Login

Heine, Bernd

The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction

Heine, Bernd - The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction, ebook

119,05€

Ebook, PDF with Adobe DRM
ISBN: 9780191527838
DRM Restrictions

PrintingAllowed without restriction
Copy to clipboard5 excerpts

This book reconstructs what the earliest grammars might have been and shows how they could have led to the languages of modern humankind. It considers whether these languages derive from a single ancestral language; what the structure of language was when it first evolved; and how the properties associated with modern human languages first arose.

"This book reconstructs what the earliest grammars might have been and shows how they could have led to the languages of modern humankind. "Like other biological phenomena, language cannot be fully understood without reference to its evolution, whether proven or hypothesized,". As the languages spoken 8,000 years ago were typologically much the same as they are today and as no direct evidence exists for languages before then, evolutionary linguists are at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in biology. Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva seek to overcome this obstacle by combining grammaticalization theory, one of the main methods of historical linguistics, with work in animal communication and human evolution. The questions they address include: do the modern languages derive from one ancestral language or from more than one? What was the structure of language like when it first evolved? And how did the properties associated with modern human languages arise, in particular syntax and the recursive use of language structures? The authors proceed on the assumption that if language evolution is the result of language change then the reconstruction of the former can be explored by deploying the processes involved in the latter. Their measured arguments and crystal-clear exposition will appeal to all those interested in the evolution of language, from advanced undergraduates to linguists, cognitive scientists, human biologists, and archaeologists.

Heine and Kutevas book is a wonderful, illuminating, exhaustive introduction to the subject of language evolution. It affords the reader a wide-ranging, comprehensive overview of the topic and relevant literature. It outlines the core issues, notes the perennial puzzles, and wades boldly into the bitter controversies that have dogged the discussion ever since its inception. Above all, the book reminds us that, however frustrating the topic may be, a true understanding of the phenomenon of language, and thus of human culture and cognition, is only possible within an evolutionary framework. Heine and Kuteva's The Genesis of Grammar is a major contribution to the rapidly burgeoning literature on the origins and evolution of human language. They draw on their decades of research on the phenomenon of grammaticalization to draw plausible conjectures about what the first human language might have looked like. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fresh perspective on this challenging and fascinating problem. - Frederick J. Newmeyer, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Washington

Copying to clipboard limited to 5 samples

Author(s)
 
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication year
2007
Language
en
Edition
1
Page amount
440 pages
Categories
Litterary Studies
 
Novels
Format
Ebook
eISBN (PDF)
9780191527838

Similar titles