LINGUIST List 14.1923

Mon Jul 14 2003

Books: Anthropological Ling: Christiansen, Kirby (eds)

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. tom.perridge, Language Evolution: Christiansen, Kirby (eds)

Title: Language Evolution
Series Title: Studies in the Evolution of Language
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Oxford University Press 
 http://www.oup-usa.org/, http://www.oup.co.uk		 
			
Book URL: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-924484-7
 
Editor: Morten H. Christiansen, Cornell University 
Editor: Simon Kirby, Edinburgh University 

Hardback: ISBN: 0199244839, Pages: 416, Price: �60.00
Paperback: ISBN: 0199244847, Pages: 416, Price: �17.99
			
Abstract:

How humans acquired language and how languages evolved are two of the
most intriguing questions in contemporary scientific
research. Answering them would throw new light on the process of
evolution, the human brain, the structure of language, and what it
means to be human.

In this book leading researchers in cognitive science, anthropology,
ethnology, human biology, and linguistics say what they think about
the origins of human language. In doing so they reflect on current
questions and issues: Did thought precede language? Did pre-homo
sapiens hominid species speak? Does current language contain relict
features of first utterances? Why did people decide to speak? What
came first: vocal chords or the sounds of meaning? Did the human
language faculty evolve and can it be explained by Darwinian theory,
or was it rather a catastrophic accident, a freak of nature? Once
human language has arrived can it be said to evolve and if so is it
evolving now? Yet more fundamentally, is it even possible to study
what our ancestors said to each hundreds of thousands of years ago? Is
the enterprise just a complicated game played by scientists in their
spare time? Or will it reveal new facets of human nature, give new
depth to the understanding of human minds, brains, and behaviour?

Some compelling answers and arguments will be found here. The book
also adds up to an exciting and readable guide to the latest theories
in this fascinating field. In clear, readable prose it sets out what
is known and what may be discovered. The book will attract a wide
readership among anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists,
primatologists, biologists, cognitive scientists, and educated general
readers.

Lingfield(s): Anthropological Linguistics
		Cognitive Science
		General Linguistics
	`	Historical Linguistics
		Linguistic Theories
			 
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)


 See this book announcement on our website: 
 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=6629.