The Evolution of Human Language: Biolinguistic Perspectives Book

Figures vii

Contributors viii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Marcd D. Hauser Noam Chomsky W. Tecumseh Fitch 14

Part I Language architecture 43

2 Some simple evo devo theses: how true might they be for language? Noam Chomsky 45

3 Your theory of language evolution depends on your theory of language Ray Jackendoff 63

4 Three meanings of "recursion": key distinctions for biolinguistics W. Tecumseh Fitch 73

5 On obfuscation, obscurantism, and opacity: evolving conceptions of the faculty of language Marc D. Hauser 91

Part II Language and interface systems 101

6 Prospection as a cognitive precursor to symbolic communication Peter G?rdenfors Mathias Osvath 103

7 Did language evolve before speech? Michael C. Corballis 115

8 A pragmatic perspective on the evolution of language Dan Sperber Gloria Origgi 124

Part III Biological and neurological foundations 133

9 Plasticity and canalization in the evolution of linguistic communication: an evolutionary developmental approach Daniel Dor Eva Jablonka 135

10 What is language, that it may have evolved, and what is evolution, that it may apply to language Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini 148

11 The creative capacity of language, in what manner is it unique, and who had it? Philip Lieberman 163

12 Genetics and the evolution of language: what genetic studies reveal about the evolution of language Karin Stromswold 176

Part IV Anthropological context 191

13 A putative role for language in the origin of human consciousness Ian Tattersall 193

14 On two incompatible theories of language evolution Derek Bickerton 199

15 On the evolution of language: implications of a new and general theory of human origins, properties, and history Paul M. Bingham 211

Notes 225

References 232

Index 263