LINGUIST List 7.60

Fri Jan 12 1996

Confs: Evolution of Human Lg

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Evolution Conference, EVOLUTION CONFERENCE

 EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
 Conference: University of Edinburgh, April 1st-4th, 1996

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE OF TALKS. (For registration procedure, see end
of message.) MONDAY, APRIL 1ST, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, PLENARY SESSION.
Jean Aitchison "On discontinuing the continuity-discontinuity debate"
Kathleen Gibson "The biocultural brain, mental hierarchies and
 continuity approaches"
Robbins Burling "Iconic communication: between gesture calls and
 language"
Bencie Woll "Do sign languages tell us anything about the origins of
 human language?"
Robert Kluender and Shannon Casey "The continuity of gesture and
 language: a case study"
R Q Goodwin "A functional perspective on the communicative abilities
 of apes and children"

TUESDAY APRIL 2ND, 9.00am - 1.00pm, PLENARY SESSION.
Myrna Gopnik "Genes, grammars and other curiosities"
Paul Fletcher "Linguistic impairment in a British family:
 characterisation and interpretation"
Elizabeth Isaacs, Faraneh Vargha-Khadem, Lucinda Carr, Edward Brett,
 Christopher Adams, and Mortimer Mishkin "Onset of speech after left
 hemispherectomy in a nine-year old boy"
Robin Dunbar "Why did language evolve?"
R P Worden "The evolution of language from social intelligence"
John Locke "Talking as a precursor to spoken language"
Leslie C. Aiello "The foundations of human language"

TUESDAY APRIL 2ND, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, PARALLEL SESSION A.
John Batali "A model of the evolution of grammar"
Pat Healey and Carl Vogel "Simulated coordination and convergence"
Asif Agha "A typology of `concepts' for mental development"
Jean Louis Dessalles "Genetic constraints on the evolution of human
 communication"
David Dickins and Richard Bentall "Stimulus equivalence: a laboratory
 'knack' or the heart of language?"
Pat Healey "Natural selection and naturalised semantics"
Gary Marcus "Two mechanisms of linguistic generalization: an
 evolutionary perspective"

TUESDAY APRIL 2ND, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, PARALLEL SESSION B.
Maria Ujhelyi "Long call structure in apes as a possible precursor for
 language"
William Noble "Discovering the symbolic potential of communicative
 signs"
Ib Ulbaek "The origin of language and cognition"
Chris Knight "A 'selfish-gene' solution to the problem of deception"
Camilla Power "The vocal grooming and gossip theory of language
 origins: can cheap signals be reliable?"
Koji Ohnishi "African origin of classifier-prefixed words in
 extra-African languages: new evidence for Ruhlen's monogenesis theory
 of human languages"

WEDNESDAY APRIL 3RD, 9.00am - 1.00pm, PLENARY SESSION.
Derek Bickerton "Catastrophic evolution: the case for a single step
 from proto-language to language"
Frederick Newmeyer "On the supposed 'dysfunctionality' of universal
 grammar: some evolutionary implications"
Ted Briscoe "Parsability as a constraint on the evolution of language"
Simon Kirby "Fitness and the selective adaptation of language"
Christer Johansson "Transmission of 'language parameters' during the
 years of the plague"
Robert Berwick Title to be announced
Philip Lieberman "On the evolution of the human brain's functional
 language system"

WEDNESDAY APRIL 3RD, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, PARALLEL SESSION A.
T J Crow "Sexual selection acting on an X-Y homologous gene as the
 mechanism of evolution of language"
Chris McManus "Handedness, cerebral lateralization and the evolution
 of language"
Peter MacNeilage "Evolution of the mechanism of language output"
Kevin Cohen Title to be announced
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy "Synonymy avoidance, phonology and the
 origin of syntax"
Marilee Monnot "What is the adaptive function of maternal 'motherese'
 speech?"

WEDNESDAY APRIL 3RD, 2.00pm - 6.00pm, PARALLEL SESSION B.
Klaus Kohler "The development of sound systems in human language"
Jean-Marie Hombert and Egidio Marsico "Do vowel systems increase in
 complexity?"
Didier Demolin "The role of self-organization in the emergence of
 phonological systems"
Jean-Marie Hombert "30,000 years of vowel changes in Australian
 languages"
Bjorn Lindblom Title to be announced
Susan Duncan "The role of rhythm in human language"

THURSDAY APRIL 4TH, 9.00am - 1.00pm, PLENARY SESSION.
Alexander Marshack "Middle Palaeolithic and earlier Acheulian symbolic
 materials and their relevance to the origin and evolution of language"
Iain Davidson "Language origins and the dispersal of modern humans"
James Steele "Stone tools and language capacities; a methodology for
 apple-and-pear comparisons"
Johanna Nichols "Linguistic bottlenecks and the human dispersal"
Leon Stassen "A-languages and B-languages: parameter clusters in the
 languages of the world"
Daniel Nettle "Language and other systems of exchange: the evolution
 of linguistic diversity"

 CONFERENCE ENDS 1.OOpm, THURSDAY APRIL 4TH.
 --------------
OUR SPONSORS
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from:
University of Edinburgh Linguistics Department
University of Edinburgh Interdisciplinary Research Fund
The Times Higher Educational Supplement
University of Edinburgh Northern Scholars Committee
Linguistics Association of Great Britain
Royal Anthropological Institution
Edinburgh International Science Festival

- ---------------------cut here-------------------------------------
		EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LANGUAGE CONFERENCE
	 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, APRIL 1-4, 1996
			 REGISTRATION FORM
Please edit and return to: evoconfling.ed.ac.uk
Title: 	 _____________________________________________________
Name:	 _____________________________________________________
Affiliation (if any): ________________________________________
Contact Address: _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Vegetarian or other dietary requirements: ____________________
ALL COSTS IN UK POUNDS STERLING (insert amounts below)
Conference Fee:*				 _________	
	75.00, non-student delegates
	40.00, students (with copy of student ID)
	 Discounts available to a maximum
		of 15 students	
*Includes lunch April 2 and 3, afternoon tea
and morning coffee April 1-4, all conference
facilities, materials & administration costs
 
Number of nights' accomodation required: _____
Type of accomodation required (1-3): _____

Type 1: single room, shared facilities, 25.00/night
Type 2: double room, shared facilities, 36.00/night
Type 3: double room, en-suite facilities, 59.00/night

Price includes accomodation at Pollock Halls and
full Scottish breakfast.

Total accomodation costs: 			 _________
Abstract booklet only (price 5.00): 		 _________
TOTAL ALL COSTS:				 _________
FOREIGN EXCHANGE FEE (See *note below) _________
GRAND TOTAL _________
Payment is due by March 1st. (10% surcharge for late payment). Please
send cheques or money orders in POUNDS STERLING* to:
Evolution of Human Language Conference
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Edinburgh
Adam Ferguson Building
40 George Square
Edinburgh
EH9 8LL

Please make cheques payable to "Evolution Conference 96"
*For payment in other currencies, please add the equivalent of 10
pounds sterling to the "TOTAL ALL COSTS" above.