The Truth About Language: What it is and Where it Came from

Michael C. Corballis

ISBN 10: 022628719X / ISBN 13: 9780226287195

Published by University of Chicago Press, USA, 2017

About this Item

2017 1st impression. Hardback in jacket. 23.5x16cm. xi+260 pages with index. Clean & tight book. No inscriptions. Flat pages. Jacket is not torn. Jacket is now under clear removable covers. Dispatched ROYAL MAIL FIRST CLASS with TRACKING next working day or sooner securely boxed in cardboard. ref EMP/26. The Truth About Language: What it is and Where it Came from by Michael C. Corballis. Published in 2017 by University of Chicago Press, USA.

Seller Inventory # 040966

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Truth About Language: What it is and Where it Came from
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, USA
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022628719X
• ISBN 13: 9780226287195
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good Plus
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good Plus
• Weight: 500 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Evolutionary science has long viewed language as, basically, a fortunate accident—a crossing of wires that happened to be extraordinarily useful, setting humans apart from other animals and onto a trajectory that would see their brains (and the products of those brains) become increasingly complex.
 
But as Michael C. Corballis shows in The Truth about Language, it’s time to reconsider those assumptions. Language, he argues, is not the product of some “big bang” 60,000 years ago, but rather the result of a typically slow process of evolution with roots in elements of grammatical language found much farther back in our evolutionary history. Language, Corballis explains, evolved as a way to share thoughts—and, crucially for human development, to connect our own “mental time travel,” our imagining of events and people that are not right in front of us, to that of other people. We share that ability with other animals, but it was the development of language that made it powerful: it led to our ability to imagine other perspectives, to imagine ourselves in the minds of others, a development that, by easing social interaction, proved to be an extraordinary evolutionary advantage.


Even as his thesis challenges such giants as Chomsky and Stephen Jay Gould, Corballis writes accessibly and wittily, filling his account with unforgettable anecdotes and fascinating historical examples. The result is a book that’s perfect both for deep engagement and as brilliant fodder for that lightest of all forms of language, cocktail party chatter.
 

About the Author

Michael C. Corballis is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and the author of many books, including The Wandering Mind and A Very Short Tour of the Mind: 21 Short Walks around the Human Brain.