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From Signal to Symbol

The Evolution of Language

Part of Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology

Author Ronald Planer, Kim Sterelny

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$35.00 US

The MIT Press

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On sale Oct 12, 2021 | 296 Pages | 9780262045971

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A novel account of the evolution of language and the cognitive capacities on which language depends.

In From Signal to Symbol, Ronald Planer and Kim Sterelny propose a novel theory of language: that modern language is the product of a long series of increasingly rich protolanguages evolving over the last two million years. Arguing that language and cognition coevolved, they give a central role to archaeological evidence and attempt to infer cognitive capacities on the basis of that evidence, which they link in turn to communicative capacities.

Countering other accounts, which move directly from archaeological traces to language, Planer and Sterelny show that rudimentary forms of many of the elements on which language depends can be found in the great apes and were part of the equipment of the earliest species in our lineage. After outlining the constraints a theory of the evolution of language should satisfy and filling in the details of their model, they take up the evolution of words, composite utterances, and hierarchical structure. They consider the transition from a predominantly gestural to a predominantly vocal form of language and discuss the economic and social factors that led to language. Finally, they evaluate their theory in terms of the constraints previously laid out.

"[A] clear step forward....provides a plausible, empirically grounded account of language evolution in a captivating format, striking a difficult balance between brevity, clarity, and richness of documentation and detail....This is not a technical, specialist monograph, rather an accessible synthesis that offers enough ‘big picture’ to satisfy most generalist cognitive science readers, and enough details to keep connoisseurs turning (and annotating) the pages."
—Language and Cognition

Ronald Planer carried out postdoctoral research at the Australian National University from 2015 to 2020 in the School of Philosophy and is currently a Research Affiliate of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Evolution of Language in the School of Languages and Linguistics at Melbourne University. Kim Sterelny is Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He is the coauthor of Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language and the author of The Evolved Apprentice: How Evolution Made Humans Unique (both published by the MIT Press) and other books.

Ronald Planer View titles by Ronald Planer

Kim Sterelny View titles by Kim Sterelny

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Preface ix
1 An Intractable Challenge? 1
2 Toward Protolanguage 31
3 Let’s Sign (and Speak) Erectine 65
4 Composite Signs 95
5 Grammatical Structure 117
6 The Firelight Niche: From Sign to Speech 155
7 From Protolanguage to Language 181
8 Without Miracles? 213
Glossary 223
Notes 229
References 239
Index 265

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Ronald Planer View titles by Ronald Planer

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• Belgium

• Belize

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• Bhutan

• Bolivia

• Bonaire, Saba

• Bosnia Herzeg.

• Botswana

• Bouvet Island

• Brazil

• Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter

• Brit.Virgin Is.

• Brunei

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• Burkina Faso

• Burundi

• Cambodia

• Cameroon

• Canada

• Cape Verde

• Cayman Islands

• Centr.Afr.Rep.

• Chad

• Chile

• China

• Christmas Islnd

• Cocos Islands

• Colombia

• Comoro Is.

• Congo

• Cook Islands

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• Croatia

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• Curacao

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• Czech Republic

• Dem. Rep. Congo

• Denmark

• Djibouti

• Dominica

• Dominican Rep.

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• Eritrea

• Estonia

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• Finland

• France

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• French Guinea

• Gabon

• Gambia

• Georgia

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• Greenland

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• Guam

• Guatemala

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• Guinea Republic

• Guinea-Bissau

• Guyana

• Haiti

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• Hong Kong

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• Iceland

• India

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• Isle of Man

• Israel

• Italy

• Ivory Coast

• Jamaica

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• Jersey

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• Kazakhstan

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• Kuwait

• Kyrgyzstan

• Laos

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• Lebanon

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• Liberia

• Libya

• Liechtenstein

• Lithuania

• Luxembourg

• Macau

• Macedonia

• Madagascar

• Malawi

• Malaysia

• Maldives

• Mali

• Malta

• Marshall island

• Martinique

• Mauritania

• Mauritius

• Mayotte

• Mexico

• Micronesia

• Minor Outl.Ins.

• Moldavia

• Monaco

• Mongolia

• Montenegro

• Montserrat

• Morocco

• Mozambique

• Myanmar

• Namibia

• Nauru

• Nepal

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• New Caledonia

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• Niger

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• Norfolk Island

• North Korea

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• Pakistan

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From Signal to Symbol

The Evolution of Language

Part of Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology

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From Signal to Symbol

The Evolution of Language

Part of Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology

About

Praise

Author

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Table of Contents

Other books in this series

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About International Sales USA

Penguin Random House