Language
Author: Otto Jespersen
Publisher:
Published: 1922
Total Pages: 462
ISBN-13:
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The Origins of Life
Author: John Maynard Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 191
ISBN-13: 019286209X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPresents, for the general readership, the novel picture of evolution proposed in the 1995 book, The major transitions in evolution.
The Nature and Origin of Language
Author: Denis Bouchard
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2013-10
Total Pages: 402
ISBN-13: 0199681627
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDenis Bouchard looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language evolved. He argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. His account of language origins offers insights into language and to constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis.
Gesture and the Nature of Language
Author: David F. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995-03-16
Total Pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9780521467728
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, in particular the origins of syntax. The authors draw on evidence from areas such as primatology, anthropology, and linguistics to present a groundbreaking account of the notion that language emerged through visible bodily action. Written in a clear and accessible style, Gesture and the Nature of Language will be indispensable reading for all those interested in the origins of language.
How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention
Author: Daniel L. Everett
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
Published: 2017-11-07
Total Pages: 309
ISBN-13: 087140477X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Buzzfeed Gift Guide Selection “Few books on the biological and cultural origin of humanity can be ranked as classics. I believe [this] will be one of them.” — Edward O. Wilson At the time of its publication, How Language Began received high acclaim for capturing the fascinating history of mankind’s most incredible creation. Deemed a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” by Tom Wolfe (Harper’s), Daniel L. Everett posits that the near- 7,000 languages that exist today are not only the product of one million years of evolution but also have allowed us to become Earth’s apex predator. Tracing 60,000 generations, Everett debunks long- held theories across a spectrum of disciplines to affi rm the idea that we are not born with an instinct for language. Woven with anecdotes of his nearly forty years of fi eldwork amongst Amazonian hunter- gatherers, this is a “completely enthralling” (Spectator) exploration of our humanity and a landmark study of what makes us human. “[An] ambitious text. . . . Everett’s amiable tone, and especially his captivating anecdotes . . . , will help the neophyte along.”— New York Times Book Review
The Gestural Origin of Language
Author: David F. Armstrong
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2007-04-19
Total Pages: 162
ISBN-13: 0198036914
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn The Gestural Origin of Language, Sherman Wilcox and David Armstrong use evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of language as we know it today. According to their model, it is sign, not spoken languages, that is the original mode of human communication. The authors demonstrate that modern language is derived from practical actions and gestures that were increasingly recognized as having the potential to represent, and hence to communicate. In other words, the fundamental ability that allows us to use language is our ability to use pictures or icons, rather than linguistic symbols. Evidence from the human fossil record supports the authors' claim by showing that we were anatomically able to produce gestures and signs before we were able to speak fluently. Although speech evolved later as a secondary linguistic communication device that eventually replaced sign language as the primary mode of communication, speech has never entirely replaced signs and gestures. As the first comprehensive attempt to trace the origin of grammar to gesture, this volume will be an invaluable resource for students and professionals in psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.
The Evolution of Language
Author: W. Tecumseh Fitch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-04
Total Pages: 625
ISBN-13: 052185993X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book brings together the most important insights from the vast amount of literature on the origin of language.
The Truth about Language
Author: Michael C. Corballis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2017-03-29
Total Pages: 273
ISBN-13: 022628719X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBackground to the problem -- The Rubicon -- Language as miracle -- Language and natural selection -- The mental prerequisites -- Thinking without language -- Mind reading -- Stories -- Constructing language -- Hands on to language -- Finding voice -- How language is structured -- Over the Rubicon
History of Language
Author: Steven Roger Fischer
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2004-10-03
Total Pages: 244
ISBN-13: 1861895941
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt is tempting to take the tremendous rate of contemporary linguistic change for granted. What is required, in fact, is a radical reinterpretation of what language is. Steven Roger Fischer begins his book with an examination of the modes of communication used by dolphins, birds and primates as the first contexts in which the concept of "language" might be applied. As he charts the history of language from the times of Homo erectus, Neanderthal humans and Homo sapiens through to the nineteenth century, when the science of linguistics was developed, Fischer analyses the emergence of language as a science and its development as a written form. He considers the rise of pidgin, creole, jargon and slang, as well as the effects radio and television, propaganda, advertising and the media are having on language today. Looking to the future, he shows how electronic media will continue to reshape and re-invent the ways in which we communicate. "[a] delightful and unexpectedly accessible book ... a virtuoso tour of the linguistic world."—The Economist "... few who read this remarkable study will regard language in quite the same way again."—The Good Book Guide
Darwinian Biolinguistics
Author: Antonino Pennisi
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2016-12-15
Total Pages: 297
ISBN-13: 3319476882
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book proposes a radically evolutionary approach to biolinguistics that consists in considering human language as a form of species-specific intelligence entirely embodied in the corporeal structures of Homo sapiens. The book starts with a historical reconstruction of two opposing biolinguistic models: the Chomskian Biolinguistic Model (CBM) and the Darwinian Biolinguistic Model (DBM). The second part compares the two models and develops into a complete reconsideration of the traditional biolinguistic issues in an evolutionary perspective, highlighting their potential influence on the paradigm of biologically oriented cognitive science. The third part formulates the philosophical, evolutionary and experimental basis of an extended theory of linguistic performativity within a naturalistic perspective of pragmatics of verbal language. The book proposes a model in which the continuity between human and non-human primates is linked to the gradual development of the articulatory and neurocerebral structures, and to a kind of prelinguistic pragmatics which characterizes the common nature of social learning. In contrast, grammatical, semantic and pragmatic skills that mark the learning of historical-natural languages are seen as a rapid acceleration of cultural evolution. The book makes clear that this acceleration will not necessarily favour the long-term adaptations for Homo sapiens.
