Download Traditions of Biolinguistics

Biolinguistics
Dr. Gabriel HONG
WS 2008 / Fu Jen University
Traditions of Biolinguistics
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
J. Herder (1744-1803)
Prize winner of 1759 essay competition sponsorsed by German Science
Academy
Thomas Young (1773-1829)
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
March 26th, 1835 Darwin experienced on attack of the Benchuca, the great
black bug of the pampas. It is now known that these insects carry a microorganism which is responsible for so-called Chagas disease. It seems likely,
but not altogether certain, that Darwin was a victim of this disease. It seems
quite probable that like many other Victorian intellectuals, both male and
female, he was unusual susceptible to psychosomatic illness. One must
recognize too that he had to bear the overwhelming strain of incubating an
explosively controversial theory. The attack of the Benchuca may have been
responsible, but one cannot rule out the possibility that Darwin’s ill-health
was the result of unremitting anxiety.
At the time he opened the first notebook in July 1937, Darwin was a convert
to Lyell’s belief in uniform geological change.
By the middle of 1837 he was convinced that life had “evolved” and that the
emergence of new species was the result of “descent with modification”.
By the end of 1837, Darwin had come to the conclusion that nature was an
open-ended process of “becoming”.
1839 Darwin’s unconventional conclusion against traditional belief was
fully formulated privately. In spite of the fact that the main outlines of this
revolutionary theory were clearly established by 1839, nearly twenty years
went by before the Origin of Species appeared in print.
1842 sketch out 35 pages of what he called “My Theory”
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*1844 expand the sketch into a closely argued essay of 230 pages, and left
instructions that it was to be published in the event of his unexpected death
Reasons for Delay of publication:
1. Scientific caution
2. Fear of Controversy & Persecution
3. Darwin’s Religious Beliefs
18th June, 1858, Darwin received a letter from a young naturalist Alfred
Russell Wallace, who had been working for many years in the Malay
Archipelago. Wallace had written to ask Darwin’s advice about a scientific
paper which outlined a theory suggesting that natural selection played an
essential part in shaping the development of living species. Darwin was
understuck and wrote to Lyell to say that he had been forestalled.
On the 1st July, 1858, Darwin and Wallace published an article in the
Journal of the Linnean Society. “On the Tendency of Species to Form
Varieties; and On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural
Means of Selection”.
1859 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (Preservation
of Favioured Races in the Struggle for Life)
1868 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
1871 The Descent of Man
1872 Darwin, Charles (1872). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and
Animals. London: J.Murray.
1875 Insectivorous Plants
1880 The Power of Movement in Plants
August Schleicher (1821-1868)
Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Hugo Karl Liepmann (1863-1925)
Karl von Frisch (1886-)
1967 A Biologist Remembered
1971 Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language
Roman Jakobson (1896-1982)
Konrad Lorenz (1903-)
Imprinting
1952 King Solomon’s Ring
1966 On Aggresssion
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Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) and Palo Alto Schools (1950s-60s)
1908 father William Bateson (England’s famous geneticist) coined the word
“genetics”
named after Gregor Mendel
1930 Master’s degree in anthropology at Cambridge University
1936 field work in New Guinea, met and later married anthropologist
Margaret Mead
1950 Divorce, but work together as colleagues
Norbert Wiener stimulated Bateson’s interest in Cybernetics
1951 (Ruesch & Bateson Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry
develop a universal epistemology for communication of all living beings
investigate communication among dolphins
develop concepts: metacommunication, paradox, double bind
patron saint of family therapy movement
1972 Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Bateson did not himself use the concept of biosemiotics but his whole scientific project dealt with
communication between animals, people and machines. And his conception of evolution and thought as two
related mind-processes fits nicely into the biosemiotic set of ideas.
Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-)
1951 The Study of Instinct
1953 The Herring Gull’s World
1958 Curious Naturalist
how animals across species behave to adapt to environment in evolution
Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001)
Eric H. Lenneberg (1921-1975)
Juri M. Lotman (28.2.1922 - 28.10.1993)
Jane Goodall (1934-)
Philip Lieberman (1984)
David Caplan (1947-)
Derek Bickerton (1981, 1990)
Steven Pinker (1994)
Stanislaw Puppel (1995)
Robin Dunbar (1996)
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (1922-1996-)
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Lyle Jenkins (2000, 2004)
Biological Foundations of Language
Theoretical Frameworks
Microlinguistics vs. Macrolinguistics
Linguistics vs. Semiotics
Unorganic vs. Organic Linguistics
Language Structures and Biological Structures
Language and Cognition
Anatomy vs. Physiology
Symbiotic Nature of Human and Language
Peripheral Organs for Language Perception
Neurological Substratum
Peripheral Organs for Language Production
Methodology in Biolinguistics
Phylogenetic Language Evolution
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Darwinism
Homology
Evolution of Species and Origin of Language
physical vs. mental evolution
mind complexity and mind reading
monogenesis of human species
reconstruction of genetic tree by mitochondrian DNA studies
Cann, Stoneking & Wilson 1987
genetic tree and linguistic tree
gene frequencies
Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1988
agricultural disffusion and distribution of
Piazza & Cavalli-Sforza 1991
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language tree
speech motor & motor development
Animal Communications
varieties of animal communications
teaching language to ape
Essence of Language and Humanity
language as mental tool
From Biolinguistics to Biosemiotics
Biolinguistics :: Biosemiotics = Linguistics :: Semiotics
Anthroposemiotics vs. Biosemiotics vs. Cosmosemiotics and
Semiosphere
Exosemiotics vs. Endosemiotics
Ontogenetic Language Development
Human Genome Project (HGP)
Oct.1990-1999-2005
80000-100000 human genome
Ch´ang Lan-Yang, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica
Language Acquisition
Critical Period and Neural Plasticity
Language Processing
Formation of New Language under special condition
pidgin & creole
professional jargon
Language Behavior in Aging
Microgenetic Language Processing
Speech Perception and Language Comprehension
Speech Perception
Reading
Language Comprehension
Speech and Language Production
Neurolinguistic Programming
Speech Production
Writing
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Organic Speech and Language Impairment
Organic vs. Functional Disorders
Audiology
Language Pathology
Speech Pathology
Textbooks
2006 Toward an Evolutionary Biology of Language (Hardcover) by
Philip Lieberman
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In this forcefully argued book, the leading evolutionary theorist of language
draws on evidence from evolutionary biology, genetics, physical
anthropology, anatomy, and neuroscience, to provide a framework for
studying the evolution of human language and cognition.
Philip Lieberman argues forcibly that the widely influential theories of
language's development, advanced by Chomskian linguists and cognitive
scientists, especially those that postulate a single dedicated language
"module," "organ," or "instinct," are inconsistent with principles and
findings of evolutionary biology and neuroscience. He argues that the
human neural system in its totality is the basis for the human language
ability, for it requires the coordination of neural circuits that regulate motor
control with memory and higher cognitive functions. Pointing out that
articulate speech is a remarkably efficient means of conveying information,
Lieberman also highlights the adaptive significance of the human tongue.
Fully human language involves the species-specific anatomy of speech,
together with the neural capacity for thought and movement. In Lieberman's
iconoclastic Darwinian view, the human language ability is the confluence
of a succession of separate evolutionary developments, jury-rigged by
natural selection to work together for an evolutionarily unique ability.
From the Back Cover
Evolution is opportunistic and has a "historic" logic of its own making.
Existing structures and systems are adapted to serve new ends, often
maintaining their original functions as well. Once a new behavior is in place,
natural selection may then modify a structure to enhance that aspect of life;
but some, or all, of the demands of the starting point may persist. …the
brain mechanisms that yield human syntax ability also have evolutionary
antecedents outside the domain of language. The subcortical basal ganglia
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structures of the human brain that are critical elements of the neural systems
that allow us to comprehend the meaning or to form a sentence also
continue to support neural circuits that regulate motor control as well as
aspects of cognition, mood, and much else. The evolutionary record of the
changes that yielded human language is evident in the morphology and
physiology of the brain and body; disputes concerning the evolution of
language follow from different readings of the text. Uncertainty arises
because the text has become obscured; the species who possessed
intermediate stage of language are extinct…. Nonetheless, the situation is
not hopeless…the present anatomy and physiology of the human brain and
body reveal its evolutionary history, which, in turn, provides insights on the
nature of the biologic bases of human cognition, language, and other aspects
of human behavior. --from Chapter 1
About the Author
Philip Lieberman is Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic
Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University.
2000 Jenkins, Lyle. 2000. Biolinguistics : Exploring the Biology of
Language. Cambridge Univ Pr.
Contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; Dedication;
Introduction; 1. The unification problem; 2. Knowledge and use of language;
3.
