The dawn of language : How we came to talk By Sverker Johansson ; translated by Frank Perry.

By:

Johansson, Sverker Perry, Frank [Tr.]

Contributor(s):

Perry, Frank [Tr.]

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: London: MacLehose press, c2021.Edition: 1Description: 419PISBN:

9781529411409

Subject(s):

Language and languages -- Origin. Biolinguistics. Human evolution

DDC classification:

401 JOH-D

Contents:

Part one. On language. Human language -- Language in other creatures? -- Part two. On origins -- The other apes and us -- Explaining the characteristics of the various species and languages -- Darwin's explanation -- Heredity, environment and language -- The language-ready brain -- The cooperative ape -- Part three. On the origin of language -- The first speaker -- The first topic of conversation -- The cave man -- Cultural "man" -- The first languages -- The warp and weft of the protolanguage.

Summary: Who was "the first speaker" and what was their first message? An erudite, tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of humanity's greatest mysteries - the origins of language. Drawing on evidence from many fields, including archaeology, anthropology, neurology and linguistics, Sverker Johansson weaves these disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world, before exploring how language eventually emerged in the very remote human past. Our intellectual and physiological changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire language. But to what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes, or on environment? How has language evolved further, and how is it changing now, in the process of globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough to reconstruct how language has evolved? Johansson's far-reaching, authoritative and research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples, both human and animal, in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do, but why we speak

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Home library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Dept. of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Processing Center	Dept. of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics	401 JOH-D (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		DCB4053

First published in Swedish by Natur & Kultur, 2019.
Translated from the Swedish.

Part one. On language. Human language --
Language in other creatures? --
Part two. On origins --
The other apes and us --
Explaining the characteristics of the various species and languages --
Darwin's explanation --
Heredity, environment and language --
The language-ready brain --
The cooperative ape --
Part three. On the origin of language --
The first speaker --
The first topic of conversation --
The cave man --
Cultural "man" --
The first languages --
The warp and weft of the protolanguage.

Who was "the first speaker" and what was their first message? An erudite, tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of humanity's greatest mysteries - the origins of language. Drawing on evidence from many fields, including archaeology, anthropology, neurology and linguistics, Sverker Johansson weaves these disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world, before exploring how language eventually emerged in the very remote human past. Our intellectual and physiological changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire language. But to what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes, or on environment? How has language evolved further, and how is it changing now, in the process of globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough to reconstruct how language has evolved? Johansson's far-reaching, authoritative and research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples, both human and animal, in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do, but why we speak

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