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Book Cover
E-book
Author McNeill, David, 1933- author

Title How language began : gesture and speech in human evolution / David McNeill
Published Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, [2012]
©2012

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 264 pages) : illustrations
Series Approaches to the evolution of language
Approaches to the evolution of language
Contents Introduction : gesture and the origin of language -- What evolved (in part) : the growth point -- How it evolved (in part) : Mead's Loop -- Effects of Mead's Loop -- Ontogenesis in evolution : evolution in ontogenesis -- Alternatives, their limits, and the science base of the growth point
Summary 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
Bibliography Includes chapter notes (pages [223]-235), bibliographical references (pages [236]-256), and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Language and languages -- Origin.
Speech and gesture.
Gesture.
Linguistic change.
Evolution (Biology)
Communication.
Misinformation.
gesture.
Linguistic change
Speech and gesture
Sprachursprung
Gestik
Gesprochene Sprache
Interaktion
Mensch
Evolution
Genre/Form Instructional and educational works.
Matériel d'éducation et de formation.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781139552257
1139552252
9781139108669
1139108662
1139554719
9781139554718
1316089827
9781316089828
1139564544
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1283610868
9781283610865
1139551000
9781139551007
9786613923318
6613923311
1139555960
9781139555968
1139549758
9781139549752
Other Titles Gesture and speech in human evolution