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Author : Merritt Ruhlen
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0804728054
Arguing that the prevailing conception of historical linguistics is flawed, the author presents a series of linguistic studies which demonstrate that all extant human languages share a common origin.
Author : Christine Kenneally
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2007-07-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781101202395
An accessible exploration of a burgeoning new field: the incredible evolution of language The first popular book to recount the exciting, very recent developments in tracing the origins of language, The First Word is at the forefront of a controversial, compelling new field. Acclaimed science writer Christine Kenneally explains how a relatively small group of scientists that include Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker assembled the astounding narrative of how the fundamental process of evolution produced a linguistic ape-in other words, us. Infused with the wonder of discovery, this vital and engrossing book offers us all a better understanding of the story of humankind.
Author : Steven Roger Fischer
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2004-10-03
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781861895943
It is tempting to take the tremendous rate of contemporary linguistic change for granted. What is required, in fact, is a radical reinterpretation of what language is. Steven Roger Fischer begins his book with an examination of the modes of communication used by dolphins, birds and primates as the first contexts in which the concept of "language" might be applied. As he charts the history of language from the times of Homo erectus, Neanderthal humans and Homo sapiens through to the nineteenth century, when the science of linguistics was developed, Fischer analyses the emergence of language as a science and its development as a written form. He considers the rise of pidgin, creole, jargon and slang, as well as the effects radio and television, propaganda, advertising and the media are having on language today. Looking to the future, he shows how electronic media will continue to reshape and re-invent the ways in which we communicate. "[a] delightful and unexpectedly accessible book ... a virtuoso tour of the linguistic world."—The Economist "... few who read this remarkable study will regard language in quite the same way again."—The Good Book Guide
Author : James R. Hurford
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2014-03
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780198701880
This book offers an accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language and what sets human language apart from the simple communication systems used by non-human animals. It draws on a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, neuroscience, genetics, and animal behaviour.
Author : Merritt Ruhlen
Publisher : Harvard Oriental Series - Opera Minora
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Human evolution
ISBN : 1463244959
"What can the classification of languages tell us about human origins and human prehistory? This book presents a popular account of the origin of language. It is intended for an audience with no prior knowledge of comparative linguistics, genetics or archaeology. The present volume is a reprint of the 2009 second edition of the book, and includes the text of the first edition (1994) with minor modifications, as well as the scientific evidence for monogenesis, and a Postscript recounting developments in the field since the original publication of the book"--
Author : Jean-Jacques Rousseau,Johann Gottfried Herder
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2012-04-26
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780226923284
This volume combines Rousseau's essay on the origin of diverse languages with Herder's essay on the genesis of the faculty of speech. Rousseau's essay is important to semiotics and critical theory, as it plays a central role in Jacques Derrida's book Of Grammatology, and both essays are valuable historical and philosophical documents.
Author : Morris Swadesh
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 396 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2017-09-04
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781351478021
Morris Swadesh, one of this century's foremost scientific investigators of language, dedicated much of his life to the study of the origin and evolution of language. This volume, left nearly completed at his death and edited posthumously by Joel F. Sherzer, is his last major study of this difficult subject.Swadesh discusses the simple qualities of human speech also present in animal language, and establishes distinctively human techniques of expression by comparing the common features that are found in modern and ancient languages. He treats the diversification of language not only by isolating root words in different languages, but also by dealing with sound systems, with forms of composition, and with sentence structure. In so doing, he demonstrates the evidence for the expansion of all language from a single central area. Swadesh supports his hypothesis by ""exhibits"" that conveniently present the evidence in tabular form. Further clarity is provided by the use of a suggestive practical phonetic system, intelligible to the student as well as to the professional.The book also contains an Appendix, in which the distinguished ethnographer of language, Dell Hymes, gives a valuable account of the prewar linguistic tradition within which Swadesh did some of his most important work.
Author : Jacob Grimm
Publisher : Brill Archive
Page : 52 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Langage et langues
ISBN : 9004070583
Author : Owen Barfield
Publisher : SteinerBooks
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2003-06-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781584205128
"The playful artistry of the Waldorf Alphabet Book speaks to the heart of childhood. These lively illustrations, so filled with color, movement, eloquent gesture, and invention conjure up long-forgotten memories of books from a time when pictures were still alive and spoke with power. Each page is a magical door, opening to the bright realm where stories are enacted, a realm of wonders accessible to children, artists, and ll those in whom the light of imagination shines. "The most important thing as you peruse the delightful pages of the Waldorf Alphabet Book with your child is the engaging conversation that flows between you as you search among the pictures for words." (from the afterword) In this delightful, bestselling alphabet and game book for young children, each consonant and vowel comes to life in vivid pictures that show each letter's unique qualities in the world. The vibrant and playful illustrations help children learn the alphabet in the most natural and living way. This expanded paperback edition includes a complete essay by master Waldorf teacher William Ward, "Learning to Read and Write in Waldorf Schools": This is the alphabet book for parents and teachers who want to encourage the most natural development in children. It is ideal for both at home and in the classroom. It also makes an ideal gift for your favorite young child or parents!
