Geographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits

Oded Galor, Ömer Özak and Assaf Sarid

No 11982, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This research explores the geographical origins of the coevolution of cultural and linguistic traits in the course of human history, relating the geographical roots of long-term orientation to the structure of the future tense, the agricultural determinants of gender bias to the presence of sex-based grammatical gender, and the ecological origins of hierarchical orientation to the existence of politeness distinctions. The study advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that: (i) geographical characteristics that were conducive to higher natural return to agricultural investment contributed to the existing cross-language variations in the structure of the future tense, (ii) the agricultural determinants of gender gap in agricultural productivity fostered the existence of sex-based grammatical gender, and (iii) the ecological origins of hierarchical societies triggered the emergence of politeness distinctions.

Keywords: comparative development; cultural evolution; language structures; future tense; politeness distinctions; long-term orientation; grammatical gender; gender bias; hierarchy; emergence of states (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 Z10 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 85 pages
Date: 2018-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-gro and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Geographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits (2018)
Working Paper: Geographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits (2018)
Working Paper: Geographical Roots of the Coevolution of Cultural and Linguistic Traits (2018)
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