Toward an Evolutionary Biology of Language / Edition 1

by Philip Lieberman

Overview

In this forcefully argued book, the leading evolutionary theorist of language draws on evidence from evolutionary biology, genetics, physical anthropology, anatomy, and neuroscience, to provide a framework for studying the evolution of human language and cognition.

Philip Lieberman argues forcibly that the widely influential theories of language's development, advanced by Chomskian linguists and cognitive scientists, especially those that postulate a single dedicated language "module," "organ," or "instinct," are inconsistent with principles and findings of evolutionary biology and neuroscience. He argues that the human neural system in its totality is the basis for the human language ability, for it requires the coordination of neural circuits that regulate motor control with memory and higher cognitive functions. Pointing out that articulate speech is a remarkably efficient means of conveying information, Lieberman also highlights the adaptive significance of the human tongue.

Fully human language involves the species-specific anatomy of speech, together with the neural capacity for thought and movement. In Lieberman's iconoclastic Darwinian view, the human language ability is the confluence of a succession of separate evolutionary developments, jury-rigged by natural selection to work together for an evolutionarily unique ability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674021846
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Philip Lieberman is Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Mark of Evolution

2. Primitive and Derived Features of Language

3. The Singularity of Speech

4. The Neural Bases of Language

5. Motor Control and the Evolution of Language

6. The Gift of Tongue

7. Linguistic Issues

8. Where We Might Go

Notes

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

Discussions of language tend to start from the assumption that it is a uniquely human trait without antecedent in the animal kingdom. Toward an Evolutionary Biology of Language forcefully challenges this assumption. Lieberman brings together a wide range of evidence from comparative anatomy, physiology, neurobiology, genetics, neuropsychology, and linguistics to illuminate the protolinguistic abilities in other species.

Science - Joseph T. Devlin

Discussions of language tend to start from the assumption that it is a uniquely human trait without antecedent in the animal kingdom. Toward an Evolutionary Biology of Language forcefully challenges this assumption. Lieberman brings together a wide range of evidence from comparative anatomy, physiology, neurobiology, genetics, neuropsychology, and linguistics to illuminate the protolinguistic abilities in other species.
— Joseph T. Devlin

Science