... Makkays comment), can only be seen as expressions of an already developed Turkic branch of th... more ... Makkays comment), can only be seen as expressions of an already developed Turkic branch of the Altaic population, originating in ... in Europe: The convergence of linguistic and archaeological frontiers, in Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the UISPP (Lige, September 28 ...
Translation from Italian, with revisions, of Chapter 10 (Meriti e limiti della teoria di Renfrew)... more Translation from Italian, with revisions, of Chapter 10 (Meriti e limiti della teoria di Renfrew) of Le origini delle lingue d'
In this reply to the criticisms Adiego made to the first volume of my Origins of European Languag... more In this reply to the criticisms Adiego made to the first volume of my Origins of European Languages I reaffirm my principle theories, which are: (1) the «static condition» is the only law of language, and linguistic change is exclusively due to external forces; (2) even the linguistic mutations that Adiego attributes to organic causes (those analogic, syntactic and of grammaticalisation) are clearly the result of external causes; (3) lexical self-dating is a valid tool; (4) the common IE is located in the Palaeolithic; (5) the Neolithic terms that traditional theory attributes to PIE, such as the names of ¿wool¿ and ¿sheep,¿ are borrowed; (6) dialects and some of their typical features are already present in the Latin era and could have contributed to the formation of Latin. My conclusion is that Adiego¿s vision is inspired by an eighteenth century ¿reification¿ of language and motivated by the search for an impossible compromise between myth and science.
As the author has shown in previous work, although linguistics as a science was born in Darwin’s ... more As the author has shown in previous work, although linguistics as a science was born in Darwin’s century, Darwinism’s influence on it was superficial and produced the mystifying, but still current, view that language is a living organism, and language change an organic law. Language is, instead, a social artefact with an interface with nature, which is governed by the law of conservation and changes only exceptionally. Since language is innate—as claimed by Chomsky and now demonstrated by natural sciences—and Homo was thus born loquens, the evolution of language—and all world languages, including Indo-European (IE)—must be mapped onto the entire course of human cultural evolution, in the new framework provided by the Palaeolithic Continuity Theory (PCT).
Sono grato a Ignasi-Xavier Adiego per avermi dato, con la sua recensione-articolo del primo volum... more Sono grato a Ignasi-Xavier Adiego per avermi dato, con la sua recensione-articolo del primo volume della mia opera sulle origini delle lingue europee (Alinei 1996), l'occasione di tornare su alcuni punti fondamentali della mia teoria. Mi lascia invece perplesso che abbia trascurato il secondo (Alinei 2000), come appare dalle sue stesse parole: «em durà a parlar molt poc del segon volum». Anche se capisco che una discussione simile del secondo volume avrebbe richiesto troppo spazio, sono convinto, tuttavia, che alcune delle sue critiche al primo volume sarebbero state formulate in modo diverso se il recensore avesse preso in considerazione, con lo stesso impegno, anche il secondo. E sono anche certo che lo stesso Adiego non troverebbe del tutto logico che io rispondessi, per esempio, a una prima metà della sua recensione, senza tener conto della seconda... Stando così le cose, comunque, cercherò anch'io, nella mia risposta, di tener conto più del primo volume che non del secondo (al quale mi riferirò solo quando indispensabile), e ciò da un lato per non mettere in imbarazzo il mio recensore, dall'altro perché le sue critiche mi sembrano infondate, anche se viste nel solo quadro introduttivo del primo volume.
This paper develops the hypothesis of a correlation between lithic and linguistic development on ... more This paper develops the hypothesis of a correlation between lithic and linguistic development on the basis of two observations: (I) the seemingly close similarity between the distributional area of the three basic morphological types of language (isolating, inflecting, agglutinative) and that of the earliest lithic industries ('Movius line', dividing choppers, bifacials and Mode 1 tools). (II) The seemingly close correspondence, in terms of operational and cognitive processes, between choppers and uninflected words as results of the truncation of, respectively, stone and vocal emission; between bifacials and inflected words as results of retouching of stones and of words, and between prepared cores and agglutinative words as results of juxtaposition of blades and morphemes. The Continuity Theory based on the correlation seems to open the possibility of reconciling the evolutionary approach to language origins (Tobias, Gibson e.a.) with Chomsky's innatism, while contradicting the attribution of modern language exclusively to Homo sapiens sapiens.
ALE, which has seen a continued and renewed commitment of individuals and institutions regardless... more ALE, which has seen a continued and renewed commitment of individuals and institutions regardless of all the political changes around them, is in my experience one of the finest examples of human commitment to scientific research in a context of international cooperation. My deepest hope is that the ALE will continue as a permanent laboratory for European geolinguistics and dialectology, opening itself, at the same time, to the new interdisciplinary developments that are profoundly changing our views on human evolution, and can be expected to have a gigantic impact also on historical linguistics.
1. INTRODUZIONE 1. Text de la conferència feta per l'autor a Niça, el 28 de setembre de 2000. Atè... more 1. INTRODUZIONE 1. Text de la conferència feta per l'autor a Niça, el 28 de setembre de 2000. Atès que el tema és important i que fins ara la seva problemàtica ha estat poc presa en consideració en els medis de la romanística, hem cregut oportú d'inserir-lo als ER i agraïm ben de cor a Mario Alinei que ens n'hagi facilitat generosament la publicació. (N. del C. de R.) 2. Per la bibliografia archeologica, sia generale che dettagliata, rinvio ai miei due volumi , e qui mi limito a elencare i soli titoli dai quali ho tratto citazioni. ondate, sterminando o assoggettando le popolazioni autoctone del continente europeo, considerate non-IE, e sostituendo la propria lingua a quasi tutte le lingue preesistenti ( ).
