The Transition to Language

Edited by Alison Wray

Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language

Accessible and up-to-date
Multidisciplinary, covering linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, psychology, biology, primatology, and artificial intelligence
Contributions from the leading international scholars

The Transition to Language

Edited by Alison Wray

Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language

Description

The evolutionary emergence of each facet of human language can be viewed as a 'transition'. This book explores how different transitions took place, their preconditions, and their consequences. Among the questions it addresses are: what physiological and psychological differences between us and other animals lie at the heart of our superior capacity for language? Was the pre-linguistic period of humankind characterized by words without syntax, syntax without meaning, gesture without speech, or all, or none, of these? Once a community is ready and able to develop language, what internal and external factors trigger its emergence? How are we to interpret the archaeological evidence of early tool-making abilities, relative to the presence, or absence, of language? In what social circumstances could language have avoided being immediately harnessed for deception, so that it became too dangerous and unreliable to be of value? Was the universal form of language determined by pre-existing psychological capabilities, or by natural constraints in communication? Has language finished evolving? If not, how different were linguistic structures used by our early ancestors from those that we use today?

This investigation into one of the enduring mysteries of humankind brings together original contributions from linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists, biologists, primatologists, and researchers in artificial intelligence. They offer the reader up-to-the-minute debates in the field of language evolution.

The Transition to Language

Edited by Alison Wray

Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language

1:Introduction: Conceptualizing Transition in an Evolving Field, Alison Wray
Part I: Making Ready for Language: Necessary, But Not Sufficient
2:Comparative Vocal Production and the Evolution of Speech: Reinterpreting the Descent of the Larynx, W. Tecumseh Fitch
3:Sexual Display as a Syntactic Vehicle: The Evolution of Syntax in Birdsong and Human Language through Sexual Selection, Kazuo Okanoya
4:Serial Expertise and the Evolution of Language, H. S. Terrace
Part II: Internal Triggers to Transition: Genes, Processing, Culture, Gesture, and Technology
5:Protocadherin XY: A Candidate Gene for Cerebral Asymmetry and Language, T. J. Crow
6:Dual Processing in Protolanguage: Performance Without Competence, Alison Wray
7:Language and Revolutionary Consciousness, Chris Knight
8:Did Language Evolve from Manual Gestures?, Michael C. Corballis
9:The 'Finished Artefact Fallacy': Acheulean Handaxes and Language Origins, Iain Davidson
Part III: External Triggers to Transition: Environment, Population, and Social Context
10:Foraging Versus Social Intelligence in the Evolution of Protolanguage, Derek Bickerton
11:Methodological Issues in Simulating the Emergence of Language, Bradley Tonkes and Janet Wiles
12:Crucial Factors in the Origins of Word-Meaning, L. Steels, F. Kaplan, A. McIntyre, and J. Van Looveren
13:Constraints on Communities with Indigenous Sign Languages: Clues to the Dynamics of Language Genesis, Sonia Ragir
Part IV: The Onward Journey: Determining the Shape of Language
14:The Slow Growth of Language in Children, Robbins Burling
15:The Roles of Expression and Representation in Language Evolution, James R. Hurford
16:Linguistic Adaptation Without Linguistic Constraints: The Role of Sequential Learning in Language Evolution, Morten H. Christiansen and Michelle R. Ellefson
17:Uniformitarian Assumptions and Language Evolution Research, Frederick J. Newmeyer
18:On the Evolution of Grammatical Forms, Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva

The Transition to Language

Edited by Alison Wray

Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language

Author Information

Edited by Alison Wray, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University

Contributors:

Derek Bickerton (University of Hawaii)
Robbins Burling (University of Michigan)
Morten H. Christiansen (Cornell University)
Michael C. Corballis (University of Auckland)
T. J. Crow (University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford)
Iain Davidson (University of New England)
Michelle R. Ellefson (Southern Illinois University)
W. Tecunseh Fitch (Harvard University)
Bernd Heine (Universität zu Köln)
James R. Hurford (University of Edinburgh)
Frédéric Kaplan (Sony CSL, Paris)
Chris Knight (University of East London)
Tania Kuteva (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)
Joris van Looveren (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Angus McIntyre (Sony CSL, Paris)
Frederick J. Newmeyer (University of Washington, Seattle)
Kazuo Okanoya (Chiba University)
Sonia Ragir (College of Staten Island, New York (CUNY) )
Luc Steels (Sony CSL, Paris)
Herbert S. Terrace (Columbia University)
Bradley Tonkes (University of Queensland)
J. Wiles (University of Queensland)
Alison Wray (Cardiff University)

The Transition to Language

Edited by Alison Wray

Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language

Reviews and Awards

"... a thought-provoking volume, with implications not just for language evolution but for how we conceptualise language acquisition, language structure and language change." - Journal of Linguistics