The genesis of grammar

"This book reconstructs what the earliest grammars might have been and shows how they could have led to the languages of modern humankind." "As the languages spoken 8,000 years ago were typologically much the same as they are today and as no direct evidence exists for languages before then, evolutionary linguists are at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in biology. Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva seek to overcome this obstacle by combining grammaticalization theory, one of the main methods of historical linguistics, with work in animal communication and human evolution. The questions they address include: do the modern languages derive from one ancestral language or from more than one? What was the structure of language like when it first evolved? And how did the properties associated with modern human languages arise, in particular syntax and the recursive use of language structures?" "By applying the methodology of grammaticalization theory, the authors reconstruct major lines in the development of functional categories, their ultimate goal being to trace grammar back to its beginnings in early language. Their arguments and exposition will appeal to all those interested in the evolution of language, from advanced undergraduates to linguists, cognitive scientists, human biologists, and archaeologists."--Jacket.

Year

2007

Language

English

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Editions

5

Pages

352

ISBN

9780199227778

Data source: Wikidata