Language and Species

Language and Species presents the most detailed and well-documented scenario to date of the origins of language. Drawing on living linguistic fossils such as ape talk, the two-word stage of small children, and pidgin languages, and on recent discoveries in paleoanthropology, Bickerton shows how a primitive protolanguage could have offered Homo erectus a novel ecological niche. He goes on to demonstrate how this protolanguage could have developed into the languages we speak today. You are drawn into [Bickerton's] appreciation of the dominant role language plays not only in what we say, but in what we think and, therefore, what we are.--Robert Wright, New York Times Book Review The evolution of language is a fascinating topic, and Bickerton's Language and Species is the best introduction we have.--John C. Marshall, Nature