Overview
- Includes critical discussion of the controversies surrounding language evolution
- Provides a linguistic reconstruction detailing the earliest stages of grammar
- Accessible to non-experts
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Linguistics (SBIL)
Part of the book sub series: Expert Briefs (SBEB)
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About this book
This book provides a critical introduction to the current views and controversies regarding language evolution. It sheds new light on hot topics such as: How ancient is language? Did Neanderthals have some form of language? Did language evolve gradually and incrementally, through stages, or suddenly, in one leap, in all its complexity? Does language evolution involve natural selection or not?
This book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in language evolution, especially those in the fields of linguistics, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience.
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Keywords
Table of contents (4 chapters)
Reviews
“Using a brilliant collection of data from different fields, this book provides novel insights into the emergence and evolution of language. It is a solid contribution to the literature and a must read for anyone interested in language evolution. … this book by Progovac is a worthwhile addition to the body of knowledge, one that I enjoyed reading and one that stimulated my thinking about language evolution in new and hopefully productive ways.” (Majid Manoochehri, Evolutionary Psychological Science, Vol. 7, 2021)
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Critical Introduction to Language Evolution
Book Subtitle: Current Controversies and Future Prospects
Authors: Ljiljana Progovac
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Linguistics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03235-7
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-03234-0Published: 22 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-03235-7Published: 18 December 2018
Series ISSN: 2197-0009
Series E-ISSN: 2197-0017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 86
Number of Illustrations: 17 b/w illustrations
Topics: Language History, Syntax, Popular Science in Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Cognitive Linguistics