How Language Began
How Language Began
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.
- Introduces a groundbreaking theory of how language began
- Critically examines a wide range of accounts, from cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience and the psychology of language
- Complete with 50 illustrations depicting gestures and signs
Reviews & endorsements
'Long before embodied cognition was a recognized field of study, David McNeill was demonstrating the inseparability of language and gesture. In this new work he extends this pioneering approach to encompass the origins of human language.' Elena Levy, University of Connecticut
'… grounded in the expertise of more than three decades of studying gestures with speech, this book will significantly change the scholarly debates on language evolution.' Cornelia Müller, Professor of Applied Linguistics, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
Product details
August 2012Hardback
9781107021211
280 pages
244 × 170 × 17 mm
0.65kg
167 b/w illus. 11 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction - gesture and the origin of language
- 2. What evolved (in part) - the Growth Point
- 3. How it evolved (in part) - Mead's Loop
- 4. Effects of Mead's Loop
- 5. Ontogenesis in evolution - evolution in ontogenesis
- 6. Alternatives, their limits, and the science base of the Growth Point.
