Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution - Hardcover

Lieberman, P

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393040895 ISBN 13: 9780393040890

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

A scientific examination of human speech and the origins of language looks at the evolutionary development--back to the earliest humans--of the biological functions that make human speech possible. BAKER & TAYLOR

About this title

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.

From the Back Cover

Eve Spoke presents a compelling case for the pivotal role that speech has played in human language and human evolution. Wrestling with the age-old question of why such a large gulf exists between humans and other animals, Philip Lieberman mines both the fossil record and modern neuro-scientific techniques to chart the development of the anatomy and brain mechanisms necessary for human language as we know it. Eschewing any notion of a language gene or instinct, he pursues instead an evolutionary path in which environment acts on a biological capacity to reveal the interconnectedness of systems that make us most human: precise motor skills, speech, language, and complex thought. Lieberman interweaves decades of research in anthropology, neuroscience, psychology and linguistics into his exposition on the evolution of human speech.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393040895
• ISBN 13: 9780393040890
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208