Origins of Language

Constraints on hypotheses

| University of Jönköping
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027238917 (Eur) | EUR 95.00
ISBN 9781588116291 (USA) | USD 143.00
 
PaperbackAvailable
ISBN 9789027238931 | EUR 38.00 | USD 57.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027294609 | EUR 95.00/38.00*
| USD 143.00/57.00*
 
Google Play logo
 
Netlibrary e-BookNot for resale
ISBN 9781423761389
Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the student or researcher who prefers solid data and well-supported conclusions, over speculative scenarios. Much that has been written on the origins of language is characterized by hypothesizing largely unconstrained by evidence. But empirical data do exist, and the purpose of this book is to integrate and review the available evidence from all relevant disciplines, not only linguistics but also, e.g., neurology, primatology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology. The evidence is then used to constrain the multitude of scenarios for language origins, demonstrating that many popular hypotheses are untenable. Among the issues covered: (1) Human evolutionary history, (2) Anatomical prerequisites for language, (3) Animal communication and ape "language", (4) Mind and language, (5) The role of gesture, (6) Innateness, (7) Selective advantage of language, (8) Proto-language.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“Sverker Johansson offers us an impressive review of current theories on the origins of language, one of the most stimulating scientific debates of the nascent century. The book is clear, clever, exhaustive, and has the rare quality of being faithful to all the theories it describes. It is essential reading for all those who want to be part of the fascinating adventure of understanding the origins of humanity. This is a reference book, not only for students, but also for researchers in the field, and I will be digging frequently into this mind of knowledge.”
“Johansson's review of the existing theories of language evolution is excellent and provides a good introduction to the field. Even though he does not formulate a theory of his own, I find the constraints on theories of language evolution that he formulates very clear-headed and they should certainly serve as benchmarks for any researcher in the area.”
“Origins of Language: Constraints on Hypotheses presents a wake-up call for the discipline of linguistics to reassess its basic beliefs and strengthen its bond with sciences as opposed to the arts, the link that seemed to have been stronger throughout its history as a discipline. I recommend Johansson's work, as one of the texts in his first linguistics course, because it provides a good basis for the beginner in linguistics; it also can serve as a solid reference for the scholar.”
“Johansson's book – the first book-length, single-authored attempt I know of to synthesize this fascinating and rapidly growing field – makes several important contributions. First, it offers a good overview of the many relevant strands of data – from fossils, from genes, from brain imaging, from animal communication. [...] the very attempt to synthesize these diverse scientific fields is admirable and useful. The basic scientific attitude embodied in the book – survey the hypotheses, survey the data and then combine them to exclude some hypotheses – is certainly the correct way forward for the field. It is rather surprising that no one has done it before, and anyone interested in entering the field of language evolution should look to this book for an overview of some of the important debates”
“In total it is a valuable review - currently the most complete in its breadth and balance of any yet published - and I would consider using it in an upperdivision course.”
“[...] this is a brilliantly readable, amazingly succinct yet comprehensive overview of what is scientifically plausible – and utterly implausible – in terms of hypotheses about the evolution of language. It could easily be used as a textbook for a course in language evolution. [...] What we need is a way of pulling together the best from the totality of facts and good hypotheses which we already have from all the relevant disciplines. And broadly, this is what we get here.”
Cited by (79)

