3 Review(s)

This is an engaging and comprehensive introduction to the evolution of language from gestural communication to the development of complex syntax. Approaching the subject from a linguistic point of view, Mike Beaken synthesises the latest advances in scientific knowledge based on archaeological and fossil evidence, primate study and new techniques in historical language analysis. Countering Pinker's The Language Instinct, he refutes claims for an innate biological capacity for language and demonstrates that the origin and form of language can be explained in terms of human activity.