Melissa's review
The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally
Melissa's review
rating:
bookshelves: science
status: Read in November, 2007 — I have a copy to sell/swap
rating:
bookshelves: science
status: Read in November, 2007 — I have a copy to sell/swap
First off, reading this book will not simply provide you with the origins of human language. However, what it does do is provide the reader with a thorough description of the ongoing struggle between various linguists, biologists, evolutionary psychologists, and others as the study of evolutionary linguistics moves forward after decades under a self-induced ban by the linguistic society itself. While we are slowly learning more about the probable evolution of language through human genetics and brain studies, it's potentially our mammal cousins that can provide some of the richest sources of data, particularly when their biological makeup and methods of communication are compared with our own. There's obviously still much more to study, and while the disagreements are not over, we can hope that by this point, any ongoing contention will do little to impede the actual study of evolutionary linguistics itself.
