Unravelling The Evolution Of Language

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Unravelling the Evolution of Language

Author : Rudolf P. Botha
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004487204
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Unravelling the Evolution of Language by : Rudolf P. Botha

Download or read book Unravelling the Evolution of Language written by Rudolf P. Botha and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What blocks the way to a better understanding of language evolution, it is widely held, is above all a paucity of factual evidence. Not so, argues Unravelling the Evolution of Language. This book finds the main obstacle, instead, in a poverty of a specific kind of theory—restrictive theory. It shows, too, that this poverty of restrictive theory is one of the root causes of the paucity of factual evidence. "Unravelling"...takes it that a theory of a thing T—for example, language—is restrictive if it gives us a basis for distinguishing T in a non-arbitrary way from all things that are in fact distinct from it, including those that happen to be related to it. The book then argues in detail that much of the recent work on language evolution proceeds from loose assumptions, rather than restrictive theories, about a number of crucial "things": The entities, prelinguistic or linguistic, that are believed to have undergone evolution; the processes by which these entities are believed to have evolved; the ways in which these (pre)linguistic entities link up with entities that are believed to be correlates of them; the sources of data that are believed to yield indirect evidence about the evolution of language; and the factors that add to or subtract from the scientific substance of accounts of language evolution. In support of its main argument, Unravelling the Evolution of Language puts forward detailed analyses of various recent accounts of language evolution, including co-optationist accounts by Noam Chomsky, Stephen Jay Gould, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and Lyle Jenkins preadaptationist accounts by Philip Lieberman, Wendy Wilkins, Jenny Wakefield, Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, William Calvin and Derek Bickerton adaptationist accounts by Steven Pinker, Paul Bloom and others. This means that Unravelling...as it builds its main argument, also offers an appraisal of some significant contributions to recent work on language evolution.

Language Evolution

Author : Rudolf Botha
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107135133
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Evolution by : Rudolf Botha

Download or read book Language Evolution written by Rudolf Botha and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addresses the question: how can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it?

The Origins of Language Revisited

Author : Nobuo Masataka
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811542503
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (115 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Language Revisited by : Nobuo Masataka

Download or read book The Origins of Language Revisited written by Nobuo Masataka and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the latest research on the origins of language, with a focus on the process of evolution and differentiation of language. It provides an update on the earlier successful book, “The Origins of Language” edited by Nobuo Masataka and published in 2008, with new content on emerging topics. Drawing on the empirical evidence in each respective chapter, the editor presents a coherent account of how language evolved, how music differentiated from language, and how humans finally became neurodivergent as a species. Chapters on nonhuman primate communication reveal that the evolution of language required the neural rewiring of circuits that controlled vocalization. Language contributed not only to the differentiation of our conceptual ability but also to the differentiation of psychic functions of concepts, emotion, and behavior. It is noteworthy that a rudimentary form of syntax (regularity of call sequences) has emerged in nonhuman primates. The following chapters explain how music differentiated from language, whereas the pre-linguistic system, or the “prosodic protolanguage,” in nonhuman primates provided a precursor for both language and music. Readers will gain a new understanding of music as a rudimentary form of language that has been discarded in the course of evolution and its role in restoring the primordial synthesis in the human psyche. The discussion leads to an inspiring insight into autism and neurodiversity in humans. This thought-provoking and carefully presented book will appeal to a wide range of readers in linguistics, psychology, phonology, biology, anthropology and music.

Language Evolution

Author : Morten H. Christiansen
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191581666
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Evolution by : Morten H. Christiansen

Download or read book Language Evolution written by Morten H. Christiansen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-07-24 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it that makes us human? This is one of the most challenging and important questions we face. Our species' defining characteristic is language - we appear to be unique in the natural world in having such an incredibly open-ended system for putting thoughts into words. If we are to truly understand ourselves as a species we must understand the origins of this strange and unique ability. To do so, we need to answer some of the most intriguing questions in contemporary scientific research: Where did language come from? How did it evolve? Why are we unique in possessing it? This book, for the first time, brings together the leading thinkers who are trying to unlock the puzzle of language evolution. Here we see the latest ideas and theories from fields as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. In a series of seventeen well-written and accessible chapters we get an unrivalled view of the state of the art in this exciting area. Current controversies are revealed and new perspectives uncovered, in a clear and readable guide to the latest theories. This collection marks a major step forward in our quest to understand the origins and evolution of human language. In doing so it sheds new light on the process of evolution, the workings of the brain, the structure of language, and - most importantly - what it means to be human. Language Evolution is essential reading for researchers and students working in the areas covered, and has been used as a textbook for courses in the field. It will also attract the general reader who wants to know more about this fascinating subject.

