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.
Author(s): Jürgen Trabant, Sean Ward
Series: Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 133
Publisher: Mouton De Gruyter
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: viii+260
Tags: Linguistics;Words, Language & Grammar;Reference
Jürgen Trabant: Introduction: New perspectives on an old academic question
1. Biological aspects of the question
Philip Lieberman: On the subcortical bases of the evolution of language
Eörs Szathmáry: Origin of the human language faculty: the language amoeba hypothesis
2. The first language
Manfred Bierwisch: The apparent paradox of language evolution: can Universal Grammar be explained by adaptive selection?
Wolfgang Klein: Elementary forms of linguistic organisation
Bernard Comrie: From potential to realisation: an episode in the origin of language
James R. Hurford: Protothought had no logical names
Jean Aitchison: The birth of rules
Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka: How language changed the genes: toward an explicit account of the evolution of language
3. Beyond biolinguistics
Volker Heeschen: The narration “instinct”: signalling behaviour, communication, and the selective value of storytelling
Merritt Ruhlen: Taxonomic controversies in the twentieth century
Henri Meschonnic: The origin of origins: a play in five acts, with a prologue im Himmel and an epilogue auf der Erde
