Nature and Origin of Language

This book looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language then evolved. The author argues that language is a system of signs, considers how these elements first came together in the brain, and examines the brain mechanisms that allowed their formation. He shows that his explanation of language origins and evolution is consistent with the complex properties of languages and that it offers insights to both language learnability and constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis. This outstandingly original account will interest linguists, cognitive scientists, and others interested in the evolution of language.