Origins of Language

Origins of Language
Author: Sverker Johansson
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2005-02-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027294607


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Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the student or researcher who prefers solid data and well-supported conclusions, over speculative scenarios. Much that has been written on the origins of language is characterized by hypothesizing largely unconstrained by evidence. But empirical data do exist, and the purpose of this book is to integrate and review the available evidence from all relevant disciplines, not only linguistics but also, e.g., neurology, primatology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology. The evidence is then used to constrain the multitude of scenarios for language origins, demonstrating that many popular hypotheses are untenable. Among the issues covered: (1) Human evolutionary history, (2) Anatomical prerequisites for language, (3) Animal communication and ape "language", (4) Mind and language, (5) The role of gesture, (6) Innateness, (7) Selective advantage of language, (8) Proto-language.


Origins of Language
Language: en
Pages: 359
Authors: Sverker Johansson
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-02-17 - Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

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Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the s
The Origin of Language
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Merritt Ruhlen
Categories: Human evolution
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023 - Publisher: Harvard Oriental Series - Opera Minora

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"What can the classification of languages tell us about human origins and human prehistory? This book presents a popular account of the origin of language. It i
History of Language
Language: en
Pages: 244
Authors: Steven Roger Fischer
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-10-03 - Publisher: Reaktion Books

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It is tempting to take the tremendous rate of contemporary linguistic change for granted. What is required, in fact, is a radical reinterpretation of what langu
On the Origin of Language
Language: en
Pages: 187
Authors: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-04-26 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

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This volume combines Rousseau's essay on the origin of diverse languages with Herder's essay on the genesis of the faculty of speech. Rousseau's essay is import
New Perspectives on the Origins of Language
Language: en
Pages: 600
Authors: Claire Lefebvre
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-11-15 - Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

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The question of how language emerged is one of the most fascinating and difficult problems in science. In recent years, a strong resurgence of interest in the e