Evolution of Communicative Flexibility: Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology)

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Experts investigate communicative flexibility (in both form and usage of signals) as the foundation of the evolution of complex communication systems, including human language.

Author(s): D. Kimbrough Oller, Ulrike Griebel
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2008

Language: English
Pages: 367

Contents......Page 6
Series Foreword......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Reference......Page 11
I INTRODUCTION......Page 12
1 Signal and Functional Flexibility in the Emergence of Communication Systems: The Editors’ Introduction......Page 14
II CROSS-SPECIES PERSPECTIVES ON FORCES AND PATTERNS OF FLEXIBILITY IN COMMUNICATION......Page 18
2 Evolutionary Forces Favoring Communicative Flexibility......Page 20
3 Vocal Learning in Mammals with Special Emphasis on Pinnipeds......Page 52
4 Contextually Flexible Communication in Nonhuman Primates......Page 82
5 Constraints in Primate Vocal Production......Page 104
6 Contextual Sensitivity and Bird Song: A Basis for Social Life......Page 132
III THE ROLE OF FLEXIBILITY AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPLEXITY IN THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE......Page 150
7 Contextual Flexibility in Infant Vocal Development and the Earliest Stepsin the Evolution of Language......Page 152
8 Scaffolds for Babbling: Innateness and Learning in the Emergence of Contexually Flexible Vocal Production in Human Infants......Page 180
9 Cognitive Precursors to Language......Page 204
10 Language and Niche Construction......Page 226
IV UNDERPINNINGS OF COMMUNICATIVE CONTROL: FOUNDATIONS FOR FLEXIBLE COMMUNICATION......Page 244
11 How Apes Use Gestures: The Issue of Flexibility......Page 246
12 The Role of Play in the Evolution and Ontogeny of Contextually Flexible Communication......Page 264
V MODELING OF THE EMERGENCE OF COMPLEXITY AND FLEXIBILITY IN COMMUNICATION......Page 290
13 Detection and Estimation of Complexity and Contextual Flexibility in Nonhuman Animal Communication......Page 292
14 The Evolution of Flexibility in Bird Song......Page 316
15 Development and Evolution of Speech Sound Categories: Principles and Models......Page 338
Contributors......Page 358
Index......Page 360