This book provides a critical introduction to the current views and controversies regarding language evolution. It sheds new light on hot topics such as: How ancient is language? Did Neanderthals have some form of language? Did language evolve gradually and incrementally, through stages, or suddenly, in one leap, in all its complexity? Does language evolution involve natural selection or not?

This book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in language evolution, especially those in the fields of linguistics, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience.

Includes critical discussion of the controversies surrounding language evolution Provides a linguistic reconstruction detailing the earliest stages of grammar Accessible to non-experts

Inhalt
Editor introduction; Helen Aristar-Dry.- 1. Introduction to Divergent Views.- 2. Sudden (Saltationist) Approaches to Language Evolution.- 3. Gradualist Approaches to Language Evolution.- 4. Putting it all Together: The Language-Brain-Genes Loop.