How Language Began

Gesture and Speech in Human Evolution
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-107-60549-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 275 Seiten, Format (B × H): 177 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 553 g

Reihe: Approaches to the Evolution of Language

Human language is not the same as human speech. We use gestures and signs to communicate alongside, or instead of, speaking. Yet gestures and speech are processed in the same areas of the human brain, and the study of how both have evolved is central to research on the origins of human communication. Written by one of the pioneers of the field, this is the first book to explain how speech and gesture evolved together into a system that all humans possess. Nearly all theorizing about the origins of language either ignores gesture, views it as an add-on or supposes that language began in gesture and was later replaced by speech. David McNeill challenges the popular 'gesture-first' theory that language first emerged in a gesture-only form and proposes a groundbreaking theory of the evolution of language which explains how speech and gesture became unified.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McNeill, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Psycholinguistik, Neurolinguistik, Kognition
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Verbale & Nonverbale Kommunikationsprozesse
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction - gesture and the origin of language; 2. What evolved (in part) - the Growth Point; 3. How it evolved (in part) - Mead's Loop; 4. Effects of Mead's Loop; 5. Ontogenesis in evolution - evolution in ontogenesis; 6. Alternatives, their limits, and the science base of the Growth Point.

Über Autor(innen)

McNeill, David
David McNeill is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. His publications include Gesture and Thought (2005) and Language and Gesture (Cambridge, 2000).

David McNeill is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. His publications include Gesture and Thought (2005) and Language and Gesture (Cambridge University Press, 2000).