Aquisition (growth) of language; 4. Mechanisms of language; 5. Evolution
of language; 6. Conclusion; References, Index.
1967 Biological Foundations of Language (Hardcover) by Eric H.
Lenneberg
References
2006 The Unfolding of Language : An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's
Greatest Invention (Paperback) by Guy Deutscher
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Using language himself in a lively and engaging way, Deutscher, an
expert in Semitic languages at the University of Leiden in Holland,
identifies two principles—the desire to create order out of chaotic
reality, and the urge to vary the sounds of words and their
meanings—providing the direction by which language developed
and continues to develop. Rather than search for the prehistoric
moment when speech originated, Deutscher says we can most
profitably understand the phenomenon by taking the present as the
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key to the past. Using a wide array of examples, he delves into the
back-formation of words (making a noun into a verb), the evolution
of relative clauses from simple pointing words (that, this) and the
turning of objects into nouns. On the question of whether language is
innate, Deutscher takes a middle path, asserting that our brains are
wired for basic language, but that linguistic complexity is brought
about by cultural evolution. Deutscher's entertaining writing and his
knack for telling a good tale about how words develop offer a
delightful and charming story of language. (June 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
The linguistic chain that connects the boasts of an ancient Sumerian
monarch to the jests of Groucho Marx is long and convoluted, but
Deutscher retraces it, fascinating link by fascinating link, identifying
the dynamic processes that have continuously transformed and
renewed the world's diverse languages. Even when delving deeply
into ancient manuscripts and temple engravings, Deutscher
interprets every linguistic mutation as the consequence of
evolutionary forces still observable in today's living languages.
Readers see in linguistic fossils from Mesopotamia traces of the same
conversion of living metaphor into conceptual lattice still taking
place in modern English, German, and Indonesian. What Deutscher
demonstrates most clearly is how linguistic structures that look like
the product of deliberate artifice can emerge from entirely natural
processes. Predictably, when he probes the linguistic developments
before the advent of writing, the author must frequently substitute
his own speculations for solid evidence. Entailing just enough
technical detail to tempt readers into professional sources (listed at
the book's conclusion), this introduction to fundamental linguistic
principles opens to nonspecialists a rich theoretical vista. Bryce
Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This
text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
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“A lively and thought-provoking exploration of why language change
appears to be haphazard yet is fundamentally orderly. Exciting, witty, and a
masterpiece of contemporary scholarship.”
—Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and English,
Stanford University
“At last, an entertaining and readable book that presents the most current
views on language and its evolution.”
—Joan Bybee, Professor of Linguistics, University of New Mexico
“Thoroughly enjoyable... Guy Deutscher is an erudite and entertaining guide
through the paradoxes and complexities of language evolution.”
—Gene Gragg, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Chicago
Book Description
Blending the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with the science of The
Language Instinct, an original inquiry into the development of that most
essential-and mysterious-of human creations: Language
Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was
never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling
investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off
with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we
end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately
nuanced degrees of meaning?
Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics,
Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human
communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves,
and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early
"Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the
Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we
couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in
language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are
continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new
meanings.
As entertaining as it is erudite, The Unfolding of Language moves nimbly
from ancient Babylonian to American idiom, from the central role of
metaphor to the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, to tell
the dramatic story and explain the genius behind a uniquely human faculty.
About the Author
Born in Israel in 1969, Guy Deutscher studied mathematics and earned a
Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Cambridge, where he became a
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research fellow in 1998. A widely acclaimed scholar of ancient Semitic
languages, Deutscher is at the University of Leiden in Holland.
2006 The Singing Neanderthals : The Origins of Music, Language,
Mind, and Body (Hardcover) by Steven Mithen
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Mithen (The Prehistory of Mind; After the Ice) draws on archaeological
record and current research on neurology and genetics to explain how and
why humans think, talk and make music the way they do. If it sounds
impenetrably academic, it isn't: Mithen acts as a friendly guide to the troves
of data on the evolution of man (and myriad sub-mysteries of the mind,
music, speech and cognition), translating specialist material into an
engrossing narrative casual readers will appreciate. Beginning with a survey
of modern theories of the evolution of language, music and thought, Mithen
cherry picks ones that lay the groundwork for the book's second (and most
substantial) part, which applies those ideas to 4.5 million years of
evolutionary history, beginning with the earliest known hominid,
Ardipithecus ramidus, and ending with Homo sapiens. Mithen's work here is
equally remarkable, but perhaps because this is his area of specialty, the
findings are less accessible to the average reader: they hinge largely on
subtle differences in the interpretation of archaeological sites and the dating
of artifacts. However, Mithen's expertise in the science and history of his
subject is combined with a passion for music that makes this book enjoyable
and fascinating. Readers from most academic disciplines will find the work
of interest, as will general readers comfortable with research-based
argument and analysis.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.