Cited by 79 other publications

Piserà, Stefano
2024. Gendered language and board diversity: Evidence from European banks. International Journal of Finance & Economics 29:3  pp. 3083 ff. DOI logo
Hillert, Dieter G.
2023. On how “early syntax” came about. Frontiers in Language Sciences 2 DOI logo
Khare, Noopur, Saurabh Kumar Jha, Niraj Kumar Jha & Abhimanyu Kumar Jha
2023. Human Evolution and Human Psychology. In Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior,  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Gärdenfors, Peter
2022. Teaching as evolutionary precursor to language. Frontiers in Communication 7 DOI logo
Haider, Hubert
2021. Grammar change. Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 3:1  pp. 6 ff. DOI logo
Davidson, Iain
2020. Cognitive Evolution and Origins of Language and Speech. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology,  pp. 2457 ff. DOI logo
Davidson, Iain
2020. Marks, Pictures and Art: Their Contribution to Revolutions in Communication. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 27:3  pp. 745 ff. DOI logo
Nikolsky, Aleksey
2020. The Pastoral Origin of Semiotically Functional Tonal Organization of Music. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
Nikolsky, Aleksey
2020. Emergence of the Distinction Between “Verbal” and “Musical” in Early Childhood Development. In The Origins of Language Revisited,  pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Osei-Tutu, Francis & Laurent Weill
2020. Sex, Language, and Financial Inclusion. SSRN Electronic Journal DOI logo
Osei‐Tutu, Francis & Laurent Weill
2021. Sex, language and financial inclusion*. Economics of Transition and Institutional Change 29:3  pp. 369 ff. DOI logo
Zlatev, Jordan, Przemysław Żywiczyński & Sławomir Wacewicz
2020. Pantomime as the original human-specific communicative system. Journal of Language Evolution 5:2  pp. 156 ff. DOI logo
Feldmann, Horst
2019. Do Linguistic Structures Affect Human Capital? The Case of Pronoun Drop. Kyklos 72:1  pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Progovac, Ljiljana & Antonio Benítez-Burraco
2019. From Physical Aggression to Verbal Behavior: Language Evolution and Self-Domestication Feedback Loop. Frontiers in Psychology 10 DOI logo
Raimondi, Vincenzo
2019. The Role of Languaging in Human Evolution. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15:4  pp. 675 ff. DOI logo
Allan, Keith
2018. Getting a grip on context as a determinant of meaning. In Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 18],  pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
Allan, Keith
2024. Language and Thinking: Principles of Famous Linguists. In The Handbook of Cultural Linguistics [Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics, ],  pp. 191 ff. DOI logo
Hechavarría, Diana M., Siri A. Terjesen, Pekka Stenholm, Malin Brännback & Stefan Lång
2018. WITHDRAWN–Administrative Duplicate Publication—More than Words: Do Gendered Linguistic Structures Widen the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurial Activity?. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice  pp. etap.12278 ff. DOI logo
Hechavarría, Diana M., Siri A. Terjesen, Pekka Stenholm, Malin Brännback & Stefan Lång
2018. More than Words: Do Gendered Linguistic Structures Widen the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurial Activity?. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 42:5  pp. 797 ff. DOI logo
Shoham, Amir & Sang Mook Lee
2018. The Causal Impact of Grammatical Gender Marking on Gender Wage Inequality and Country Income Inequality. Business & Society 57:6  pp. 1216 ff. DOI logo
ÇAM, Elmas Gülhan
2018. Dillerin Kökenine İlişkin Kelâmî Yaklaşımlar: Bâkıllânî Örneği. Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi :45  pp. 367 ff. DOI logo
Dukas, Reuven
2017. Cognitive innovations and the evolutionary biology of expertise. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372:1735  pp. 20160427 ff. DOI logo
Jeny, Anne & Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
2017. New avenues of research to explain the rarity of females at the top of the accountancy profession. Palgrave Communications 3:1 DOI logo
Nowak, Tomasz
2017. Transformacje morfosyntaktyczne w badaniach eksperymentalnych, czyli lingwistyka między matematyką a psychologią. Białostockie Archiwum Językowe :17  pp. 163 ff. DOI logo
Shoham, Amir, Tamar Almor, Sang Mook Lee & Mohammad F. Ahammad
2017. Encouraging environmental sustainability through gender:Amicro‐foundational approach using linguistic gender marking. Journal of Organizational Behavior 38:9  pp. 1356 ff. DOI logo
Tamariz, Monica
2017. Experimental Studies on the Cultural Evolution of Language. Annual Review of Linguistics 3:1  pp. 389 ff. DOI logo
Viana, Amadeu
2017. The Unfolding of Language as Hysteron Proteron: Heterochrony and Extended Connectivity. Biosemiotics 10:3  pp. 379 ff. DOI logo
Zlatev, Jordan, Sławomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski & Joost van de Weijer
2017. Multimodal-first or pantomime-first?. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 18:3  pp. 465 ff. DOI logo
Domínguez, Martí
2016. The Metaphorical New Synthesis: Toward an Eco-Evolutionary Theory of Metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 31:3  pp. 148 ff. DOI logo
Domínguez, Martí
2020. Chapter 8. Disentangling metaphoric communication. In Performing Metaphoric Creativity across Modes and Contexts [Figurative Thought and Language, 7],  pp. 175 ff. DOI logo
Fröhlich, Marlen, Paul Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M. Wittig & Simone Pika
2016. Unpeeling the layers of language: Bonobos and chimpanzees engage in cooperative turn-taking sequences. Scientific Reports 6:1 DOI logo
Malul, Miki, Amir Shoham & Moshfique Uddin
2016. Linguistic gender marking gap and female staffing at MNC’s. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 27:20  pp. 2531 ff. DOI logo
Pennisi, Antonino & Alessandra Falzone
2016. Neurocerebral Fundamentals. In Darwinian Biolinguistics [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 12],  pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Van de Velde, Freek & Muriel Norde
2016. Exaptation. In Exaptation and Language Change [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 336],  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Wacewicz, Sławomir, Przemysław Żywiczyński & Sylwester Orzechowski
