The Origin of Language - Softcover

Harris, Roy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855064375 ISBN 13: 9781855064379

Publisher: Thoemmes Press, 1996

Synopsis

Public debate about language in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century turned on the issue of how language began. The notion that language was a divine gift to humanity, not shared by lower creatures, was supported by the Biblical accounts of Adam naming the animals and of the Tower of Babel. It was still accepted by leading religious authorities. But this notion was seriously brought into question by the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution. Those who rejected Darwinism ridiculed all attempts to conjure up language out of primitive calls, grunts, and ejaculations. No animals, it was pointed out, had yet achieved communication remotely resembling the use of words. On the other side were those who held that it was possible to account for the birth of language rationally as a function of the development of human communicational needs in society.

Prominent contributors to the controversy include Max Mller (1823-1900), who held the Chair of Comparative Philology at Oxford, William Dwight Whitney (1837-1894), Professor of Sanskrit at Yale, and Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), who became Oxford's first Professor of Anthropology in 1895.

About this title

About the Author

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Oxford, UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thoemmes Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1855064375
• ISBN 13: 9781855064379
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344