The STALDAC 2010 conference gathers insights from a number of research areas such as linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, psychology and philosophy on the conceptualisation of space and/or time by humans.
Spatial language and cognition has generated fervent debates in linguistics recently, in particular since the revival of Whorfian ideas regarding the dynamics between languages and cultures. The domain of space has become a prolific source of evidence of both language-specific and universal features reflected in human thinking and speaking.
In some languages speakers speak and think of space using absolute coordinates of east vs. west and north vs. south on a daily basis while other communities use the notions of left vs. right for spatial orientation and communication. Similarly, in some cultures the time scale is vertical, future is upwards and past is downwards, while closer to home, time seems to be a horizontal line, with future in front of us and the past behind. More formal approaches in syntax and semantics provide yet another perspective for representing time in language.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 17:26
Humans get their linguistic functions from the left side of the brain (the left cerebral hemisphere, to use the proper semantics - more to come). But why? How did we begin using this 'hemispheric lateralisation' (told you!); setting us on the road to modern language? A team of American experts claims chimpanzees, our nearest cousins, hold the key.
The group, from Yerkes National Primate Research Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, recently completed a study of 70 chimpanzees over a ten-month time period (published in Elsevier's Cortex, Jan 2010), recording their communicative gestures both towards humans and each other. Specific movements included 'arm threat', 'extended arm' and 'hand-slap', fulfilling social roles like attention-seeking, excitement, threat, reconciliation, grooming, play or aggression.
World reknowned linguist specialising in Creole languages and the evolution of language
Derek Bickerton was born and raised in England and educated at the University of Cambridge, but moved to the United States nearly 40 years ago. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii, where he taught and did research for 25 years. He has also held visiting professorships at universities in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Brazil, and has travelled in approximately one-third of the world's countries.
He is known worldwide for his work on Creole languages (his books include Dynamics of a Creole System, Roots of Language, Bastard Tongues) and the evolution of language (Language and Species, Language and Human Behavior, Adam's Tongue). He has also published fiction and a biography. He lives with his wife Yvonne on the North Shore of Oahu; one of his sons is the well-known post-modern artist Ashley Bickerton.
Although his career has been in linguistics, Bickerton's first degree was in history, and he has a lifelong fascination with the history of the Roman Empire. In the 1990s, he became interested in the Desert Fathers, and carried out extensive research on their period in preparation for writing historical novels about them; the first of these, The Desert and the City, was recently published.
