The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics) - Hardcover

Aitchison, Jean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521462460 ISBN 13: 9780521462464

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Human language is a weird communication system: it has more in common with birdsong than the calls of other primates. In this clear and non-technical overview, Jean Aitchison explores why it evolved and how it developed. She likens the search to a vast prehistoric jigsaw puzzle, in which numerous fragments of evidence must be assembled, some external to language, such as evolution theory, animal communication; others internal, including child language, pidgins and creoles, and language change. She explains why language is so strange, outlines recent theories about its origin, and discusses possible paths of evolution. Jean Aitchison is the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford University. She gave the 1996 BBC Reith lectures The Language Web.

About this title

Book Description

Human language is a weird communication system: it has more in common with birdsong than the calls of other primates. Jean Aitchison is the 1996 BBC Reith lecturer.

Review

'To be recommended to anyone with a curiosity about their language, where it came from and how it reached its present state.' Child Language Teaching and Therapy

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521462460
• ISBN 13: 9780521462464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 293