Download or read book Variation Selection Development written by Regine Eckardt and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-08-27 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can language change be modelled as an evolutionary process? Can notions like variation, selection and competition be fruitfully applied to facts of language development? The present volume ties together various strands of linguistic research which can bring us towards an answer to these questions. In one of the youngest and rapidly growing areas of linguistic research, mathematical models and simulations of competition based developments have been applied to instances of language change. By matching the predicted and observed developmental trends, researchers gauge existing models to the needs of linguistic applications and evaluate the fruitfulness of evolutionary models in linguistics. The present volume confronts these studies with more empirically-based studies in creolization and historical language change which bear on key concepts of evolutionary models. What does it mean for a linguistic construction to survive its competitors? How do the interacting factors in phases of creolization differ from those in ordinary language change, and how - consequently - might Creole languages differ structurally from older languages? Some of the authors, finally, also address the question how different aspects of our linguistic competence tie in with our more elementary cognitive capacities. The volume contains contributions by Brady Clark et al., Elly van Gelderen, Alain Kihm, Manfred Krifka, Wouter Kusters, Robert van Rooij, Anette Rosenbach, John McWhorter, Teresa Satterfield, Michael Tomasello and Elizabeth C. Traugott. The book brings together contributions from two areas of research: the study of language evolution by means of methods from artifical intelligence/artificial life (like computer simulations and analytic mathematical methods) on the one hand, and empirically oriented research from historical linguistics and creolisation studies that uses concepts from evolutionary theory as a heuristic tool in a qualitative way. The book is thus interesting for readers from both traditions because it supplies them with information about relevant ongoing research and useful methods and data from the other camp.
Download or read book Developing Cognitive Competence written by Tony J. Simon and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although computational modeling is now a widespread technique in cognitive science and in psychology, relatively little work in developmental psychology has used this technique. The approach is not entirely new, as a small group of researchers has attempted to create computational accounts of cognitive developmental phenomena since the inception of the technique. It should seem obvious that transition mechanisms -- or how the system progresses from one level of competence to the next -- ought to be the central question for investigation in cognitive developmental psychology. Yet, if one scans the literature of modern developmental studies, it appears that the question has been all but ignored. However, only recently have advances in computational technology enabled the researcher access to fully self-modifying computer languages capable of simulating cognitive change. By the beginning of the 1990s, increasing numbers of researchers in the cognitive sciences were of the opinion that the tools of mathematical modeling and computer simulation make theorizing about transition mechanisms both practical and beneficial -- by using both traditional symbolic computational systems and parallel distributed processing or connectionist approaches. Computational models make it possible to define the processes that lead to a system being transformed under environmental influence from one level of competence observed in children to the next most sophisticated level. By coding computational models into simulations of actual cognitive change, they become tangible entities that are accessible to systematic study. Unfortunately, little of what has been produced has been published in journals or books where many professionals would easily find them. Feeling that developmental psychologists should be exposed to this relatively new approach, a symposium was organized at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. The "cost of entry" was that speakers had to have a running computational model of a documented cognitive transition. Inspired by that conference, this volume is the first collection where each content chapter presents a fully implemented, self-modifying simulation of some aspect of cognitive development. Previous collections have tended to discuss general approaches -- less than fully implemented models -- or non self-modifying models. Along with introductory and review chapters, this volume presents a set of truly "developmental" computational models -- a collection that can inform the interested researcher as well as form the basis for graduate-level courses.
Download or read book Variation in Language System and Usage based Approaches written by Aria Adli and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where is the locus of language variation? In the grammar, outside the grammar or somewhere in between? Taking up the debate between system- and usage-based approaches, this volume provides new discussions of fundamental issues of language variation. It includes several highly insightful theoretical contributions as well as innovative empirical studies considering different types of data, the role of priming in language change and rare phenomena.
Download or read book Life on the Farm written by Maxwell Tylden Masters and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Natural Selection written by Richard G. Delisle and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-02-27 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contests the general view that natural selection constitutes the explanatory core of evolutionary biology. It invites the reader to consider an alternative view which favors a more complete and multidimensional interpretation. It is common to present the 1930-1960 period as characterized by the rise of the Modern Synthesis, an event structured around two main explanatory commitments: (1) Gradual evolution is explained by small genetic changes (variations) oriented by natural selection, a process leading to adaptation; (2) Evolutionary trends and speciational events are macroevolutionary phenomena that can be accounted for solely in terms of the extension of processes and mechanisms occurring at the previous microevolutionary level. On this view, natural selection holds a central explanatory role in evolutionary theory - one that presumably reaches back to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species - a view also accompanied by the belief that the field of evolutionary biology is organized around a profound divide: theories relying on strong selective factors and those appealing only to weak ones. If one reads the new analyses presented in this volume by biologists, historians and philosophers, this divide seems to be collapsing at a rapid pace, opening an era dedicated to the search for a new paradigm for the development of evolutionary biology. Contrary to popular belief, scholars' position on natural selection is not in itself a significant discriminatory factor between most evolutionists. In fact, the intellectual space is quite limited, if not non-existent, between, on the one hand, "Darwinists", who play down the central role of natural selection in evolutionary explanations, and, on the other hand, "non-Darwinists", who use it in a list of other evolutionary mechanisms. The "mechanism-centered" approach to evolutionary biology is too incomplete to fully make sense of its development. In this book the labels created under the traditional historiography - "Darwinian Revolution", "Eclipse of Darwinism", "Modern Synthesis", "Post-Synthetic Developments" - are thus re-evaluated. This book will not only appeal to researchers working in evolutionary biology, but also to historians and philosophers."
