Book

The social origins of language

Seyfarth, Robert M., author, Cheney, Dorothy L., author, Platt, Michael L., editor, author of introduction

Overview

\"The origins of human language remain hotly debated. Despite growing appreciation of cognitive and neural continuity between humans and other animals, an evolutionary account of human language-in its modern form-remains as elusive as ever. The Social Origins of Language provides a novel perspective on this question and charts a new path toward its resolution.In the lead essay, Robert Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney draw on their decades-long pioneering research on monkeys and baboons in the wild to show how primates use vocalizations to modulate social dynamics. They argue that key elements of human language emerged from the need to decipher and encode complex social interactions. In other words, social communication is the biological foundation upon which evolution built more complex language.Seyfarth and Cheney's argument serves as a jumping-off point for responses by John McWhorter, Ljiljana Progovac, Jennifer E. Arnold, Christopher I. Petkov and Benjamin Wilson, and Peter Godfrey-Smith, each of whom draw on their respective expertise in linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Michael Platt provides an introduction, Seyfarth and Cheney a concluding essay. Ultimately, The Social Origins of Language offers thought-provoking viewpoints on how human language evolved.\"--Front jacket flap.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Language and languages Origin. / Social evolution. / Social behavior in animals. / Animal communication. / Soziale Evolution. / Sprachursprung.
• ISBN: 9780691177236, 0691177236

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
P116.S49 2018	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE