Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/193276 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11982
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
comparative development
cultural evolution
language structures
future tense
politeness distinctions
long-term orientation
grammatical gender
gender bias
hierarchy
emergence of states
JEL: 
O10
Z10
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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