Birdsong, Speech, and Language ─ Exploring the Evolution of Mind and Brain

Scholars have long been captivated by the parallels between birdsong and human speechand language. In this book, leading scholars draw on the latest research to explore what birdsongcan tell us about the biology of human speech and language and the consequences for evolutionarybiology. They examine the cognitive and neural similarities between birdsong learning and speech andlanguage acquisition, considering vocal imitation, auditory learning, an early vocalization phase("babbling"), the structural properties of birdsong and human language, and the strikingsimilarities between the neural organization of learning and vocal production in birdsong and humanspeech. After outlining the basic issues involved in the study of both language and evolution, thecontributors compare birdsong and language in terms of acquisition, recursion, and core structuralproperties, and then examine the neurobiology of song and speech, genomic factors, and the emergenceand evolution of language.

ContributorsHermann Ackermann,Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Robert C. Berwick, Johan J. Bolhuis, Noam Chomsky, Frank Eisner, MartinEveraert, Michale S. Fee, Olga Feher, Simon E. Fisher, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Jonathan B. Fritz, SharonM. H. Gobes, Riny Huijbregts, Eric Jarvis, Robert Lachlan, Ann Law, Michael A. Long, Gary F. Marcus,Carolyn McGettigan, Daniel Mietchen, Richard Mooney, Sanne Moorman, Kazuo Okanoya, ChristophePallier, Irene M. Pepperberg, Jonathan F. Prather, Franck Ramus, Eric Reuland, Constance Scharff,Sophie K. Scott, Neil Smith, Ofer Tchernichovski, Carel ten Cate, Christopher K. Thompson, FrankWijnen, Moira Yip, Wolfram Ziegler, Willem Zuidema