Language Evolution

Morten H. Christiansen is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. He is co-editor of Connectionist Psycholinguistics published by Ablex in 2001. Simon Kirby is a British Academy Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh: his book, Function, Selection, and Innateness was published by OUP in 1999.

1. Language Evolution: The Hardest Problem in Science? ; 2. Language as an Adaptation to the Cognitive Niche ; 3. The Language Mosaic and its Evolution ; 4. What can the Field of Linguistics Tell Us About the Origins of Language? ; 5. Symbol and Structure: A Comprehensive Framework for Language Evolution ; 6. On the Different Origins of Symbols and Grammar ; 7. Universal Grammar and Semiotic Constraints ; 8. The Archaeological Evidence of Language Origins: States of the Art ; 9. What are the Uniquely Human Components of the Language Faculty? ; 10. The Evolving Mirror System: A Neural Basis for Language Readiness ; 11. From Hand to Mouth: the Gestural Origins of Language ; 12. The Origin and Subsequent Evolution of Language ; 13. Launching Language: the Gestural Origin of Discrete Infinity ; 14. Motor Control, Speech, and the Evolution of Human Language ; 15. From Language Learning to Language Evolution ; 16. Grammatical Assimilation ; 17. Language, Learning, and Evolution