Language as an adaptation
As promised, we’ll make the first tutorial fairly straightforward: read Pinker (2003), and turn up prepared to ask questions about it and discuss it. This is an old but fairly easy-reading and non-technical summary of (an older instantiation of) Pinker’s take on language, what it’s for, and how it evolved.
I have suggested some issues you could consider when you are reading it and discussing it in your groups, but don’t feel constrained by these. And if there is a basic issue from the readings or lectures that your classmates or tutor can help clear up, this is a good opportunity to raise it.
The other thing you have to do in this tutorial is agree a rota for who will read and introduce the tutorial readings for the rest of the course - your tutors will guide you through this!
Pinker, S. (2003). Language as an adaptation to the cognitive niche. In M. Christiansen & S. Kirby (Eds.), Language Evolution (pp. 16-37). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Link
NB. the link goes to a copy of the chapter that Pinker has put online - if you want to chase up a reference you can also access the whole book, including the references, via Discover Ed.
NB. Pinker uses the term “retarded” a few times - while this was at one point a scientific term it is now widely considered to be offensive and its use has been discontinued in the last 10-15 years (see e.g. here, which also includes mention of other similar terms which have fallen out of scientific use due to their perjorative connotations), being replaced with less loaded terms like “intellectual disability”. You should therefore not use this term in your discussion or essays.
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