Download or read book Catalogue written by Goucher College and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bulletin written by Goucher College and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Variation written by Benedikt Hallgrímsson and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was based on the observation that there is variation between individuals within the same species. This fundamental observation is a central concept in evolutionary biology. However, variation is only rarely treated directly. It has remained peripheral to the study of mechanisms of evolutionary change. The explosion of knowledge in genetics, developmental biology, and the ongoing synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology has made it possible for us to study the factors that limit, enhance, or structure variation at the level of an animals' physical appearance and behavior. Knowledge of the significance of variability is crucial to this emerging synthesis. This volume situates the role of variability within this broad framework, bringing variation back to the center of the evolutionary stage. ·Provides an overview of current thinking on variation in evolutionary biology, functional morphology, and evolutionary developmental biology ·Written by a team of leading scholars specializing on the study of variation ·Reviews of statistical analysis of variation by leading authorities ·Key chapters focus on the role of the study of phenotypic variation for evolutionary, developmental, and post-genomic biology
Download or read book Journal of the New York Botanical Garden written by New York Botanical Garden and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Publications of the staff, scholars and students of the New York Botanical Garden during the year" in vol. 3- 1902- The list for 1901 includes March 1895-Dec.1901.
Download or read book Journal written by New York Botanical Garden and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Pilot written by and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution written by Mary Jane West-Eberhard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-13 with total page 815 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive synthesis on development and evolution: it applies to all aspects of development, at all levels of organization and in all organisms, taking advantage of modern findings on behavior, genetics, endocrinology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory and phylogenetics to show the connections between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary change. This book solves key problems that have impeded a definitive synthesis in the past. It uses new concepts and specific examples to show how to relate environmentally sensitive development to the genetic theory of adaptive evolution and to explain major patterns of change. In this book development includes not only embryology and the ontogeny of morphology, sometimes portrayed inadequately as governed by "regulatory genes," but also behavioral development and physiological adaptation, where plasticity is mediated by genetically complex mechanisms like hormones and learning. The book shows how the universal qualities of phenotypes--modular organization and plasticity--facilitate both integration and change. Here you will learn why it is wrong to describe organisms as genetically programmed; why environmental induction is likely to be more important in evolution than random mutation; and why it is crucial to consider both selection and developmental mechanism in explanations of adaptive evolution. This book satisfies the need for a truly general book on development, plasticity and evolution that applies to living organisms in all of their life stages and environments. Using an immense compendium of examples on many kinds of organisms, from viruses and bacteria to higher plants and animals, it shows how the phenotype is reorganized during evolution to produce novelties, and how alternative phenotypes occupy a pivotal role as a phase of evolution that fosters diversification and speeds change. The arguments of this book call for a new view of the major themes of evolutionary biology, as shown in chapters on gradualism, homology, environmental induction, speciation, radiation, macroevolution, punctuation, and the maintenance of sex. No other treatment of development and evolution since Darwin's offers such a comprehensive and critical discussion of the relevant issues. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution is designed for biologists interested in the development and evolution of behavior, life-history patterns, ecology, physiology, morphology and speciation. It will also appeal to evolutionary paleontologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and teachers of general biology.
Download or read book Plant Life on the Farm written by Maxwell Tylden Masters and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Catalogue written by Maryland Agricultural College and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 1190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vols. for 1877- include: President's report.
Download or read book Catalogue written by University of Maryland, College Park and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Substrate and Adstrate written by Micah Corum and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-04-24 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a large-scale, in-depth analysis of locative structures in Nigerian Pidgin and Ghanaian Pidgin English and compares those structures to locatives in their lexifier, substrate, and adstrate languages. The work draws on new research methods for investigating substrate and adstrate influence in semantics and creole genesis.
Download or read book Microevolution Rate Pattern Process written by Andrew P. Hendry and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From guppies to Galapagos finches and from adaptive landscapes to haldanes, this compilation of contributed works provides reviews, perspectives, theoretical models, statistical developments, and empirical demonstrations exploring the tempo and mode of microevolution on contemporary to geological time scales. New developments, and reviews, of classic and novel empirical systems demonstrate the strength and diversity of evolutionary processes producing biodiversity within species. Perspectives and theoretical insights expand these empirical observations to explore patterns and mechanisms of microevolution, methods for its quantification, and implications for the evolution of biodiversity on other scales. This diverse assemblage of manuscripts is aimed at professionals, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates who desire a timely synthesis of current knowledge, an illustration of exciting new directions, and a springboard for future investigations in the study of microevolution in the wild.
