The Origins of Meaning
James R. Hurford
Reviews and Awards
"This very readable and satisfying book is an examination of 'pre-linguistic animal concepts and social lives' which the author supposes 'take us to the brink of modern human language, when the species became for the first time language-ready' The argument, the evidence, and the style encourage the reader to give attention, read on, and look forward with interest to the promised continuation in the next volume. The wealth of studies presented and their informed, insightful, yet cautious interpretation provide probable insight into how and how readily language might have evolved out of animal prelanguage." --Linguist List
"This work is a head-spinning, fact-packed examination of how human language came to be, before language was language and humans were human. Drawing from philosophers, linguists, biologists, psychologists, and a range of other thinkers Hurford has constructed the beginning of a unique, interdisciplinary story of the development of language as we know it today. Hurford shows how constant research is closing that gap, a project to which he hopes to contribute in this work and a forthcoming second volume. This first volume has something that everyone will appreciate. Theorists will swim inthe thoughtful examinations of Wittgenstein and Frans de Waal. Scientists will no doubt learn from the plethora of scientific experiments explored throughout. And the thinkers of tomorrow will be introduced to the possibilities of scholarship when one looks beyond rigid disciplinary boundaries." --Science & Spirit
"A wonderful read lucid, informative, and entertaining, while at the same time never talking down to the reader by sacrificing argumentation for the sake of simplicity. Likely to be heralded as the major publication dealing with language evolution to date." --Frederick J. Newmeyer, University of Washington
