Steven Roger Fischer charts the history of language from the time of Homo erectus to the nineteenth century, analyzing the emergence of linguistics as a science and the development of language as a written form. He also investigates the rise of pidgin, jargon, slang, and dialectology, as well as literature and literacy_s relationship to language. Finally, he demonstrates the effects of the media on language today.
US-born Steven Roger Fischer is Director of the Institute of Polynesian Languages and Literatures in Auckland, New Zealand.