Routes to Child Language: Evolutionary and Developmental Precursors - Hardcover

Blake, Joanna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521592992 ISBN 13: 9780521592994

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2000

Synopsis

This book provides a detailed comparison of nonhuman primates and human infants with regard to key abilities that provide the foundation for language. It makes the case for phylogenetic continuity across species and ontogenetic continuity from infancy to childhood. Examined here are behaviors fundamental to language acquisition, such as vocalizations, mapping of meaning onto sound, use of gestures to communicate and to symbolize, tool use, object concept, and memory. The author provides evidence linking these abilities with language acquisition. Similarities and differences across species in these precursors are analyzed and how these may have influenced the evolution of language. Hypotheses about the origins of language are described.

About this title

About the Author

Joanna Blake is Associate Professor of Psychology at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Review

"Routes to Child Language: Evolutionary and Developmental Precursors is a stunning achievement which surely represents a new paradigm in language acquisition studies. Demonstrating a remarkable breadth and depth of scope, Joanna Blake weaves a unique tapestry from research of nonhuman primate communication, spoken language development, gesture, symbolic play, object concept, tool use, and the study of memory. As we continue to explore the perennial questions of how language began and how children develop language, it will be richly multidisciplinary studies such as Blake's that will contribute the most to our understanding of the complex achievement that is human language." Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521592992
• ISBN 13: 9780521592994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296