Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This video addresses the role of Linguistics, as a science, and makes the point that the way it construes "language" is deeply problematical. The argument is taken from a recent publication, which fleshes out the argument and embellishes it with anecdote:
Source article: Cummins, F. (2021). Language as a problem. Language Sciences, 88, 101433.
Other references used in the presentation: Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). The biomass distribution on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511. and Zeller, U., Starik, N., & Göttert, T. (2017). Biodiversity, land use and ecosystem services—An organismic and comparative approach to different geographical regions. Global Ecology and Conservation, 10, 114-125.
The quote from Pinker originates in his book The Language Instinct (1994) but is reproduced here in amended form as it appears in The Gift of Language, Theodore Dalrymple (wrongly named in my talk, sorry), City Journal 2006: city-journal.org/html/gift-language-12972.html
My book on Joint speech is mentioned: Cummins, F. (2019). The ground from which we speak: Joint speech and the collective subject. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. which is available as a free pdf from this link: bit.ly/jointspeechbook
This video addresses the role of Linguistics, as a science, and makes the point that the way it construes "language" is deeply problematical. The argument is taken from a recent publication, which fleshes out the argument and embellishes it with anecdote:
Source article: Cummins, F. (2021). Language as a problem. Language Sciences, 88, 101433.
Other references used in the presentation: Bar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). The biomass distribution on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511. and Zeller, U., Starik, N., & Göttert, T. (2017). Biodiversity, land use and ecosystem services—An organismic and comparative approach to different geographical regions. Global Ecology and Conservation, 10, 114-125.
The quote from Pinker originates in his book The Language Instinct (1994) but is reproduced here in amended form as it appears in The Gift of Language, Theodore Dalrymple (wrongly named in my talk, sorry), City Journal 2006: city-journal.org/html/gift-language-12972.html
My book on Joint speech is mentioned: Cummins, F. (2019). The ground from which we speak: Joint speech and the collective subject. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. which is available as a free pdf from this link: bit.ly/jointspeechbook
