Nature and Origin of Language (Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language): 18

Bouchard, Denis

ISBN 10: 0199681635 / ISBN 13: 9780199681631

Published by Oxford University Press, Usa, 2013

About this Item

Denis Bouchard looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language evolved. He argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. His account of language origins offers insights into language and to constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis. Series: Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language. Num Pages: 402 pages, Line drawings. BIC Classification: CF; CFZ; JM; PSX. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 233 x 157 x 24. Weight in Grams: 566. . 2013. 1st Edition. paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780199681631

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nature and Origin of Language (Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language): 18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, Usa
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199681635
• ISBN 13: 9780199681631
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language then evolved. Its four parts are concerned with different views on the emergence of language, with what language is, how it evolved in the human brain, and finally how this process led to the properties of language. Part I considers the main approaches to the subject and how far language evolved culturally or genetically. Part II argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. Part III examines the evidence for brain mechanisms to allow the formation of signs. Part IV shows how the book's explanation of language origins and evolution is not only consistent with the complex properties of languages but provides the basis for a theory of syntax that offers insights into the learnability of language and to the nature of constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis, including including subject-verb inversion in questions, existential constructions, and long-distance dependencies.
Denis Bouchard's outstandingly original account will interest linguists of all persuasions as well as cognitive scientists and others interested in the evolution of language.

About the Author

Denis Bouchard is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Quebec in Montreal. His publications include On the Content of Empty Categories (Foris Publications, 1984), Adjectives, Number and Interfaces (Elsevier Science, 2002), and The Semantics of Syntax (University of Chicago Press, 1995).