The Evolution of Language

Author : Andrew D. M. Smith
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9812776117
Total Pages : 531 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (127 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Language by : Andrew D. M. Smith

Download or read book The Evolution of Language written by Andrew D. M. Smith and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2008 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts from the 7th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG7), held in Barcelona in March 2008. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterized by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many fields including anthropology, archeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, computer science, ethology, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, paleontology, primatology, psychology and statistical physics.The latest theoretical, experimental and modeling research on language evolution is presented in this collection. It includes contributions from leading scientists such as Derek Bickerton, Rudolf Botha, Camilo Cela Conde, Francesco d'Erico, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Simon Kirby, Gary Marcus, Friedemann Pulvermller and Juan Uriagereka.

The Origins of Grammar

Author : James R. Hurford
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199207879
Total Pages : 808 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of Grammar by : James R. Hurford

Download or read book The Origins of Grammar written by James R. Hurford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second in James Hurford's acclaimed two-volume exploration of the biological evolution of language explores the evolutionary and cultural preconditions and consequences of humanity's great leap into language.

The Evolution of Language

Author : W. Tecumseh Fitch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 113948706X
Total Pages : 625 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Language by : W. Tecumseh Fitch

Download or read book The Evolution of Language written by W. Tecumseh Fitch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the brightest chimpanzee, exposed to the same environment, will not. Why not? How, and why, did language evolve in our species and not in others? Since Darwin's theory of evolution, questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed at specialist audiences. The diversity of perspectives - from linguistics, anthropology, speech science, genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology - can be bewildering. Tecumseh Fitch cuts through this vast literature, bringing together its most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles of human history.

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution

Author : Maggie Tallerman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199541116
Total Pages : 790 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution by : Maggie Tallerman

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution written by Maggie Tallerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 790 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars present critical accounts of every aspect of the field, including work in animal behaviour; anatomy, genetics and neurology; the prehistory of language; the development of our uniquely linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change.

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language

Author : Rudolf Botha
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191626473
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolutionary Emergence of Language by : Rudolf Botha

Download or read book The Evolutionary Emergence of Language written by Rudolf Botha and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents new and stimulating approaches to the study of language evolution and considers their implications for future research. Leading scholars from linguistics, primatology, anthroplogy, and cognitive science consider how language evolution can be understood by means of inference from the study of linked or analogous phenomena in language, animal behaviour, genetics, neurology, culture, and biology. In their introduction the editors show how these approaches can be interrelated and deployed together through their use of comparable forms of inference and the similar conditions they place on the use of evidence. The Evolutionary Emergence of Language will interest everyone concerned with this intriguing and important subject, including those in linguistics, biology, anthropology, archaeology, neurology, and cognitive science.

A Critical Introduction to Language Evolution

Author : Ljiljana Progovac
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030032353
Total Pages : 86 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis A Critical Introduction to Language Evolution by : Ljiljana Progovac

Download or read book A Critical Introduction to Language Evolution written by Ljiljana Progovac and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-18 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a critical introduction to the current views and controversies regarding language evolution. It sheds new light on hot topics such as: How ancient is language? Did Neanderthals have some form of language? Did language evolve gradually and incrementally, through stages, or suddenly, in one leap, in all its complexity? Does language evolution involve natural selection or not? This book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in language evolution, especially those in the fields of linguistics, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience.

Language in Cognition

Author : Pieter A. M. Seuren
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191567930
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Language in Cognition by : Pieter A. M. Seuren

Download or read book Language in Cognition written by Pieter A. M. Seuren and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-02-26 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language in Cognition argues that language is based on the human construal of reality. Humans refer to and quantify over virtual entities with the same ease as they do over actual entities: the natural ontology of language, the author argues, must therefore comprise both actual and virtual entities and situations. He reformulates speech act theory, suggesting that the primary function of language is less the transfer of information than the establishing of socially binding commitments or appeals based on the proposition expressed. This leads him first to a new analysis of the systems and structures of cognitive language machinery and their ecological embedding, and finally to a reformulation of the notion of meaning, in which sentence meaning is distinguished from lexical meaning and the vagaries and multifarious applications of lexical meanings may be explained and understood. This is the first of a two-volume foundational study of language, published under the title, Language from Within. Pieter Seuren discusses and analyses such apparently diverse issues as the ontology underlying the semantics of language, speech act theory, intensionality phenomena, the machinery and ecology of language, sentential and lexical meaning, the natural logic of language and cognition, and the intrinsically context-sensitive nature of language - and shows them to be intimately linked. Throughout his ambitious enterprise, he maintains a constant dialogue with established views, reflecting on their development from Ancient Greece to the present. The resulting synthesis concerns central aspects of research and theory in linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science.

