Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution - Hardcover

Lieberman, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330338242 ISBN 13: 9780330338240

Publisher: Picador, 1998

Synopsis

This text concerns the evolution of language. It follows the first "modern" humans who developed language and so produced the ability to express complex and abstract thought. The book argues that the modifications made to the brain to enable the development of language are the same as the Darwinian mechanisms that produced distinctive attributes in other animals.

About this title

Review

Speaking, like breathing, is something we do every day without thinking. And just like breathing, speech is the result of a complicated dance between neural mechanisms and muscle responses. Although everybody makes use of language--in some form or another-- little is actually understood about what it is or how it began. In Eve Spoke, Philip Lieberman, a professor of cognitive science and linguistics, outlines his own theories about this mysterious subject. From development of the human vocal tract to the latest models of where language skills occur in the brain, Lieberman covers the physical aspects of producing speech. He then tries to explain just how the brain puts it all together to create meaning from sound.

From the Author

EVE SPOKE debunks Chomsky, triggering venomous attacks
Predictably Derek Bickerton castigates EVE SPOKE. He would prefer that readers remain ignorant of its message because I show that the data that he and Steven Pinker cite to support Chomsky's theories are incomplete and seriously misleading. No evidence whatsoever exists for the Chomskian "language gene;" our brains are not "pre-loaded' with the details of syntax. Nor does the similar "morality gene" or "cheater-detector" gene central to Bickerton's most recent work have any substance.

EVE SPOKE shows that the brain mechanisms that regulate human speech (or that can be used to produce manual sign language) form part of a complex system that also allows us to understand the syntax and meaning of sentences that we hear or read. I discuss the work of hundreds of independent experiments. Quantitative studies of aphasia, Parkinson's Disease, the oxygen deprivation suffered by climbers on Mount Everest, and other conditions show that parts of the brain traditionally associated with motor control are implicated in comprehending language and thinking. Studies of other species by many scientists provide evidence for the continuity of evolution. Hence, I propose that the brain-bases of human language could have evolved from neural mechanisms initially adapted to regulate preciuse manual movements, for example, in toolmaking. EVE SPOKE also presents new insights developed by many other investigators on the evolution of modern humans, the demise of the Neanderthals, the interpretation of ape language, and the archaelogical and fossil record of human evolution.

What EVE SPOKE does not do is to follow the example set by Bickerton and Pinker, creating scenarios concerning the preseumed life-styles of humans in the ice-ages, ignoring evidence derived by means of the comparative method introduced by Charles Darwin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330338242
• ISBN 13: 9780330338240
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208