New Essays on the Origins of Language

This collection of 12 essays are a result of a December 1999 colloquium at the Berlin Academy which brought together researchers currently involved in the debate over the origin of language. Topics include the biological problem of selection for language, the formation of the first language the evolutionary steps necessary to form a fully fledged language, the relation between lexicon and syntax, the possibility on an innate universal grammar, communicative constraints on the processes and three perspectives which do not share the concerns of the biolinguistic mainstream, provided by an ethnolinguist, an historical comparative linguist, and a "culturalist" historical anthropology of language. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)