Language in Deep Human History : An Evolutionary Story.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watts, Richard J.

Series:

Interdisciplinary Linguistics [INTLING] Series

Interdisciplinary Linguistics [INTLING] Series ; v.6

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (360 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Basel/Berlin/Boston : De Gruyter, Inc., 2024.

Biography/History:

Richard J. Watts is Emeritus Professor in Modern English Linguistics, University of Bern, Switzerland.

Summary:

Understanding the evolution of language within the context of deep human history requires interdisciplinary work between linguists and scientists from a wide range of academic disciplines (e. g. archaeology, molecular biology, anthropology, genetics, biochemistry, etc.). The book aims to calibrate work on human evolution with current linguistic theory in an attempt to trace out a scientific story of how human language emerged and developed that has plausibility while remaining open to change through new linguistic and non-linguistic research.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Contents

Introduction. Medawar leaps

Chapter 1 Story-telling, Lane's story, and epigenetic inheritance

Chapter 2 Language and conceptual integration

Chapter 3 Homo as a container, life in the Great Rift Valley and human bonding

Chapter 4 The brain, the larynx and mirror neuron systems

Chapter 5 Homo habilis and the beginning of symbolic communication

Chapter 6 The dispersal of Homo erectus: The "muddle in the middle"

Chapter 7 Building a language: From concepts and functions to constructions without rules

Chapter 8 Language, fire and symbolic containers of ritual

Chapter 9 The linguistic worlds of H. heidelbergensis: language and "Theory of Mind"

Chapter 10 The counterfactual worlds of early modern humans: H. sapiens's sorties into real and unreal worlds

Chapter 11 H. sapiens, the rolling stone that gathered moss

Chapter 12 The reunion that wasn't and the challenge that is

Glossary

References

Person index

Subject index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9783111238661

3111238660

OCLC:

1418731072