Author : Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher : UPNE
Page : 658 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781611681277
Jean-Jacques Rousseau the writer-philosopher was a practicing musician and theorist for years before publication of his first Discourse, but scholars have neglected these fertile, inexhaustible ideas because they were either unavailable in a critical edition or viewed as standing outside the aegis of his system of thought. This graceful translation remedies both those failings by bringing together the Essay with a comprehensive selection of the musical writings. Many of the latter are responses to authors like Rameau, Grimm, and Raynal, and a unique feature of this edition is the inclusion of writings by these authors to help establish the historical and ideological context of Rousseau's writings and the intellectual exchanges of which they are a part.
Author : Daniel L. Everett
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2017-11-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780871404770
How Language Began revolutionizes our understanding of the one tool that has allowed us to become the "lords of the planet." Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” (Tom Wolfe, Harper’s), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than seven thousand languages that exist today. Although fossil hunters and linguists have brought us closer to unearthing the true origins of language, Daniel Everett’s discoveries have upended the contemporary linguistic world, reverberating far beyond academic circles. While conducting field research in the Amazonian rainforest, Everett came across an age-old language nestled amongst a tribe of hunter-gatherers. Challenging long-standing principles in the field, Everett now builds on the theory that language was not intrinsic to our species. In order to truly understand its origins, a more interdisciplinary approach is needed—one that accounts as much for our propensity for culture as it does our biological makeup. Language began, Everett theorizes, with Homo Erectus, who catalyzed words through culturally invented symbols. Early humans, as their brains grew larger, incorporated gestures and voice intonations to communicate, all of which built on each other for 60,000 generations. Tracing crucial shifts and developments across the ages, Everett breaks down every component of speech, from harnessing control of more than a hundred respiratory muscles in the larynx and diaphragm, to mastering the use of the tongue. Moving on from biology to execution, Everett explores why elements such as grammar and storytelling are not nearly as critical to language as one might suspect. In the book’s final section, Cultural Evolution of Language, Everett takes the ever-debated “language gap” to task, delving into the chasm that separates “us” from “the animals.” He approaches the subject from various disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, and archaeology, to reveal that it was social complexity, as well as cultural, physiological, and neurological superiority, that allowed humans—with our clawless hands, breakable bones, and soft skin—to become the apex predator. How Language Began ultimately explains what we know, what we’d like to know, and what we likely never will know about how humans went from mere communication to language. Based on nearly forty years of fieldwork, Everett debunks long-held theories by some of history’s greatest thinkers, from Plato to Chomsky. The result is an invaluable study of what makes us human.
Author : Johann Gottfried Herder
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2002-09-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521794099
Publisher Description
Author : Merritt Ruhlen
Publisher : Wiley
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1996-08-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0471159638
"Ruhlen is a leader in the new attempt to unify the theory of language development and diffusion."––Library Journal "A powerful statement...also a wonderfully clear exposition of linguistic thinking about prehistory."––Anthropological Science One of the world's foremost language researchers takes readers step-by-step through the hotly contested evidence that all modern languages derive from one "mother tongue" once spoken by primitive humans in Africa. With The Origin of Language, Merritt Ruhlen makes this fascinating science accessible to readers with no linguistic background. MERRITT RUHLEN, PhD (Palo Alto, California) is the author of A Guide to the World's Languages
Author : Robert M. Seyfarth,Dorothy L. Cheney
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2017-12-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400888146
How human language evolved from the need for social communication The origins of human language remain hotly debated. Despite growing appreciation of cognitive and neural continuity between humans and other animals, an evolutionary account of human language—in its modern form—remains as elusive as ever. The Social Origins of Language provides a novel perspective on this question and charts a new path toward its resolution. In the lead essay, Robert Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney draw on their decades-long pioneering research on monkeys and baboons in the wild to show how primates use vocalizations to modulate social dynamics. They argue that key elements of human language emerged from the need to decipher and encode complex social interactions. In other words, social communication is the biological foundation upon which evolution built more complex language. Seyfarth and Cheney’s argument serves as a jumping-off point for responses by John McWhorter, Ljiljana Progovac, Jennifer E. Arnold, Benjamin Wilson, Christopher I. Petkov and Peter Godfrey-Smith, each of whom draw on their respective expertise in linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Michael Platt provides an introduction, Seyfarth and Cheney a concluding essay. Ultimately, The Social Origins of Language offers thought-provoking viewpoints on how human language evolved.
Author : W. Tecumseh Fitch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 625 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2010-04-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781139487061
Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the brightest chimpanzee, exposed to the same environment, will not. Why not? How, and why, did language evolve in our species and not in others? Since Darwin's theory of evolution, questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed at specialist audiences. The diversity of perspectives - from linguistics, anthropology, speech science, genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology - can be bewildering. Tecumseh Fitch cuts through this vast literature, bringing together its most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles of human history.