Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution - Hardcover

Lieberman, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393040895 ISBN 13: 9780393040890

Verlag: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

A scientific examination of human speech and the origins of language looks at the evolutionary development--back to the earliest humans--of the biological functions that make human speech possible. BAKER & TAYLOR

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor

The human imagination never ceases to be captivated by the quest for its own roots. Who were our ancestors? In the evolutionary clash of brains and brawn, what was it that prevailed and made us, Homo sapiens, uniquely human? Today scientists cite language as the distinctively human feature. But what is language a sign, a grunt? a sound with collective symbolic meaning? This remarkable book seeks to set the record straight with a critical refinement of the language theory, providing us for the first time with a scientific explanation of how Eve came to speak at all. Wrestling with the age-old question of why such a large gulf exists between humans and other animals, Philip Lieberman mines both the fossil record and modern neuroscientific techniques to chart the development of the anatomy and brain mechanisms necessary for human language as we know it. Eschewing any notion of a language gene or instinct, he pursues instead an evolutionary path in which environment acts on a biological capacity to reveal the interconnectedness of systems that make us most human: precise motor skills, speech, language, and complex thought. Eve Spoke challenges the dominant scientific theories of language's origins and forges a new understanding of the role of language in our evolution.

Reseña del editor

A scientific examination of human speech and the origins of language looks at the evolutionary development--back to the earliest humans--of the biological functions that make human speech possible.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1998
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0393040895
• ISBN 13: 9780393040890
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 192
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar