The origins of language : unraveling evolutionary forces /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:	Tokyo : Springer, c2008.
Description:	1 online resource (viii, 157 p.) : ill.
Language:	English
Subject:	Language and languages -- Origin. Human evolution. Anthropological linguistics. Animal communication. Primates -- Behavior. Animal communication. Anthropological linguistics. Human evolution. Language and languages -- Origin. Primates -- Behavior.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8886967

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Masataka, Nobuo, 1954-
ISBN:	9784431791027 4431791027 4431791019 (Cloth) 9784431791010 (Cloth) 9786611757472 6611757473
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. Description based on print version record.
Summary:	Developments in cognitive science indicate that human and nonhuman primates share a range of behavioral and physiological characteristics that speak to the issue of language origins. This volume has three major themes, woven throughout the chapters. First, it is argued that scientists in animal behavior and anthropology need to move beyond theoretical debate to a more empirically focused and comparative approach to language. Second, those empirical and comparative methods are described, revealing underpinnings of language, some of which are shared by humans and other primates and others of which are unique to humans. New insights are discussed, and several hypotheses emerge concerning the evolutionary forces that led to the 'design' of language. Third, evolutionary challenges that led to adaptive changes in communication over time are considered with an eye toward understanding various constraints that channeled the process.
Other form:	Print version: Origins of language. Tokyo : Springer, c2008 9784431791010 4431791019

Table of Contents:

The gestural theory of and the vocal theory of language origins are not incompatible with one another / M. Masataka
The gestural origins of language / M.C. Corballis
World-view of protolanguage speakers as inferred from semantics of sound symbolic words : a case of Japanese mimetics / S. Kita
Japanese mothers' use of specialized vocabulary in infant-directed speech : infant-directed vocabulary in Japanese / R. Mazuka, T. Kondo, and A. Hayashi
Short-term acoustic modifications during dynamic vocal interactions in nonhuman primates
implications for origins of motherese / H. Koda
Vocal learning in nonhuman primates : importance of vocal contexts / C. Yamaguchi and A. Izumi
The ontogeny and phylogeny of bimodal primate vocal communication / A.A. Ghazanfar and D.J. Lewkowicz
Understanding the dynamics of primate vocalization and its implications for the evolution of human speech / T. Nishimura
Implication of the human musical faculty for evolution of language / N. Masataka.

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