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If language and the brain are co-evolved and language as a
latecomer can avail itself of pre-existing means to solve its own
problems, then it should be possible to describe it in terms of
processing strategies and constraints arising from brain systems.
This is precisely what this study attempts to do with respect to
the emergence of three types of higher-level meanings; direct
speech acts, built-in conditions for their success and
non-defective performance and constraints on sequencing of an
argumentational kind. In so doing there are three main issues it
needs to address. What types of problem arise at the text level
that could have led to the emergence in question? Is there a clear
parallel between these problems and those faced by brain systems?
What solutions have been evolved to cater for the latter, which
could have been co-opted by language? Finally there is the question
of the extent to which such an account is compatible with a global
theory of brain function such as Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group
Selection.
Study of the syntax of Old English and Old Icelandic has for long
been dominated by the impressions of early philologists. Their
assertions that these languages were � free in their word-order
were for many years unchallenged. Only within the last two decades
has it been demonstrated that the word-order of each shows regular
patterns which approach the status of rules, and which may be
precisely described. This book takes the subject one step further
by offering a comparison of the syntax of Old English and Old
Icelandic, the two best-preserved Old Germanic languages.
Over-whelmingly the two languages show the same word-order patterns
- as do the other Old Germanic languages, at least as far as can be
determined from the fragments which have survived. It has long been
recognised that Old English and Old Icelandic have a high
proportion of common lexis and very similar morphology, yet the
convention has been to emphasise the differences between the two as
representatives respectively of the West and North sub-families of
Germanic. The argument of this book is that the similar word-order
of the two should instead lead us to stress the similarities
between the two languages. Old English and Old Icelandic were
sufficiently close to be mutually comprehensible. This thesis
receives copious support from historical and literary texts. Our
understanding of the Old Germanic world should be modified by the
concept of a common � Northern Speech which provided a common
Germanic ethnic identity and a platform for the free flow of
cultural ideas.
If language and the brain are co-evolved and language as a
latecomer can avail itself of pre-existing means to solve its own
problems, then it should be possible to describe it in terms of
processing strategies and constraints arising from brain systems.
This is precisely what this study attempts to do with respect to
the emergence of three types of higher-level meanings; direct
speech acts, built-in conditions for their success and
non-defective performance and constraints on sequencing of an
argumentational kind. In so doing there are three main issues it
needs to address. What types of problem arise at the text level
that could have led to the emergence in question? Is there a clear
parallel between these problems and those faced by brain systems?
What solutions have been evolved to cater for the latter, which
could have been co-opted by language? Finally there is the question
of the extent to which such an account is compatible with a global
theory of brain function such as Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group
Selection.
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