About the Author
Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory and Head of the School of
Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading.
2006 The Origin of Speeches: Intelligent Design in Language
(Paperback) by Isaac E. Mozeson
Editorial Reviews
Dr. Alvin Schiff, Hon. President of the Educators Council of
America
10
There is some scholarly support for...the thesis that all human languages are
dervied from a single mother tongue.
Dr. Joseph T. Shipley, Author of The Dictionary of Word Origins
A challenge to linguists...calls for a reexamination of our etymologies.
Dr. Tzvee Hahavy, Classical and Near Eastern Studies, Univ. of
Minnesota
This is a work of immense scholarship that should be taken seriously.
Book Description
The Origin of Speeches begins by recapping the history of our views about
the source of language. It then debunks the errors that infuse your dictionary,
like those about how words in "unrelated" languages could only have
identical sound and sense by "coincidence." It does so with both quality and
quantity of data. The next chapters give anyone the skills to sleuth out the
Edenic origin of any human word. One learns about letters that shift in
sound and location, and letters that drop in and drop out. We discover how
Edenics works much like other natural sciences, such as chemistry and
physics. Like-sounding opposite words were certainly programmed, not
pragmatically evolved.
2005 The Talking Ape : How Language Evolved (Studies in the Evolution
of Language) (Hardcover) by Robbins Burling Publisher: Oxford
University Press, USA (November 1, 2005)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Humans never run out of things to say. We explain, we cajole, we gossip,
and we flirt--all with the help of language. But how in the space of several
million years did we evolve from an ordinary primate that that could not talk
to the strange human primate that can't shut up?
In this fascinating, thought-provoking book, Robbins Burling presents the
most convincing account of the origins of language ever published,
shedding new light on how speech affects the way we think, behave, and
relate to each other, and offering us a deeper understanding of the nature of
language itself. Burling argues that comprehension, rather than production,
was the driving force behind the evolution of language--we could
understand words before we could produce them. As he develops this
insight, he investigates the first links between signs, sounds, and meanings
and explores the beginnings of vocabulary and grammar. He explains what
the earliest forms of communication are likely to have been, how they
11
worked, and why they were deployed, suggesting that when language began
it was probably much more dependent on words like "poke" or "whoosh,"
words whose sounds have a close association with what they refer to. Only
gradually did language develop the immense vocabulary it has today.
Burling also examines the qualities of mind and brain needed to support the
operations of language and the selective advantages they offered those able
to use them.
Written in a crystal-clear style, constantly enlivened by flashes of wit and
humor, here is the definitive account on the birth of language.
2005 Empires of the Word : A Language History of the World (Hardcover)
by Nicholas Ostler
"From the language point of view, the present population of the world is not
six billion, but something over six thousand..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Ostler's ambitious and accessible book is not a technical linguistic study—
i.e., it's not concerned with language structure—but about the "growth,
development and collapse of language communities" and their cultures.
