EAN: 9781529411416

THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE - SVERKER JOHANSSON KARTON...

"A model of popular-science writing" STEVEN POOLE    Who was "the first speaker" and what was
their first message?    An erudite  tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of
humanity's greatest mysteries - the origins of language.   Drawing on evidence from many fields
including archaeology  anthropology  neurology and linguistics  Sverker Johansson weaves these
disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The
Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the
differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world  before exploring how
language eventually emerged in the very remote human past.  Our intellectual and physiological
changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire
language. But to what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes  or on
environment? How has language evolved further  and how is it changing now  in the process of
globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough
to reconstruct how language has evolved?   Johansson's far-reaching  authoritative and
research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples 
both human and animal  in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has
ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do  but why we speak at all.   Translated
from the Swedish by Frank Perry

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