Darwin and language diversity - Audio

By The Open UniversityEducation

Darwin and language diversity - Audio episodes

November 09, 2009 Darwin and language diversity
A short introduction to this album.
2 min
November 09, 2009 Transcript -- Darwin and language diversity
A short introduction to this album.
0 min
November 09, 2009 A Darwinian approach to language
What happens when you apply Darwin to the development of language? Mark Pagel and Quentin Atkinson explore the parallels.
8 min
November 09, 2009 Transcript -- A Darwinian approach to language
What happens when you apply Darwin to the development of language? Mark Pagel and Quentin Atkinson explore the parallels.
0 min
November 09, 2009 Conservation and diversification
In the tree of Indo-European languages, some words are remarkably similar across several languages, whilst many other words are remarkably different.
10 min
November 09, 2009 Transcript -- Conservation and diversification
In the tree of Indo-European languages, some words are remarkably similar across several languages, whilst many other words are remarkably different.
0 min
November 09, 2009 Revolution or evolution?
Why, when languages change, do they often do so in rapid bursts.
4 min
November 09, 2009 Transcript -- Revolution or evolution?
Why, when languages change, do they often do so in rapid bursts.
0 min
November 09, 2009 Warriors or farmers - who spread Indo-European languages?
There are two theories about the way that Indo-European languages spread - which one is correct?
3 min
November 09, 2009 Transcript -- Warriors or farmers - who spread Indo-European languages?
There are two theories about the way that Indo-European languages spread - which one is correct?
0 min

About Darwin and language diversity - Audio

From the publisher's feed

Can Darwin's theory of evolution be applied to languages? If so what are the analogues for natural selection and species diversification? What truths does this approach reveal and what problems does it throw up? In this album Professor Mark Pagel of Reading University and Quentin Atkinson, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford, discuss the pitfalls and the up-sides to approaching language through a Darwinian model. Focussing on Indo-European languages, they show how mathematical and statistical models can be used to study the development of both particular words and of grammatical terms. Looking to the future they speculate on how language will develop in the new globalised culture.