The Cradle of Language

Author : Rudolf Botha
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191567671
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cradle of Language by : Rudolf Botha

Download or read book The Cradle of Language written by Rudolf Botha and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to focus on the African origins of human language. It explores the origins of language and culture 250,000-150,000 years ago when modern humans evolved in Africa. Scholars from around the world address the fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence and critically examine the ways it has been interpreted. The book also considers parallel developments among Europe's Neanderthals and the contrasting outcomes for the two species. Following an extensive introduction contextualizing and linking the book's topics and approaches, fifteen chapters bring together many of the most significant recent findings and developments in modern human origins research. The fields represented by the authors include genetics, biology, behavioural ecology, linguistics, archaeology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

Language and Imaginability

Author : Horst Ruthrof
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443858528
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Language and Imaginability by : Horst Ruthrof

Download or read book Language and Imaginability written by Horst Ruthrof and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language and Imaginability pursues the hypothesis that natural language is fundamentally heterosemiotic, combining as it does the symbolicity of word sounds with the iconicity of motivated signifieds conceived as socially organized mental events. Viewed phenomenologically, language is regarded as an ontically heteronomous construct performed by speakers within the boundaries of sufficient semiosis under the control of the speech community. From both angles, a commitment to some form of intersubjective mentalism appears unavoidable. This, the author argues, forces us to conclude that imaginability plays a central role in the constitution of linguistic meanings as indirectly public phenomena. The book argues this case by comparing two main avenues along which the theorization of language has been pursued in the Western tradition since Aristotle, via resemblance relations and propositional accounts. Locke, Kant, Peirce, Husserl and cognitive linguistics are invoked on the side of resemblance and iconicity; Frege, Wittgenstein, Davidson and other analytical philosophers up to intensional semantics are interpreted in terms of their relation to imaginability. The book also addresses the ambivalence vis-à-vis iconicity which we find in much of linguistics, in brain research and evolutionary accounts, as well as in pragmatics. The study ends on a series of redefinitions of concepts at the heart of the theorization of language.

The Evolution of Language

Author : W. Tecumseh Fitch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 052185993X
Total Pages : 625 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (218 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Language by : W. Tecumseh Fitch

Download or read book The Evolution of Language written by W. Tecumseh Fitch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together the most important insights from the vast amount of literature on the origin of language.

The Prehistory of Language

Author : Rudolf Botha
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199545871
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Prehistory of Language by : Rudolf Botha

Download or read book The Prehistory of Language written by Rudolf Botha and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prominent linguists, cognitive scientists, archaeologists, primatologists, anthropologists, and natural scientists examine issues and advances in understanding language evolution, ranging from the co-evolution of language and music to the evolutionary biology of language. An important and stylish contribution to a fascinating area of research.

From Big Bang to Big Mystery

Author : Brendan M. Purcell
Publisher : New City Press
ISBN 13 : 1565484339
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (654 download)

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Book Synopsis From Big Bang to Big Mystery by : Brendan M. Purcell

Download or read book From Big Bang to Big Mystery written by Brendan M. Purcell and published by New City Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone knows about the 'mystery' of the Big Bang - what started it? This book is about the other 'creation mystery' - where did human beings, in particular, come from? It traces the material part of our origins from the Big Bang through evolution, including the almost 7 million year hominid sequence up to the first humans in Africa over 150,000 years ago. That data doesn't seem to explain what paleontologists and archaeologists call 'the Big Bang of Human Consciousness.' In his fascinating, accessible and thorough study, renowned priest and academic Brendan Purcell shows the complementarity that scientists, theologians, and philosophers bring to a deeper understanding of the mystery of human existence and human consciousness.

Chomsky's Minimalism

Author : Pieter A. M. Seuren
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 0195173066
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (951 download)

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Book Synopsis Chomsky's Minimalism by : Pieter A. M. Seuren

Download or read book Chomsky's Minimalism written by Pieter A. M. Seuren and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2004-08-26 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noam Chomsky's current theory, published in 1995, is known as The Minimalist Program and has been presented as his crowning achievement. Minimalism has spawned in linguistics an entire research program, despite being fundamentally misguided, according to distinguished linguist and philosopher of language Pieter Seuren. Seuren's accessible and spirited attack argues that the Minimalist Program is deeply flawed. Seuren points to the original acrimonious split in the 1960s and 1970s between Chomsky's generative grammar and the alternative generative semantics proposed by his followers, and argues that the latter theory was sounder and unfairly suppressed. Seuren maintains that this suppression, and the cult surrounding Chomsky and Minimalism more generally, has done great damage to linguistics by impairing open discussion of empirical issues and excluding valid alternatives.