The contributions to this volume reflect the state of the art in the renewed discussion on the origin of language. Some of the most important specialists in the

This volume combines Rousseau's essay on the origin of diverse languages with Herder's essay on the genesis of the faculty of speech. Rousseau's essay is import

How human language evolved from the need for social communication The origins of human language remain hotly debated. Despite growing appreciation of cognitive

Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the s

Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific abili