Language Origin: A Multidisciplinary Approach

✍ Scribed by Gordon Hewes (auth.), Jan Wind, Brunetto Chiarelli, Bernard Bichakjian, Alberto Nocentini, Abraham Jonker (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 554
• Series: NATO ASI Series 61
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Language Origin: A Multidisciplinary Approach presents a synthesis of viewpoints and data on linguistic, psychological, anatomical and behavioral studies on living species of Primates and provides a comparative framework for the evaluation of paleoanthropological studies. This double endeavor makes it possible to direct new research on the nature and evolution of human language and cognition.
The book is directed to students of linguistics, biology, anthropoloy, anatomy, physiology, neurology, psychology, archeology, paleontology, and other related fields. A better understanding of speech pathology may stem from a better understanding of the relationship of human communication to the evolution of our species. The book is conceived as a timely contribution to such knowledge since it allows, for the first time, a systematic assessment of the origins of human language from a comprehensive array of scientific viewpoints.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
History of Glottogonic Theories....Pages 3-20
Speech Origin: A Review....Pages 21-37
Adaptationist and Nativist Positions on Language Origins: A Critique....Pages 39-48
Front Matter....Pages 49-49
A Systematic Relationship between Brain Size Increase and Larynx Transformation during Hominization....Pages 51-65
Auditory Ossicles and the Evolution of the Primate Ear: A Biomechanical Approach....Pages 67-86
Front Matter....Pages 87-87
Basic Features of Cortical Connectivity and Some Consideration on Language....Pages 89-102
Front Matter....Pages 103-103
The Motor Theory of Language: Origin and Function....Pages 105-119
The Neural Circuitry Underlying Primate Calls and Human Language....Pages 121-162
Evolving Mixed-Media Messages and Grammatical Language: Secondary Uses of the Neural Sequencing Machinery Needed for Ballistic Movements....Pages 163-179
Front Matter....Pages 181-181
The Contribution of Psycholinguistics to the Study of Language Origins....Pages 183-193
Cerebral Lateralization of Human Languages Clinical and Experimental Data....Pages 195-224
The Origin of Visible Language....Pages 225-234
Implications of the Evolution of Writing for the Origin of Language: Can a Paleoneurologist Find Happiness in the Neolithic?....Pages 235-241
Front Matter....Pages 243-243
Prelinguistic Development of Children and Chimpanzees....Pages 245-263
Language Origin: The Role of Animal Cognition....Pages 265-278
Front Matter....Pages 279-279
Evolution and Lateralization of the Two Great Primate Action Systems....Pages 281-300
The Primate Isolation Call and the Evolution and Physiological Control of Human Speech....Pages 301-321
Vocal Communication of Pan Troglogytes : “Triangulating” to the Origin of Spoken Language....Pages 323-350
Early Signs of Language in Cross-Fostered Chimpanzees....Pages 351-381
Front Matter....Pages 383-383
Fossil Skulls and Hominid Vocal Tracts: New Approaches to Charting the Evolution of Human Speech....Pages 385-397
Front Matter....Pages 383-383
On the Evolutionary Biology of Speech and Syntax....Pages 399-419
The Origin of Language: An Anthropological Approach....Pages 421-448
On Emergent Pre-Language and Language Evolution and Transcendent Feedback from Language Production on Cognition and Emotion in Early Man....Pages 449-464
Front Matter....Pages 465-465
Roots of Language: The Forbidden Experiment....Pages 467-477
Pragmatics and the Evolution of Syntax....Pages 479-494
Front Matter....Pages 495-495
Language Evolution: Evidence from Historical Linguistics....Pages 497-516
Evolution in Language: Evidence from the Romance Auxiliary....Pages 517-528
Front Matter....Pages 529-529
Pre-Linguistic Roots of Language and Its Innate Ideas....Pages 531-539
On the Origins of Philosophical Language....Pages 541-549
Back Matter....Pages 551-557

✦ Subjects

Anthropology; Psycholinguistics; Philosophy of Mind