Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-290) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
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The continuity paradox -- Language as representation : the atlas -- Language as representation : the itineraries -- The origins of representational systems -- The fossils of language -- The world of the protolanguage -- From protolanguage to language -- Mind, consciousness, and knowledge -- The nature of the species.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
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. --From publisher's description.