The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form

by Edited by Chris Knight , Michael Studdert-Kennedy , James Hurford

• ISBN13: 9780521781572
• ISBN10: 0521781574
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language covers the origins and early evolution of language. Its main purpose is to synthesize current thinking on this topic, particularly from a standpoint in theoretical linguistics. It is suitable for students of human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology and general linguistics. It is the outcome of a major international conference on the evolution of language and includes contributions from many of the best known figures in this field. Very few truly interdisciplinary volumes on this topic have previously been published.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Language: A Darwinian Adaptation?	1	(18)
Chris Knight
Michael Studdert-Kennedy
James R. Hurford
Part I The Evolution of Cooperative Communication
Introduction: The Evolution of Cooperative Communication	19	(8)
Chris Knight
Comprehension, Production and Conventionalisation in the Origins of Language	27	(13)
Robbins Burling
Cooperation, Competition and the Evolution of Prelinguistic Communication	40	(22)
Jason Noble
Language and Hominid Politics	62	(19)
Jean-Louis Dessalles
Secret Language Use at Female Initiation: Bounding Gossiping Communities	81	(18)
Camilla Power
Play as Precursor of Phonology and Syntax	99	(24)
Chris Knight
Part II The Emergence of Phonetic Structure
Introduction: The Emergence of Phonetic Structure	123	(7)
Michael Studdert-Kennedy
The Role of Mimesis in Infant Language Development: Evidence for Phylogeny?	130	(16)
Marilyn M. Vihman
Rory A. Depaolis
Evolution of Speech: The Relation Between Ontogeny and Phylogeny	146	(15)
Peter F. Macneilage
Barbara L. Davis
Evolutionary Implications of the Particulate Principle: Imitation and the Dissociation of Phonetic Form from Semantic Function	161	(16)
Michael Studdert-Kennedy
Emergence of Sound Systems Through Self-Organisation	177	(22)
Bart De Boer
Modelling Language-Physiology Coevolution	199	(20)
Daniel Livingstone
Colin Fyfe
Part III The Emergence of Syntax
Introduction: The Emergence of Syntax	219	(12)
James R. Hurford
The Spandrels of the Linguistic Genotype	231	(17)
David Lightfoot
The Distinction Between Sentences and Noun Phrases: An Impediment to Language Evolution?	248	(16)
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
How Protolanguage Became Language	264	(21)
Derek Bickerton
Holistic Utterances in Protolanguage: The Link from Primates to Humans	285	(18)
Alison Wray
Syntax Without Natural Selection: How Compositionality Emerges from Vocabulary in a Population of Learners
Simon Kirby	303	(114)
Social Transmission Favours Linguistic Generalisation	324	(29)
James R. Hurford
Words, Memes and Language Evolution	353	(19)
Robert P. Worden
On the Reconstruction of `Proto-World' Word Order	372	(19)
Frederick J. Newmeyer
Epilogue
The History, Rate and Pattern of World Linguistic Evolution	391	(26)
Mark Pagel
Author Index	417	(4)
Subject Index	421