Studies in Language Origins
Volume 1
1st Edition
Published on 1. January 1989
XXII, 332 pages
978-90-272-7436-6 (ISBN)
Description
The question of language origin has fascinated people for years. Traditionally, humanists like linguists and philosophers attempted to solve it with limited success. In the last decades, however, the sciences have begun to study the same question seemingly with more success. This book is the result of the activities of a group of scholars, members of the Language Origins Society, who approach the problem not only from the viewpoint of linguistics, but also from that of anatomy, physiology, social sciences, physical anthropology, paleoanthropology, paleontology, comparative zoology, general biology, ethology, evolutionary biology and psychology. The volume thus clearly reflects the interdisciplinary approach the Language Origins Society is advocating. Since this book is the first of a series meant for the general scholar, it attempts to avoid specialist jargon. Hence it is equally useful for student courses in linguistics, social sciences, communication science, ethology, evolutionary biology and speech therapy.
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Content
- STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ORIGINS Volume 1
- Title page
- Acknowledgments
- Copyright page
- Table of contents
- Notes on contributors
- IntroductionLanguage origins: a fresh start
- The origin of language: the general problem
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Mosaic elements for language
- 3. Imitation, articulation and concept-formation
- 4. Cross-modal brain connections
- 5. Language and the motor system
- 6. Conclusion
- REFERENCES
- Gesture and deixis
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Deixis in grammar
- 3. Temporal deixis
- 4. Spatial deixis
- 5. Demonstratives and person deixis
- 6. Directionality
- 7. Gesture as contributing towards syntax
- NOTE
- REFERENCES
- Moulded gestures and guided syntax: scenario of a linguistic breakthrough
- Summary
- 1. From tools to gestural expressions
- 2. Moulded vs. imitative gestures
- 3. From monogestures to gestural sequences
- 4. Guided syntax
- 5. Necessities of gestural support
- NOTES
- REFERENCES
- Astudentof oral traditions looks at the origins of language
- Summary
- 1. Beowulf and "memorable speech
- 2. Inventing the syllable by "biting sound
- NOTES
- REFERENCES
- The meaning of duality of patterning and its importance in language evolution
- Summary
- 1
- Introduction
- 2. Does American Sign Language have duality of patterning?
- 3. Duality and the principle of regularity in sound change
- 4. The advantages of duality of patterning in language
- REFERENCES
- Language origins and the red marble theory
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Meaning and grammar
- 3. Methodology and onomatopoeia
- 4. The marble parable
- 5. Multiple discoveries
- REFERENCES
- Glossogenesis in endolinguistic and exolinguistìc perspective: palaeoanthropological data
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Endolinguistic and exolinguistic perspectives
- 3. Early paleoanthropological scenarios on the emergence of language.
- 4. Isaac's paradigm
- 5. Binford's criticism
- 6. The advanced hominid brain
- 7. The origin of "modern humans
- 8. The evolution of the vocal tract
- 9. The evolution of tool use
- 10. Fire
- 11. Symbolism
- 12. Exchange of goods
- 13. Kinship structures
- 14. Demographic transitions
- 15. Hominization scenarios and glossogenesis
- 16. Migrations, diffusion, and multiple inventions
- 17. Conclusion
- NOTES
- REFERENCES
- The Upper Palaeolithic expansion of supematuralism and the advent of fully developed spoken language
- Summary
- 1. Gestural language antecedents of speech
- 2. Advantages of phonemicized speech
- 3. Characteristics of auditory verbal hallucinations
- 4. "Interior speech" in normal human beings
- 5. Ethnographic accounts of auditory verbal hallucinations
- 6. The privileged phenomenological status of speech
- 7. The transition to anatomically modern mankind
- 8. Darkness and supernatural communication
- 9. Emergence of complex religions and verbal hallucination
- 10. The importance of hearing one's own name in verbal hallucinations
- 11. Verbal hallucinations and the anthropomorphosis of nature
- REFERENCES
- The domestication of fire and the origins of language
- Summary
- 1. Introduction: the domestication of fire as a civilizing process
- 2. The stage of predominantly passive use of fire
- 3. The transition to active use of fire and its preconditions
- 4. The formation of the species monopoly
- 5. Conclusion
- NOTES
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- REFERENCES
- The evolutionary history of the human speech organs
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The first vertebrates
- 3. The first land-dwelling vertebrates
- 4. Reptiles
- 5. The early mammals
- 6. The primates
- 7. Vocal organs and speech origins
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- REFERENCES
- The Aquatic Ape Theory and the origin of speech
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Aquatic Ape Theory
- 3. Supporting data
- 4. Control of vocalisation
- 5. The descended larynx
- 6. Enhanced importance of the vocal channel
- 7. Conclusion
- REFERENCES
- Language innateness and speech pathology
- Summary
- 1. An animated controversy
- 2. Linguists and language faculty
- 2.1. Language faculty: a brief historical account
- 2.2. The differences between Chomsky's and Bickerton's innatist conceptions
- 2.3. Innatist theories of linguistics and the questions they raise
- 3. Theoretical schemata and linguistic facts
- 3.1. The elusive universals
- 3.2. The incongruent syntactic patterns
- 3.3. Language evolution and innate grammars
- 4. The biological arguments
- 4.1. On the innateness of speech
- 5. No innate schemata, but an innate potential
- References
- Language origin and the Island of ReiI (Insula Reilii)
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Synopsis of morphogenetic processes
- 3. The anthropogenetic cortex and the reptilian (R-)driver
- 4. Aim of the present investigation
- 5. Material and method
- 6. A pilot study
- 7. The question of absolute values
- 8. The test group
- 9. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- NOTE
- REFERENCES
- The vestibular system and language evolution
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Vestibular system and locomotion
- 3. Labyrinthine rotation
- 4. Laterality and language
- 5. Vestibular function and language
- 6. Conclusion
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
- REFERENCES
- Acoustical communication in birdsand its differences from human language
- Summary
- 1. On the information contained in bird vocalisations
- 2. A case study: male quality and the singing behaviour of tits
- 3. A comparison of human language and bird sounds
- REFERENCES
- Speech act taxonomy, chimpanzee communication, and the evolutionary basis of language
- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Searle's classification of speech acts
- 3. Social functions and intended effects
- 4. Chimpanzee communicative acts
- 5. Speech acts and the emergence of language
- REFERENCES
- Author index
- Subject index
