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Transition to Language

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ISBN-10: 0199250669

ISBN-13: 9780199250660

Edition: 2002

Authors: Alison Wray

List price: $64.00
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The evolutionary emergence of each facet of human language can be viewed as a 'transition'. This book explores how different transitions took place, their preconditions, and their consequences. Among the questions it addresses are: what physiological and psychological differences between us and other animals lie at the heart of our superior capacity for language? Was the pre-linguistic period of humankind characterized by words without syntax, syntax without meaning, gesture without speech, or all, or none, of these? Once a community is ready and able to develop language, what internal and external factors trigger its emergence? How are we to interpret the archaeological evidence of early…    
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Book details

List price: $64.00
Copyright year: 2002
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 5/23/2002
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 422
Size: 6.14" wide x 9.21" long x 0.83" tall
Weight: 1.298
Language: English

Alison Wray is a Research Professor of Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Her research centres on the modelling of lexical storage and processing, particularly in relation to formulaic phrases, and it has been applied to language learning, evolution of language and language disability. Her two monographs Formulaic Language and the Lexicon (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2008) are internationally acclaimed. She has a longstanding commitment to researcher training, including the developing of academic expertise.

Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: Conceptualizing Transition in an Evolving Field
Making Ready for Language: Necessary, but not Sufficient
Comparative Vocal Production and the Evolution of Speech: Reinterpreting the Descent of the Larynx
Sexual Display as a Syntactical Vehicle: The Evolution of Syntax in Birdsong and Human Language through Sexual Selection
Serial Expertise and the Evolution of Language
Internal Triggers to Transition: Genes, Processing, Culture, Gesture, and Technology
ProtocadherinXY: A Candidate Gene for Cerebral Asymmetry and Language
Dual Processing in Protolanguage: Performance without Competence
Language and Revolutionary Consciousness
Did Language Evolve from Manual Gestures?
The Finished Artefact Fallacy: Acheulean Hand-axes and Language Origins
External Triggers to Transition: Environment, Population, and Social Context
Foraging versus Social Intelligence in the Evolution of Protolanguage
Methodological Issues in Simulating the Emergence of Language
Crucial Factors in the Origins of Word-Meaning
Constraints on Communities with Indigenous Sign Languages: Clues to the Dynamics of Language Genesis
The Onward Journey: Determining the Shape of Language
The Slow Growth of Language in Children
The Roles of Expression and Representation in Language Evolution
Linguistic Adaptation without Linguistic Constraints: The Role of Sequential Learning in Language Evolution
Uniformitarian Assumptions and Language Evolution Research
On the Evolution of Grammatical Forms
List of Contributors
Index