11 found
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  1.  16
    From Physical Aggression to Verbal Behavior: Language Evolution and Self-Domestication Feedback Loop.Ljiljana Progovac & Antonio Benítez-Burraco - 2019 - Frontiers in Psychology 10.
    We propose that human self-domestication favored the emergence of a less aggressive phenotype in our species, more precisely phenotype prone to replace (reactive) physical aggression with verbal aggression. In turn, the (gradual) transition to verbal aggression and to more sophisticated forms of verbal behavior favored self-domestication, with the two processes engaged in a reinforcing feedback loop, considering that verbal behavior entails not only less violence and better survival, but also more opportunities to interact longer and socialize with more conspecifics, ultimately (...)
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  2.  32
    Human Self‐Domestication and the Evolution of Pragmatics.Antonio Benítez-Burraco, Francesco Ferretti & Ljiljana Progovac - 2021 - Cognitive Science 45 (6):e12987.
    As proposed for the emergence of modern languages, we argue that modern uses of languages (pragmatics) also evolved gradually in our species under the effects of human self‐domestication, with three key aspects involved in a complex feedback loop: (a) a reduction in reactive aggression, (b) the sophistication of language structure (with emerging grammars initially facilitating the transition from physical aggression to verbal aggression); and (c) the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including, but not limited to, turn‐taking and inferential abilities. (...)
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  3.  41
    Diversity of Grammars and Their Diverging Evolutionary and Processing Paths: Evidence From Functional MRI Study of Serbian.Ljiljana Progovac, Natalia Rakhlin, William Angell, Ryan Liddane, Lingfei Tang & Noa Ofen - 2018 - Frontiers in Psychology 9:326910.
    We address the puzzle of “unity in diversity” in human languages by advocating the (minimal) common denominator for the diverse expressions of transitivity across human languages, consistent with the view that early in language evolution there was a modest beginning for syntax and that this beginning provided the foundation for the further elaboration of syntactic complexity. This study reports the results of a functional MRI experiment investigating differential patterns of brain activation during processing of sentences with minimal versus fuller syntactic (...)
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  4.  30
    Minimalism in the Light of Biology: What to Retain and What to Discard?Ljiljana Progovac - 2019 - Frontiers in Psychology 10.
    This volume, and in general this moment in the history of science, is calling for us linguists, and especially those of us who have worked in Minimalism, to characterize what it is that our approach has discovered, that we want to embrace and move forward with, and what it is that we need to discard. There is plenty in both categories, and it is precisely the considerations of biology (e.g. language evolution) that can help us weed out the burdensome, damaging (...)
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  5.  20
    Neural Correlates of Syntax and Proto-Syntax: Evolutionary Dimension.Ljiljana Progovac, Natalia Rakhlin, William Angell, Ryan Liddane, Lingfei Tang & Noa Ofen - 2018 - Frontiers in Psychology 9.
  6. Compounds and commands in the evolution of human language.Ljiljana Progovac - forthcoming - Theoria Et Historia Scientiarum 9:49-70.
     
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  7.  9
    Protosyntax: A thetic (unaccusative) stage?Eugenia Casielles & Ljiljana Progovac - 2012 - Theoria Et Historia Scientiarum 9:29-48.
    We have questioned the assumption that SV (agent-action) structures are basic and primary and have shown that thetic VS unaccusative structures, involving an event+theme unit, are better candidates for simple, primary proto-syntactic “fossils.” We have shown that thetic unaccusative structures are simpler syntactically, prosodically, semantically and informationally, and have suggested that this is due to the fact that syntactic evolution progressed from a stage with thetic statements (with no arguments, such as It is cold, or with only one argument, typically (...)
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  8.  14
    The human fear paradox turns out to be less paradoxical when global changes in human aggression and language evolution are considered.Antonio Benítez-Burraco & Ljiljana Progovac - 2023 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 46:e55.
    Our commentary focuses on the interaction between Grossmann's fearful ape hypothesis (FAH) and the human self-domestication hypothesis (HSDH), also taking into account language acquisition and evolution. Although there is considerable overlap between the two hypotheses, there are also some discrepancies, and our goal is to consider the extent to which HSDH can explain the phenomena identified by FAH without invoking fearfulness as directly adaptive.
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  9.  30
    Editorial: The Biology of Language Under a Minimalist Lens: Promises, Achievements, and Limits.Antonio Benítez-Burraco, Koji Fujita, Koji Hoshi & Ljiljana Progovac - 2021 - Frontiers in Psychology 12:654768.
  10. Negative Polarity and Grammatical Representation.Ljiljana Progovac - 1993 - Linguistics and Philosophy 10:49-180.
     
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  11.  84
    Negative polarity: Entailment and binding. [REVIEW]Ljiljana Progovac - 1993 - Linguistics and Philosophy 16 (2):149 - 180.