Evolution of Language

Informationen zum Autor W. Tecumseh Fitch is a Reader in Psychology at the University of St Andrews. He studies the evolution of cognition and communication in animals and man, focusing on the evolution of speech, music and language. He is interested in all aspects of vocal communication in terrestrial vertebrates, particularly vertebrate vocal production in relation to the evolution of speech and music in our own species. Klappentext Brings together the most important insights from the vast amount of literature on the origin of language. Zusammenfassung Since Darwin's theory of evolution! questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature. Tecumseh Fitch cuts through this vast literature! bringing together its most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles of human history. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction; Part I. The Lay of the Land: 1. Language from a biological perspective; 2. Evolution; 3. Language; 4. Animal cognition and communication; Part II. Meet the Ancestors: 5. Meet the ancestors; 6. The last common ancestor; 7. The hominid fossil record; Part III. The Evolution of Speech: 8. The evolution of the human vocal tract; 9. The evolution of vocal control; 10. Modelling the evolution of speech; Part IV. Phylogenetic Models of Language Evolution: 11. Language evolution before Darwin; 12. Lexical protolanguage; 13. Gestural protolanguage; 14. Musical protolanguage; 15. Conclusions and prospects.

Product details

• Authors: W. Tecumseh Fitch, W. Tecumseh (Universitat Wien Fitch, Fitch W. Tecumseh
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.04.2010
• EAN: 9780521859936
• ISBN: 978-0-521-85993-6
• No. of pages: 624
• Series: Approaches to the Evolution of; Approaches to the Evolution of; Approaches to the Evolution of Language
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Linguistics, Evolution, Anthropology, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General, Historical & comparative linguistics, Historical and comparative linguistics