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The Prehistory of Language
Edited by Rudolf Botha and Chris Knight
368 pages
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Figures, Tables
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234x156mm
978-0-19-954588-9
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Paperback
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23 April 2009
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- Stylish and accessible
- Prominent international authors
- Multi-disciplinary
- Popular field among natural and social scientists
- Shows why women speak better than men
'When, why, and how did language evolve?' 'Why do only humans have language?' This book looks at these and other questions about the origins and evolution of language. It does so via a rich diversity of perspectives, including social, cultural, archaeological, palaeoanthropological, musicological, anatomical, neurobiological, primatological, and linguistic. Among the subjects it considers are: how far sociality is a prerequisite for language; the evolutionary links between language and music; the relation between natural selection and niche construction; the origins of the lexicon; the role of social play in language development; the use of signs by great apes; the evolution of
syntax; the evolutionary biology of language; the insights offered by Chomsky's biolinguistic approach to mind and language; the emergence of recursive language; the selectional advantages of the human vocal tract; and why women speak better than men.
The authors, drawn from all over the world, are prominent linguists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, archaeologists, primatologists, social anthropologists, and specialists in artificial intelligence. As well as explaining what is understood about the evolution of language, they look squarely at the formidable obstacles to knowing more - the absence of direct evidence, for example; the problems of using indirect evidence; the lack of a common conception of language; confusion about the operation of natural
selection and other processes of change; the scope for misunderstanding in a multi-disciplinary field, and many more. Despite these difficulties, the authors in their stylish and readable contributions to this book are able to show just how much has been achieved in this most fruitful and fascinating area of research in the social, natural, and cognitive sciences.
Readership: Scholars and advanced students of the evolution of language including linguists, anthropologists, primatologists, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and those working on artificial intelligence. General readers interested in the subject and in science more generally.
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Edited by Rudolf Botha, University of Stellenbosch, and Chris Knight, University of East London Contributors:
Rudolf Botha, University of Stellenbosch
Chris Knight, University of East London
Frederick L. Coolidge, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Ian Cross, University of Cambridge
Bart de Boer, University of Amsterdam
Robin Dunbar, University of Oxford
William D. Hopkins, Berry College
Kevin Laland, University of St. Andrews
David A. Leavens, University of Sussex
John Mitani, University of Michigan
Steven
Mithen, University of Reading
John Odling-Smee, University of Oxford
Simone Pika, University of Manchester
Timothy P. Racine, Simon Fraser University
Sonia Ragir, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Eric Reuland, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Great Ape Trust of Iowa
Luc Steels, University of Brussels
Maggie Tallerman, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Elly van Gelderen, Arizona State University
Wendy K. Wilkins, University of North Texas
Ghofur Eliot Woodruff, University of Cambridge
Thomas Wynn, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
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1: Rudolf Botha: Introduction: Rewards and Challenges of Multi-perspectival Work on the Evolution of Language and Speech
2: Robin Dunbar: Why Only Humans Have Language
3: Luc Steels: Is Sociality a Crucial Prerequisite for the Emergence of Language?
4: Steven Mithen: Holistic Communication and the Co-evolution of Language and Music: Resurrecting an Old Idea
5: Ian Cross and Ghofur Eliot Woodruff: Music as a Communicative Medium
6: John Odling-Smee and Kevin N. Laland: Cultural Niche construction: Evolution's Cradle of Language
7: Sonia Ragir and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: Playing With Meaning: Normative Function and Structure in Play
8: David A. Leavens, Timothy P. Racine, and William D. Hopkins: The Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Non-verbal Deixis
9: Simone Pika and John C. Mitani: The Directed Scratch: Evidence for a Referential Gesture in Chimpanzees?
10: Maggie Tallerman: The Origins of the Lexicon: How a Word-store Evolved
11: Eric Reuland: Language-symbolization and Beyond
12: Elly van Gelderen: Grammaticalization From a Biolinguistic Perspective
13: Frederick L. Coolidge and Thomas Wynn: Recursion, Phonological Storage Capacity, and the Evolution of Modern Speech
14: Bart de Boer: Why Women Speak Better Than Men and its Significance for Evolution
15: Wendy K. WIlkins: Mosaic Neurobiology and Anatomical Plausibility
References
Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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