... Makkays comment), can only be seen as expressions of an already developed Turkic branch of th... more ... Makkays comment), can only be seen as expressions of an already developed Turkic branch of the Altaic population, originating in ... in Europe: The convergence of linguistic and archaeological frontiers, in Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the UISPP (Lige, September 28 ...
Translation from Italian, with revisions, of Chapter 10 (Meriti e limiti della teoria di Renfrew)... more Translation from Italian, with revisions, of Chapter 10 (Meriti e limiti della teoria di Renfrew) of Le origini delle lingue d'
In this reply to the criticisms Adiego made to the first volume of my Origins of European Languag... more In this reply to the criticisms Adiego made to the first volume of my Origins of European Languages I reaffirm my principle theories, which are: (1) the «static condition» is the only law of language, and linguistic change is exclusively due to external forces; (2) even the linguistic mutations that Adiego attributes to organic causes (those analogic, syntactic and of grammaticalisation) are clearly the result of external causes; (3) lexical self-dating is a valid tool; (4) the common IE is located in the Palaeolithic; (5) the Neolithic terms that traditional theory attributes to PIE, such as the names of ¿wool¿ and ¿sheep,¿ are borrowed; (6) dialects and some of their typical features are already present in the Latin era and could have contributed to the formation of Latin. My conclusion is that Adiego¿s vision is inspired by an eighteenth century ¿reification¿ of language and motivated by the search for an impossible compromise between myth and science.
As the author has shown in previous work, although linguistics as a science was born in Darwin’s ... more As the author has shown in previous work, although linguistics as a science was born in Darwin’s century, Darwinism’s influence on it was superficial and produced the mystifying, but still current, view that language is a living organism, and language change an organic law. Language is, instead, a social artefact with an interface with nature, which is governed by the law of conservation and changes only exceptionally. Since language is innate—as claimed by Chomsky and now demonstrated by natural sciences—and Homo was thus born loquens, the evolution of language—and all world languages, including Indo-European (IE)—must be mapped onto the entire course of human cultural evolution, in the new framework provided by the Palaeolithic Continuity Theory (PCT).
Sono grato a Ignasi-Xavier Adiego per avermi dato, con la sua recensione-articolo del primo volum... more Sono grato a Ignasi-Xavier Adiego per avermi dato, con la sua recensione-articolo del primo volume della mia opera sulle origini delle lingue europee (Alinei 1996), l'occasione di tornare su alcuni punti fondamentali della mia teoria. Mi lascia invece perplesso che abbia trascurato il secondo (Alinei 2000), come appare dalle sue stesse parole: «em durà a parlar molt poc del segon volum». Anche se capisco che una discussione simile del secondo volume avrebbe richiesto troppo spazio, sono convinto, tuttavia, che alcune delle sue critiche al primo volume sarebbero state formulate in modo diverso se il recensore avesse preso in considerazione, con lo stesso impegno, anche il secondo. E sono anche certo che lo stesso Adiego non troverebbe del tutto logico che io rispondessi, per esempio, a una prima metà della sua recensione, senza tener conto della seconda... Stando così le cose, comunque, cercherò anch'io, nella mia risposta, di tener conto più del primo volume che non del secondo (al quale mi riferirò solo quando indispensabile), e ciò da un lato per non mettere in imbarazzo il mio recensore, dall'altro perché le sue critiche mi sembrano infondate, anche se viste nel solo quadro introduttivo del primo volume.
This paper develops the hypothesis of a correlation between lithic and linguistic development on ... more This paper develops the hypothesis of a correlation between lithic and linguistic development on the basis of two observations: (I) the seemingly close similarity between the distributional area of the three basic morphological types of language (isolating, inflecting, agglutinative) and that of the earliest lithic industries ('Movius line', dividing choppers, bifacials and Mode 1 tools). (II) The seemingly close correspondence, in terms of operational and cognitive processes, between choppers and uninflected words as results of the truncation of, respectively, stone and vocal emission; between bifacials and inflected words as results of retouching of stones and of words, and between prepared cores and agglutinative words as results of juxtaposition of blades and morphemes. The Continuity Theory based on the correlation seems to open the possibility of reconciling the evolutionary approach to language origins (Tobias, Gibson e.a.) with Chomsky's innatism, while contradicting the attribution of modern language exclusively to Homo sapiens sapiens.
ALE, which has seen a continued and renewed commitment of individuals and institutions regardless... more ALE, which has seen a continued and renewed commitment of individuals and institutions regardless of all the political changes around them, is in my experience one of the finest examples of human commitment to scientific research in a context of international cooperation. My deepest hope is that the ALE will continue as a permanent laboratory for European geolinguistics and dialectology, opening itself, at the same time, to the new interdisciplinary developments that are profoundly changing our views on human evolution, and can be expected to have a gigantic impact also on historical linguistics.
1. INTRODUZIONE 1. Text de la conferència feta per l'autor a Niça, el 28 de setembre de 2000. Atè... more 1. INTRODUZIONE 1. Text de la conferència feta per l'autor a Niça, el 28 de setembre de 2000. Atès que el tema és important i que fins ara la seva problemàtica ha estat poc presa en consideració en els medis de la romanística, hem cregut oportú d'inserir-lo als ER i agraïm ben de cor a Mario Alinei que ens n'hagi facilitat generosament la publicació. (N. del C. de R.) 2. Per la bibliografia archeologica, sia generale che dettagliata, rinvio ai miei due volumi , e qui mi limito a elencare i soli titoli dai quali ho tratto citazioni. ondate, sterminando o assoggettando le popolazioni autoctone del continente europeo, considerate non-IE, e sostituendo la propria lingua a quasi tutte le lingue preesistenti ( ).
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