Tuesday 6 May 2014

The Phylogenetic Time Frame Of Semogenesis

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 17):
First, there is the evolution of human language (and of particular languages as manifestations of this). Known histories represent a small fraction of the total time scale of this evolution, perhaps 0.1%; they become relevant only where particular aspects of this evolutionary change have taken place very recently, e.g. the evolution of scientific discourse. This is the phylogenetic time frame.