The Evolution of Language.pdf

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The Evolution of Language

Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears

that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere

in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language

based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the

brightest chimpanzee, exposed to the same environment, will not.

Why not? How, and why, did language evolve in our species and

not in others? Since Darwin’s theory of evolution, questions about

the origin of language have generated a rapidly growing scientiﬁc

literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed

at specialist audiences. The diversity of perspectives – from linguistics,

anthropology, speech science, genetics, neuroscience, and evolutionary

biology – can be bewildering. Covering diverse and fascinating topics,

from Kaspar Hauser to Clever Hans, Tecumseh Fitch provides a clear

and comprehensible guide to this vast literature, bringing together its

most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles

of human history.

W. TECUMSEHFITCH is Professor of Cognitive Biology at the University

of Vienna. He studies the evolution of cognition and communication

in animals and man, focusing on the evolution of speech, music,

and language. He is interested in all aspects of vocal communication

in terrestrial vertebrates, particularly vertebrate vocal production in

relation to the evolution of speech and music in our own species.

The Evolution of Language

W. TECUMSEH FITCH