Language Evolution
The Windows Approach

Addresses the question: how can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it?

Rudolf Botha (Author)

9781107135130, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 March 2016

230 pages, 13 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.59 kg

'This book will prove to be a milestone in the field … a meticulous, rigorous, and yet highly readable guide.' Paul T. Roberge, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

How can we unravel the evolution of language, given that there is no direct evidence about it? Rudolf Botha addresses this intriguing question in his fascinating new book. Inferences can be drawn about language evolution from a range of other phenomena, serving as windows into this prehistoric process. These include shell-beads, fossil skulls and ancestral brains, modern pidgin and creole languages, homesign systems and emergent sign languages, modern motherese, language use of modern hunter-gatherers, first language acquisition, similarities between language and music, and comparative animal behaviour. The first systematic analysis of the Windows Approach, it will be of interest to students and researchers in many disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, palaeontology and primatology, as well as anyone interested in how language evolved.

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. The Windows Approach
2. Conceptual foundations of the approach
Part II. Correlate Windows: 3. Sea shells, ancient beads, and Middle Stone Age symbols
4. Fossil skulls and ancestral brains
Part III. Analogue Windows: 5. Incipient pidgins and creoles
6. Homesign systems and emergent sign languages
7. Modern motherese
8. Hunter-gatherers' use of language
9. Language acquisition
Part IV. Abduction Windows: 10. Modern music and language
11. Comparative animal behaviour
Part V. Epilogue: 12. A tool fit for demystifying language evolution?

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Language: history & general works [CBX]