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VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20181020T093929Z
DTSTART:20181106T170000Z
DTEND:20181106T190000Z
SUMMARY:CIDRAL Public Lecture: Daniel Everett: 'How Language Began: 60\,0
 00 Generations of Humans Talking'
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DESCRIPTION:This event is part of CIDRAL's Autumn 2018 programme.\n\nDani
 el Everett (Professor of Global Studies and Sociology\, Bentley Universi
 ty) will deliver a public lecture entitled 'How Language Began: 60\,000 
 Generations of Humans Talking'.\n\nIn this lecture I will discuss the ev
 olution of human language from Australopithecus africanus through Homo e
 rectus to Homo sapiens. As in my book\, How Language Began: The Story of
  Humanity’s Greatest Invention (Profile Books\, London)\, I will provide
  evidence that Homo erectus invented language\, as it progressed beyond 
 the evolutionary foundation established in Australopithecus (where by in
 vention I mean a technology that emerges from a culture or cultures.) I 
 will argue that the major threshold leading from mere communication to l
 anguage was the emergence of culture and\, subsequently\, symbols in the
  sense of C.S. Peirce. I will show how slot:filler grammars led to the k
 inds of grammars we observe today. Further it will be argued that the Ch
 omsky-hierarchy is of little empirical significance in understanding hum
 an language and that the concept of an innate universal grammar is large
 ly superfluous to the understanding of the appearance of language approx
 imately 1.9 million years ago.  
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:Samuel Alexander Lecture Theatre\, Samuel Alexander Building\, M
 anchester
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