How language began : the story of humanity's greatest invention / Daniel L. Everett.
Everett, Daniel Leonard, author.
2017
P116 .E73 2017 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection

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Title How language began : the story of humanity's greatest invention / Daniel L. Everett.
Author Everett, Daniel Leonard, author.
Edition First American edition.
ISBN 9780871407955 (hardcover)
0871407957 (hardcover)
Published New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.
Language English
Description xviii, 330 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number P116 .E73 2017
Dewey Decimal Classification 401
Summary "Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than seven thousand languages that exist today. Although fossil hunters and linguists have brought us closer to unearthing the true origins of language, Daniel Everett's discoveries have upended the contemporary linguistic world, reverberating far beyond academic circles. While conducting field research in the Amazonian rainforest, Everett came across an age-old language nestled amongst a tribe of hunter-gatherers. Challenging long-standing principles in the field, Everett now builds on the theory that language was not intrinsic to our species. In order to truly understand its origins, a more interdisciplinary approach is needed-one that accounts as much for our propensity for culture as it does our biological makeup. Language began, Everett theorizes, with Homo Erectus, who catalyzed words through culturally invented symbols. Early humans, as their brains grew larger, incorporated gestures and voice intonations to communicate, all of which built on each other for 60,000 generations. Tracing crucial shifts and developments across the ages, Everett breaks down every component of speech, from harnessing control of more than a hundred respiratory muscles in the larynx and diaphragm, to mastering the use of the tongue. Moving on from biology to execution, Everett explores why elements such as grammar and storytelling are not nearly as critical to language as one might suspect. In the book's final section, Cultural Evolution of Language, Everett takes the ever-debated "language gap" to task, delving into the chasm that separates "us" from "the animals." He approaches the subject from various disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, and archaeology, to reveal that it was social complexity, as well as cultural, physiological, and neurological superiority, that allowed humans-with our clawless hands, breakable bones, and soft skin-to become the apex predator. How Language Began ultimately explains what we know, what we'd like to know, and what we likely never will know about how humans went from mere communication to language. Based on nearly forty years of fieldwork, Everett debunks long-held theories by some of history's greatest thinkers, from Plato to Chomsky. The result is an invaluable study of what makes us human."--Goodreads.com.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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Introduction
Part One: The First Hominins; 1. Rise of the Hominins
2. The Fossil Hunters
3. The Hominins Depar
4. Everyone Speaks Languages of Signs
Part Two: Human Biological Adaptations for Language; 5. Humans Get a Better Brain
6. How the Brain Makes Language Possible
7. When the Brain Goes Wrong
8. Talking with Tongues
Part Three: The Evolution of Language Form; 9. Where Grammar Came From
10. Talking with the Hands
11. Just Good Enough
Part Four: Cultural Evolution of Language; 12. Communities and Communication
Conclusion.

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