The First Word by Christine Kenneally explores the complex and evolving field of language evolution, challenging traditional views and presenting new research. The book delves into debates about the origins of language, the role of the brain, and the potential insights from animal communication.
Christine Kenneally's The First Word provides a comprehensive overview of the fascinating and contentious field of language evolution. The book challenges the long-held belief that language is a uniquely human trait centered in a specific brain area, as proposed by Noam Chomsky. Instead, Kenneally presents a variety of perspectives, including those that suggest language evolved to meet communication needs and that animal communication could provide insights into early human language. The book also explores how language affects brain processes, highlighting the intricate relationship between language and cognition. Overall, The First Word offers a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of one of science's most challenging problems.
Quick quotes
The topic remained disreputable for more than a century, but in the last decade or so, language evolution has eased toward the front burner, attracting the attention of linguists, neuroscientists, psychologists and geneticists.
This view now faces many rivals. The big-bang theory has been countered by linguists who believe that just as the eye evolved to meet a need for vision, language evolved to meet the need for communication.
The idea that language is restricted to a specific area of the brain has been more or less discarded.