Read more
Zusatztext This is a provocative, erudite and enjoyable book, written to stimulate debate Informationen zum Autor Jean-Louis Dessalles is Associate Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Paris, where he organized the Third International Conference on the Evolution of Language in 2000. He is author of L'ordinateur génétiqu, and Aux Origines du langage, both were published by Hermès-Science. He has published numerous articles in English and French on cognitive science, computer-assisted learning, communication, and language evolution.; James Grieve is an Emeritus Reader at The Australian National University, Canberra. He has translated works in language and linguistics, Lacour-Gayet's Histoire de l'Australie, and two parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. He has published a Dictionary of Contemporary French Connectors and two novels for Young Adults Klappentext Constant exchange of information is integral to our societies. Jean-Louis Dessalles explores how this came into being. He develops a view of language as an instrument for conversation rather than mental representation and thought. Presenting language evolution as a natural history of conversation, the author sheds light on the emergence of communication in the hominine congregations, as well as on the human nature. Zusammenfassung Explores the co-evolutionary paths of biology, culture, and the great human edifice of language, linking the evolution of the language to the general evolutionary history of humankind. This book provides answers to such fundamental paradoxes as to whether we acquired our greatest gift in order to talk or so as to be able to think, and more. Inhaltsverzeichnis Part I The Place of Language in Human Evolutionary History 1: Animal and Human Communication 2: Culture, Languages, and Language 3: The Biological Roots of Language 4: Misapprehensions about the Origins of Language 5: Language as an Evolutionary Curiosity 6: The Local Optimality of Language Part II The Functional Anatomy of Speech 7: Putting Sounds Together 8: Protolanguage 9: The Mechanics of Syntax 10: Syntax and Meaning 11: The Structure of Meanings 12: The Emergence of Meaning Part III The Ethology of Language 13: Conversation Behaviour 14: Language as Information 15: The Birth of Argumentation 16: Language as an Evolutionary Paradox 17: The Political Origins of Language 18: Epilogue Bibliography Index ...
