Language Evolution: The Windows Approach (Approaches to the Evolution of Language)
Cambridge University Press, 3/2/2016
EAN 9781316501078, ISBN10: 1316501078
Paperback, 328 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
How can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it? Rudolf Botha addresses this intriguing question in his fascinating new book. Inferences can be drawn about language evolution from a range of other phenomena, serving as windows into this prehistoric process. These include shell-beads, fossil skulls and ancestral brains, modern pidgin and creole languages, homesign systems and emergent sign languages, modern motherese, language use of modern hunter-gatherers, first language acquisition, similarities between language and music, and comparative animal behaviour. The first systematic analysis of the Windows Approach, it will be of interest to students and researchers in many disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, palaeontology and primatology, as well as anyone interested in how language evolved.
Part I. Preliminaries
1. The Windows Approach
2. Conceptual foundations of the approach
Part II. Correlate Windows
3. Sea shells, ancient beads, and Middle Stone Age symbols
4. Fossil skulls and ancestral brains
Part III. Analogue Windows
5. Incipient pidgins and creoles
6. Homesign systems and emergent sign languages
7. Modern motherese
8. Hunter-gatherers' use of language
9. Language acquisition
Part IV. Abduction Windows
10. Modern music and language
11. Comparative animal behaviour
Part V. Epilogue
12. A tool fit for demystifying language evolution?