  year={1999},
  publisher={Oxford University Press},
  note={The full-text is only a sample (chapter 1: A Puzzle of Fit).},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99functionSelection2.html}
}

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