On The Origin of Language
On The Origin of Language30mar7:00 pm7:45 pm7:00 pm - 7:45 pm
Event Details
Ever wondered about the evolution of human communication and the development of over 7,100 modern languages? Join us for a discussion with Dr. Shigeru Miyagawa, an expert in
Event Details
Ever wondered about the evolution of human communication and the development of over 7,100 modern languages? Join us for a discussion with Dr. Shigeru Miyagawa, an expert in the evolution of languages, where we will talk about the transformation of prehistoric grunts into modern communication as well as how a dialect may become classified as an independent language.
Speakers for this event
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Shigeru Miyagawa
Shigeru Miyagawa
Shigeru Miyagawa is a linguist and an expert on online education. He has published widely in linguistics, including three recent books from MIT Press. Recently, he developed the Integration Hypothesis for human language evolution, which proposes that human language arose from the combination of simpler systems including those that are associated with birdsong and also primate alarm calls. This work was featured in a BBC Radio4 program, What the songbird said. The idea also was an inspiration for Pete Wyer’s choral composition, The song of the human, which premiered at the Winter Garden of the World Trade Center in New York. For this work, he was recently awarded the São Paulo Excellence Chair. Along with MIT, his home institution, he has held positions at the University of Tokyo, University of São Paulo, and Seikei University in Tokyo.