Chairman of the Foundation of Endangered Languages, Ostler's as
fascinated by extinction as he is by survival. He thus traces the fortunes of
Sumerian, Akkadian and Aramaic in the flux of ancient Middle Eastern
military empires. Ancient Egyptian's three millennia of stability compares
with the longevity of similarly pictographic Chinese—and provides a
cautionary example: even a populous, well-defined linguistic community
can vanish. In all cases, Ostler stresses the role of culture, commerce and
conquest in the rise and fall of languages, whether Spanish, Portuguese and
French in the Americas or Dutch in Asia and Africa. The rise of English to
global status, Ostler argues, owes much to the economic prestige of the
Industrial Revolution, but its future as a lingua franca may falter on
demographic trends, such as booming birth rates in China. This stimulating
book is a history of the world as seen through the spread and demise of
languages. Maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Caesar led his legions into battle for the glory of Rome-and the immortality of Greek. In the curious spread of Greek through
Roman conquest, Ostler recounts one of the many fascinating episodes in
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the complex history of languages. The resources of the cultural historian
complement those of the comparative linguist in this capacious work, which
sets the parameters for a new field of scholarship: "language dynamics." By
peering over Ostler's shoulder into this new field, readers learn how
languages ancient and modern (Sumerian and Egyptian; Spanish and
English) spread and how they dwindle. The raw force of armies counts, of
course, in determining language fortunes but for far less than the historically
naive might suppose: military might failed to translate into lasting linguistic
conquest for the Mongols, Turks, or Russians. Surprisingly, trade likewise
proves weak in spreading a language--as the Phoenician and Dutch
experiences both show. In contrast, immigration and fertility powerfully
affect the fate of languages, as illustrated by the parallel histories of
Egyptian and Chinese. Ostler explores the ways modern technologies of
travel and communication shape language fortunes, but he also highlights
the power of ancient faiths--Christian and Moslem, Buddhist and Hindu--to
anchor language traditions against rapid change. Of particular interest will
be Ostler's provocative conjectures about a future in which Mandarin or
Arabic take the lead or in which English fractures into several tongues. Few
books bring more intellectual excitement to the study of language. Bryce
Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
John McWhorter
"Delicious! Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined
humankind in its spread across the world."
Literary Review
"What an extraordinary odyssey the author of this superb work embarked
upon."
Kirkus Reviews
"Enlightening . . . Always challenging, always instructive--at times, even
startling or revolutionary."
Boston magazine
"Revolutionary... Executed with a giddying depth of scholarship, yet the
detail is never too thick to swamp the general reader."
John Leonard, Harper's Magazine
"Covers more rambunctious territory than any other single volume I’m
aware of...A wonderful ear for the project’s poetry."
Boston magazine
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"As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of
the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples."
Chicago Tribune
"[A] monumental new book... Ostler furnishes many fresh insights, useful
historical anecdotes and charming linguistic oddities."
National Review
"True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive."
National Review
"True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive."
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A story of dramatic reversals and puzzling paradoxes. A rich... text with
many piercing observations and startling comparisons."
Book Description
The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story
of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community
together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the
telling of it.
Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told.
Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the
first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing
innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of
Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the
present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of
invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and
Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the
languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English.
Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating:
Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived
foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic?
Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had
ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India?
As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of
the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the
recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long14
term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full
of surprises.
About the Author
A scholar with a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas
Ostler has degrees from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and
economics, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from MIT, where he studied under
Noam Chomsky. He lives in Bath, England.
2004 Variation and Universals in Biolinguistics (North Holland Linguistics
Series) (North Holland Linguistics Series - Linguistic Variations)
(Hardcover) by Lyle Jenkins
"In this paper, I would like to focus on certain aspects of the antisymmetry
hypothesis of Kayne (1994) and to a certain extent on their..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
Review
Had Eric Lenneberg written his seminal book "Biological Foundations of
Language" (1967) today, he most probably would have written something
quite similar to the present volume....The volume offers a very fortunate
selection of papers from the biolinguistic field, succeeding in blending
general and easily accessible introductions to more biological or formal
research areas that linguists and psychologists are less familiar with, such as
the correlation between genetic and linguistic variation, or the state of the
art in the study of human evolution, with in-depth analyses and detailed
empirical reviews of controversial issues....A common underlying theme
running through all the articles is the attempt to achieve a complex
understanding of the key issues, with an eye towards an ultimate unification
with the biological sciences. This genuinely multidisciplinary approach
gives a unique appeal to the volume.
Read the full review on the LinguistList: http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/162233.html
Judit Gervain, Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, Scuola Internazionale di
Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy
Book Description
Jenkins has succeeded in putting together a terrific volume. Some of the
most creative minds in the fields tackle questions of utmost importance in
biolinguistics. The clarity with which these essays are written and the
15
insights expressed in them are sure to provide solid foundations for research
in linguistics and related fields for years to come. A truly outstanding
collection!
Cedric Boeckx, Harvard University, USA
This book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the
biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach."
A wide range of areas are investigated and reviewed by specialists: the
micro-parametric theory of syntax, models of language acquisition and
historical change, dynamical systems in language, genetics of populations,
pragmatics of discourse, language neurology, genetic disorders of language,
sign language, and evolution of language.
It focuses on the interplay between variation and the universal properties of
language. Detailed surveys or case studies are provided from the areas of
syntactic variation, genetic variation, neurological variation and historical
variation, among others, and of the universal principles and theoretical
models that underlie the variation.
