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Language as shaped by social interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

N. J. Enfield
N. J. Enfield
Affiliation:
Language and Cognition Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. [email protected]://www.mpi.nl/Members/NickEnfield
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Abstract

Language is shaped by its environment, which includes not only the brain, but also the public context in which speech acts are effected. To fully account for why language has the shape it has, we need to examine the constraints imposed by language use as a sequentially organized joint activity, and as the very conduit for linguistic diffusion and change.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 519 - 520
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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