New essays on the origin of language [Elektronisk resurs] / edited by Jürgen Trabant, Sean Ward.

• Machine generated contents note: Introduction: New perspectives on an old academic question -- Jiirgen Trabant 1 -- 1. Biological aspects of the question -- On the subcortical bases of the evolution of language -- Philip Lieberman 21 -- Origin of the human language faculty: the language amoeba hypothesis -- Eors Szathmdry 41 -- 2. The first language -- The apparent paradox of language evolution: can Universal Grammar be -- explained by adaptive selection? -- Manfred Bierwisch 55 -- Elementary forms of linguistic organisation -- Wolfgang Klein 81 -- From potential to realisation: an episode in the origin of language -- Bernard Comrie 103 -- Protothought had no logical names -- James R. Hurford 119 -- The birth of rules -- Jean Aitchison 133 -- How language changed the genes: toward an explicit account of the -- evolution of language -- Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka 149 -- 3. Beyond biolinguistics -- The narration "instinct": signalling behaviour, communication, -- and the selective value of storytelling -- Volker Heeschen 179 -- Taxonomic controversies in the twentieth century -- Merritt Ruhlen 197 -- The origin of origins: a play in five acts, with a prologue -- im Himmel and an epilogue auf der Erde -- Henri Meschonnic 215 -- References 229 -- Index 257..

• Main description: The contributions to this volume reflect the state of the art in the renewed discussion on the origin of language. Some of the most important specialists in the field - life scientists and linguists - primarily examine two aspects of the question: the origin of the language faculty and the evolution of the first language. At stake is the relation between nature and culture and between universality and historical particularity as well as cognition, communication, and the very essence of language. 

Ämnesord

Language and languages  -- Origin (LCSH)

Klassifikation

P116 (LCC)

401 (DDC)

LAN009000 (BISAC)

F:d (kssb/8 (machine generated))