Finally, it considers - in addition to the detailed empirical studies philosophical, foundational and methodological issues in the study of the
biology of language and its place within the natural sciences; e.g.,innateness,
modularity, language design and unification in biolinguistics, as well as
critiques of the approach.
2004 History of Language (Reaktion Books - Globalities) (Paperback) by
Steven Roger Fischer
Book Description
It is tempting to take the tremendous rate of contemporary linguistic change
for granted. What is required, in fact, is a radical reinterpretation of what
language is. Steven Roger Fischer begins his book with an examination of
the modes of communication used by dolphins, birds and primates as the
first contexts in which the concept of "language" might be applied. As he
charts the history of language from the times of Homo erectus, Neanderthal
humans and Homo sapiens through to the nineteenth century, when the
science of linguistics was developed, Fischer analyses the emergence of
language as a science and its development as a written form. He considers
the rise of pidgin, creole, jargon and slang, as well as the effects radio and
16
television, propaganda, advertising and the media are having on language
today. Looking to the future, he shows how electronic media will continue
to reshape and re-invent the ways in which we communicate."[a] delightful
and unexpectedly accessible book ... a virtuoso tour of the linguistic
world."—The Economist "... few who read this remarkable study will regard
language in quite the same way again."—The Good Book Guide
About the Author
US-born Steven Roger Fischer is Director of the Institute of Polynesian
Languages and Literatures in Auckland, New Zealand.
2003 The Power of Babel : A Natural History of Language (Paperback) by
John McWhorter
"Hebrew"" ""But why don' we speak Hebrew, Mom?""..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Starting with the well-known model of relationships among languages as a
family tree, McWhorter (linguistics, Berkeley) fleshes out and refines this
model as he narrates development of language. He explores five main ways
that languages change, such as sound change and the transformation of
words into pieces of grammar. McWhorter further illuminates and compares
concepts of dialect, pidgin, and Creole to demonstrate the changing nature
of language. Through the discussion, he replaces the family-tree model of
language relations with the more sophisticated images of a bush and a net.
Numerous examples support each point, including cartoons illustrating
German dialects. Indeed, the sheer weight of all the examples and detailed
discussion could discourage an initially curious reader. While McWhorter
reaches out to general readers by avoiding jargon and using an informal tone,
brevity is needed to reach the maximum audience. Steven Fisher offers a
narrative language history in History of Language (Reaktion, 1999), but
while Fisher presents a slightly briefer account, it is also far more technical,
with an emphasis on evolutionary theory. Not an essential purchase,
McWhorter's work is recommended only for public libraries with large
language collections. Marianne Orme, Des Plaines P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
This book is not for those uncomfortable with change. McWhorter's main
goal is to convey to laypeople what linguists know about the inexorable
17
changeability of languages. He compares our popular understanding of
language to Monopoly instructions--static and written as though "from on
high." But whereas Parkers Brothers is not likely to revise the rules of its
game, language is as transitory as a cloud formation. From this analogy,
aided by parallels with natural evolution, McWhorter shows us how the
world's many dialects arose from a single Ur-tongue. He emphasizes the
idea that "dialect is all there is." What we call a "standard language" is in
fact a dialect that has been anointed by people in power and by cultural
circumstances. All this becomes a tad academic in places, but McWhorter's
use of analogies, anecdotes, and popular culture keeps the discussion lively.
A worthy contribution to our understanding of the defining feature of
human life. Philip Herbst
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text
refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a
descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years
ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics
professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that
speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is
not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself
to an ever-changing human environment.
Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its
illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins,
Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.
From the Back Cover
Praise for John McWhorter
McWhorter's arguments are sharply reasoned, refreshingly honest, and
thoroughly original, and befitting a book on language, they are lucidly and
elegantly expressed.
-- Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind
Works
McWhorter has done an admirable job of bridging the gap between the
linguists' view of language and the public's.
-- Philip Herbst, Booklist
18
Whatever one's opinion on particular cases, it is indisputable that Mr.
McWhorter is a lively judge of the English language, and a sober judge of
all disputes that swirl around it.
Sanford Pinsker, The Wall Street Journal (from reviews of Word on the
Street) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
John McWhorter, associate professor of linguistics at the University of
California, Berkeley, is the author of The Word on the Street. He lives in
Oakland, California.
