The social origins of language / edited by Daniel Dor, Chris Knight, and Jerome Lewis.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dor, Danny, 1951- editor.

Knight, Chris, 1942- editor.

Lewis, Jerome, editor.

Series:

Studies in the evolution of language ; 19.

Studies in the evolution of language

Oxford linguistics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Origin.

Language and languages.

Social evolution.

Cognition and culture.

Social behavior in animals.

Human evolution.

Physical Description:

xiv, 435 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

This book presents a new perspective on the origins of language, and highlights the key role of social and cultural dynamics in driving language evolution. It considers, among other questions, the role of gesture in communication, mimesis, play, dance, and song in extant hunter-gatherer communities, and the time-frame for language evolution.

Contents:

1. Introduction : A social perspective on how language began / Daniel Dor, Chris Knight, and Jerome Lewis

2. Why we need to move from gene-culture co-evolution to culturally driven co-evolution / Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka

3. Niche construction and semiosis : biocultural and social dynamics / Chris Sinha

4. Signal evolution and the social brain / Camilla Power

5. How can a social theory of language evolution be grounded in evidence? / Sverker Johansson

6. The 'poly-modalic' nature of utterances and its relevance for inquiring into language origins / Adam Kendon

7. BaYaka Pygmy multi-modal and mimetic communication traditions / Jerome Lewis

8. Language presupposes an enchronic infrastructure for social interaction / N.J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell

9. The instruction of imagination : language and its evolution as a communication technology / Daniel Dor

10. Chimpanzee grooming gestures and sounds : what might they tell us about how language evolved? / Simone Pika

11. Vocal communication and social awareness in chimpanzees and bonobos / Zanna Clay and Klaus Zuberbühler

12. Why humans and not apes : the social preconditions for the emergence of language / Charles Whitehead

13. Language and collective fiction : from children's pretence to social institutions / Emily Wyman

14. The time frame of the emergence of modern language and its implications / Dan Dediu and Stephen C. Levinson

15. The evolution of ritual as a process of sexual selection / Camilla Power

16. The red thread : pigment use and the evolution of collective ritual / Ian Watts

17. Language and symbolic culture : an outcome of hunter-gatherer reverse dominance / Chris Knight

18. The co-evolution of human intersubjectivity, morality, and language / Jordan Zlatev

19. Forever united : the co-evolution of language and normativity / Ehud Lamm

20. Why talk? / Jean-Louis Dessalles

21. Vocal deception, laughter, and the linguistic significance of reverse dominance / Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis

22. Memory, imagination, and the evolution of modern language / Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka

23. Transmission biases in the cultural evolution of language : towards an explanatory framework / N.J. Enfield

24. Breaking down false barriers to understanding / Luc Steels.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 350-419) and indexes.

ISBN:

0199665338

9780199665327

019966532X

9780199665334

OCLC:

870290921

Publisher Number:

99962424713