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#659 Nick Chater & Morten Christiansen - The Language Game; Language as a Game of Charades

The Dissenter

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The Role of Improvisation in Language Evolution

We are borrowing from this notion of language as a rave, says author. "All we're ever trying to do when we're communicating is try to make sense of what somebody else is doing in the moment" This means that stable regularities of grammar aren't really the starting points, he adds. Instead, linguistic patterns over time can become entrenched - but they will be flexible and partial pattern.

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