How language began : gesture and speech in human evolution / David McNeill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNeill, David, 1933- author.

Series:

Approaches to the evolution of language.

Approaches to the evolution of language

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Origin.

Language and languages.

Speech and gesture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 264 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Human language is not the same as human speech. We use gestures and signs to communicate alongside, or instead of, speaking. Yet gestures and speech are processed in the same areas of the human brain, and the study of how both have evolved is central to research on the origins of human communication. Written by one of the pioneers of the field, this is the first book to explain how speech and gesture evolved together into a system that all humans possess. Nearly all theorizing about the origins of language either ignores gesture, views it as an add-on or supposes that language began in gesture and was later replaced by speech. David McNeill challenges the popular 'gesture-first' theory that language first emerged in a gesture-only form and proposes a groundbreaking theory of the evolution of language which explains how speech and gesture became unified.

Contents:

Introduction: Gesture and the origin of language

What evolved (in part): The Growth Point

How it evolved (in part): Mead's Loop

Effects of Mead's Loop

Ontogenesis in evolution, evolution in ontogenesis

Alternatives, their limits, and the science base of the growth point.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-08982-7

1-139-56454-4

1-283-61086-8

1-139-55100-0

9786613923318

1-139-10866-2

1-139-55596-0

1-139-54975-8

1-139-55471-9

1-139-55225-2

OCLC:

811502343