tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post6747485227599165252..comments2023-07-19T11:51:14.533+02:00Comments on Shared Symbolic Storage: Language Evolution IV: HCF + PJ + FHC + JP =/= ♥Michael Pleyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17318686099980839847noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post-1382799033774101532008-06-23T10:17:00.000+02:002008-06-23T10:17:00.000+02:00Ahh.. I see.Well, don't despair, it is rather hard...Ahh.. I see.<BR/>Well, don't despair, it is rather hard to keep up with all that syntax stuff (to say put it rather bluntly). I've followed syntax courses for about three years now, and I keep on forgetting stuff as well. I've done several courses on the P&P- and Gov.&Bind.-model, and several on the Minimalist Program (using Hornstein et al's book 'Understanding Minimalism'). I would like to read Adger's book! In fact, I tried to get it from the library last week, but someone borrowed it before me. Is it any good then?<BR/><BR/>Yeah, basically I've done 3 years bachelor, combining linguistics (mostly syntax, but also other fields), Russian and Italian (both plus culture/history lectures), philosophy and some literature courses. Now I am doing the two-year research master Linguistics, with two majors, namely in syntax and neurocognition (great fcking combination if you ask me :P Though I would've liked to add some semantics..but no time. :)). Utrecht really is a great environment for linguistics, and even more so for (generative) grammar. In fact, they almost push you into that direction here :P Fine by me ;)<BR/><BR/>But yeah, now I really want to move a bit more to neurocognition, especially because I like the research on neuroscience, cognition, biology, psychology, philosophy etc. comes together. Hence, language evolution :D I think you understand me completely ;)<BR/><BR/>Oh, if you ever have any questions or anything, just let me know, kay? :D Don't know if I can be of any help, but you never know.. :) <BR/><BR/>Next year I will have to write my thesis, and I am wondering if I could do something with all these fields/language evolution.. I'll have to see. Oh, and also I will have to do an internship somewhere, and I would like to go to a place with a language evolution research group. Do you have any suggestions? I can only come up with Edinburgh.. (Hurford(?), Parker, ..). <BR/><BR/>http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/lec/LEC/Research.html<BR/><BR/>See ya,<BR/><BR/>ValValeriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05828881282482501081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post-51421670755844137822008-06-21T23:42:00.000+02:002008-06-21T23:42:00.000+02:00Well, my background in linguistics, can probably b...Well, my background in linguistics, can probably be described best by just summing up by the courses I attended ;)<BR/>Introduction to English Linguistics<BR/>Introduction to German Linguistics<BR/>A course on the beginning of Generative Grammar based on Chomsky's 1957 syntactic structure <BR/>A course on the current state of GG. based on Radford et al's 1999 Linguistics, An Introduction.<BR/>A course on Language Acquisition based on Charles Yang's rather weak book "The infinitive gift"<BR/>But given that my memory is practically non-existent when it comes to learning terminology and stuff, I basically forgot everything and have a hard time to draw an tree more complex than "John Hit the Ball"^^<BR/>Right now im attending a course on minimalist syntax based on "Core Syntax" (2003) by David Adger, so I'm kind of familiar with the MP, but I really have problems in grasping the intricacies when it comes to a litlle more complex structures. Anyways, I'm much more interested in the philosophical questions regarding innattenes, domain-specifity and evolution and are more concerned with the cognitive foundations/ psychological level than with the formal level, probably simply because I'm too dumb to understand the formal level. <BR/>I think, Heidelberg isn't such a good climate for linguistics in a formal or generative vein, given that at the English Department, there is only on Generativist Teacher, and in the German Department no one is interested in GG at all. Most linguistics teachers in Heidelberg are, I think, more interested in Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Pragmatics, lexicology, and functional approaches.<BR/><BR/>What is your background, then?Michael Pleyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17318686099980839847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post-70908327602864399682008-06-20T16:19:00.000+02:002008-06-20T16:19:00.000+02:00I'll be merciful :PI don't know the whole lot eith...I'll be merciful :P<BR/>I don't know the whole lot either, of course, so.. ;)<BR/><BR/>As for the paper, yes, it is quite ambituous, and yes you're right, people have been unable to find the neural correlate for (unbounded) Merge. However, we can find _some_ things, so we can freely speculate ^__^ I have good hopes. (Today I finished the syntactic part on Merge, so now the real fun can begin). <BR/><BR/>What is your background in Linguistics, anyway? Familiar with the Minimalist Program, for instance? <BR/><BR/>/Val<BR/><BR/>P.S. Will send paper ;)Valeriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05828881282482501081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post-33459925241719808822008-06-20T01:16:00.000+02:002008-06-20T01:16:00.000+02:00Hey Valerie,Thanks for taking such an interest in ...Hey Valerie,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for taking such an interest in my blog. The Intersection of Linguistics, Neurosciences, Cognition and Biology is definitely one of the most fascinating topics out there at the moment, especially when it is applied, together with ,say, comparative psychology, to the evolution of human minds. The evolution of Merge seems to be a quite ambitious topic. I didn't know that there is sufficient evidence on the neural bases of Merge (especially if we take the fact that I really wouldn't know how to distinguish say linguistic recursion/Merge from the Cognitive Linguistics/Jackendoffian Concept of Unification or the cognitive principle of unbounded merge. But I have way too little knowledge about absolutely all fields including a Neuro-Prefix. <BR/>To be honest, I do not read all the papers I am citing here, but try to extract the most important information by reading abstract and part of the introduction, and then scan the article. I do not know if there is a "right" way to gather information from papers, but it's still very time consuming, which is why I have a hard time posting anything at the moment.<BR/>I am really looking forward for someone actually showing signs of reading (even commenting!) my blog. wohooo!^^<BR/><BR/>My main interest at the moment lies in the evolution of cognitive perspective and its relation to language evolution, but my speculations are at the moment rather arcane I'm afraid.<BR/><BR/>I'd be very interested in your paper once you get to finish it. I'd be very grateful if you could mail it to me.<BR/>you can reach me under<BR/>mpleyer at ix dot urz dot uni-heidelberg dot de<BR/>Thanks again for the interest (and have mercy on my posts ;) )<BR/><BR/>MPMichael Pleyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17318686099980839847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9108460941383722228.post-48317456431770635452008-06-19T18:41:00.000+02:002008-06-19T18:41:00.000+02:00Heya,Just found your blog online, and it looks rea...Heya,<BR/><BR/>Just found your blog online, and it looks really interesting! It seems you're doing a lot of work reading all these papers (next to your own study). I am studying Linguistics in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and well, my main interest is language evolution ;) (So, a combination of linguistics with neuroscience, cognition, biology in general..). <BR/><BR/>I am leaving this post here since I could find a message-device, and am currently busy writing a paper on the evolution of recursion/Merge. I am first looking at Merge/recursion in linguistic theory, then in neurocognition, and then try to combine it for a theory on (a part of) language evolution. <BR/><BR/>I'm not sure why I am telling you all this, but I thought it was really nice to see other people being so enthusiastic about it, too! I still have to read the Nietzsche-post, but that also looks really interesting. I guess I just wanted to say you can expect me to pop up here more regularly, to try to give ..intelligent comments on your posts :P<BR/><BR/>Keep up the good work!<BR/>Cheerio,<BR/><BR/><BR/>ValerieValeriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05828881282482501081noreply@blogger.com