2016. Visible movements of the orofacial area. Gesture 15:2  pp. 250 ff. DOI logo
Woleński, Jan
2016. Logic in the Light of Cognitive Science. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 48:1  pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
Dator, James A., John A. Sweeney & Aubrey M. Yee
2015. Communication Technologies and Power Relations in Five Historical Periods. In Mutative Media [Lecture Notes in Social Networks, ],  pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Wacewicz, Sławomir & Przemysław Żywiczyński
2015. Language Evolution: Why Hockett’s Design Features are a Non-Starter. Biosemiotics 8:1  pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Ackermann, Hermann, Steffen R. Hage & Wolfram Ziegler
2014. Phylogenetic reorganization of the basal ganglia: A necessary, but not the only, bridge over a primate Rubicon of acoustic communication. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37:6  pp. 577 ff. DOI logo
Johansson, Sverker
2014. Neanderthals did speak, butFOXP2doesn't prove it. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37:6  pp. 558 ff. DOI logo
Johansson, Sverker
2014. The thinking Neanderthals: What do we know about Neanderthal cognition?. WIREs Cognitive Science 5:6  pp. 613 ff. DOI logo
Johansson, Sverker
2015. Language Abilities in Neanderthals. Annual Review of Linguistics 1:1  pp. 311 ff. DOI logo
Santacreu-Vasut, Estefania, Oded Shenkar & Amir Shoham
2014. Linguistic gender marking and its international business ramifications. Journal of International Business Studies 45:9  pp. 1170 ff. DOI logo
Santacreu-Vasut, Estefania, Oded Shenkar & Amir Shoham
2017. Linguistic Gender Marking and Its International Business Ramifications. In Language in International Business [JIBS Special Collections, ],  pp. 194 ff. DOI logo
Hicks, Daniel L., Estefania Santacreu-Vasut & Amir Shoham
2013. Does Mother Tongue Make for Women's Work? Linguistics, Household Labor, and Gender Identity. SSRN Electronic Journal DOI logo
Scherer, Klaus R.
2013. Affect Bursts as Evolutionary Precursors of Speech and Music. In Stephen J. Gould: The Scientific Legacy,  pp. 147 ff. DOI logo
TALLERMAN, MAGGIE
2013. Join the dots: A musical interlude in the evolution of language?. Journal of Linguistics 49:2  pp. 455 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 5 Symbolic units. In How Words Mean,  pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 13 Interpretation. In How Words Mean,  pp. 252 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 10 Cognitive models. In How Words Mean,  pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 6 Semantic structure. In How Words Mean,  pp. 100 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 1 Words and meaning. In How Words Mean,  pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 4 Word meaning in LCCM Theory. In How Words Mean,  pp. 65 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 9 Conceptual structure. In How Words Mean,  pp. 175 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 14 Metaphor and metonymy. In How Words Mean,  pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 11 Lexical concept selection. In How Words Mean,  pp. 217 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 7 Lexical concepts. In How Words Mean,  pp. 127 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 12 Lexical concept integration. In How Words Mean,  pp. 236 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 15 The semantics of Time. In How Words Mean,  pp. 302 ff. DOI logo
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 16 LCCM Theory in context. In How Words Mean,  pp. 335 ff. DOI logo
Abieva, Natalia A.
2008. The Role of Off-line Communication in Human Evolution. Biosemiotics 1:3  pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
Behme, Christina
2008. Languages as evolving organisms –Thesolution to the logical problem of language evolution?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31:5  pp. 512 ff. DOI logo
Behme, Christina & S. Hélène Deacon
2008. Language Learning in Infancy: Does the Empirical Evidence Support a Domain Specific Language Acquisition Device?. Philosophical Psychology 21:5  pp. 641 ff. DOI logo
Katz, Gregory
2008. The Hypothesis of a Genetic Protolanguage: an Epistemological Investigation. Biosemiotics 1:1  pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Kita, Sotaro
2008. World-View of Protolanguage Speakers as Inferred from Semantics of Sound Symbolic Words: A Case of Japanese Mimetics. In The Origins of Language,  pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Nünning, Ansgar
2008. S. In Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie,  pp. 639 ff. DOI logo
Nünning, Ansgar
2013. S. In Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie,  pp. 670 ff. DOI logo
Seyfarth, Robert M. & Dorothy L. Cheney
2008. Primate social knowledge and the origins of language. Mind & Society 7:1  pp. 129 ff. DOI logo
Swarup, Samarth & Les Gasser
2007. The Role of Anticipation in the Emergence of Language. In Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4520],  pp. 35 ff. DOI logo
Wichmann, Søren, Dietrich Stauer, F. Wellington S. Lima & Christian Schulze
2007. Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics. Transactions of the Philological Society 105:2  pp. 126 ff. DOI logo
Yule, George
2001. The Study of Language, DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2001. The origins of language. In The Study of Language,  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. List of Figures. In How Words Mean,  pp. xiv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Dedication. In How Words Mean,  pp. ii ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. List of Tables. In How Words Mean,  pp. xvi ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Words. In How Words Mean,  pp. vi ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Copyright Page. In How Words Mean,  pp. iv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Abbreviations. In How Words Mean,  pp. xvii ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2009. Preface. In How Words Mean,  pp. ix ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Communication Studies

Communication Studies

Philosophy

Philosophy

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2004066031 | Marc record