A satellite workshop of Evolang XII, Torun (Poland).

16 April 2018, 09:00 to 13:45

Languages exhibit many diachronic and synchronic patterns whose origins have been fascinating researchers over decades. Language word order – the way languages order information within a sentence – is perhaps one of the most intriguing of such patterns as it has been at the center of fundamental debates in a variety of areas of language evolution. How did word order evolve? What are the common orders for initial stages of language evolution and what are the typical paths of word order change? What is the nature of constraints on word order in human languages? What might cross-species comparisons tell us about word order patterns in human languages? In this workshop, we aim to offer a global perspective on fundamental questions on word order evolution spanning from early stages of the evolution of communication to present day languages with no constraint on the modality or the species. We invite researchers from different fields to join us in such integrative effort.