2003 The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music (Paperback) by Isabelle
Peretz, Robert J. Zatorre
2003 Language Evolution (Studies in the Evolution of Language)
(Paperback) by Morten H. Christiansen, Simon Kirby
Book Description
The leading scholars in the rapidly growing field of language evolution give
readable accounts of their theories on the origins of language and reflect on
the most important current issues and debates. As well as providing a guide
to their own published research in this area they highlight what they see as
the most relevant research of others. The authors come from a wide range of
disciplines involved in language evolution including linguistics, cognitive
science, computational science, primatology, and archaeology.
2003 From Hand to Mouth : The Origins of Language (Paperback)
by Michael C. Corballis
"I am beguiled by the frivolous thought that we are descended, not from
apes, but from birds..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
Choice
Corballis makes the case that the evolutionary origins of language are in
gestures rather than in speech. . . . An engaging story.
Review
Dario Maestripieri American Scientist : From Hand to Mouth will raise
awareness about the importance of gestures and the crucial role they play in
communicative interactions.
19
Choice : Corballis makes the case that the evolutionary origins of language
are in gestures rather than in speech. . . . An engaging story.
Joseph B. Hellige Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society :
An engaging, highly readable and provocative account of the evolution of
human language. . . . [It's] as entertaining as it is informative.
Review
Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History, author of "Extinct
Humans and The Fossil Trail" : A lively and well constructed read that
bravely tackles head-on the tough question of where language came from.
Corballis intriguingly concludes that this unique human property has
gestural rather than vocal origins; and along the way he explores numerous
fascinating byways that make this a must read for everyone interested in
how humans became the extraordinary creatures they are.
Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico, General Editor, "Evolution of
Communication" : Michael Corballis has accomplished a Herculean task.
Reviewing and synthesizing data from a range of disciplines, he has woven
it all into a book that is at once enjoyable and easy to read and yet faithful to
the complexity of the subject matter. While this is admittedly a provocative
work, the author has marshaled considerable evidence in support of his
thesis. Indeed, he has done all of us a great service by raising the level of
discussion surrounding this controversial topic. This is no small
accomplishment.
Lewis Wolpert, University College London : A fascinating journey along
the evolutionary path that 'converted us from wild gesticulators to smooth
talkers.' On the path we pass our ape-like ancestors, the change to
bipedalism, increase in brain size, gestures, the anatomical requirements for
vocalization, and finally the spoken language.
Review
Corballis makes the case that the evolutionary origins of language are in
gestures rather than in speech.. . . An engaging story.
Book Description
It is often said that speech is what distinguishes us from other animals. But
are we all talk? What if language was bequeathed to us not by word of
mouth, but as a hand-me-down?
The notion that language evolved not from animal cries but from manual
and facial gestures--that, for most of human history, actions have spoken
louder than words--has been around since Condillac. But never before has
anyone developed a full-fledged theory of how, why, and with what effects
20
language evolved from a gestural system to the spoken word. Marshaling
far-flung evidence from anthropology, animal behavior, neurology,
molecular biology, anatomy, linguistics, and evolutionary psychology,
Michael Corballis makes the case that language developed, with the
emergence of Homo sapiens, from primate gestures to a true signed
language, complete with grammar and syntax and at best punctuated with
grunts and other vocalizations. While vocal utterance played an increasingly
important complementary role, autonomous speech did not appear until
about 50,000 years ago--much later than generally believed.
Bringing in significant new evidence to bolster what has been a minority
view, Corballis goes beyond earlier supporters of a gestural theory by
suggesting why speech eventually (but not completely!) supplanted gesture.
He then uses this milestone to account for the artistic explosion and
demographic triumph of the particular group of Homo sapiens from whom
we are descended. And he asserts that speech, like written language, was a
cultural invention and not a biological fait accompli.
Writing with wit and eloquence, Corballis makes nimble reference to
literature, mythology, natural history, sports, and contemporary politics as
he explains in fascinating detail what we now know about such varied
subjects as early hominid evolution, modern signed languages, and the
causes of left-handedness. From Hand to Mouth will have scholars and
laymen alike talking--and sometimes gesturing--for years to come.
From the Inside Flap
"A lively and well constructed read that bravely tackles head-on the tough
question of where language came from. Corballis intriguingly concludes
that this unique human property has gestural rather than vocal origins; and
along the way he explores numerous fascinating byways that make this a
must read for everyone interested in how humans became the extraordinary
creatures they are."--Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History,
author of Extinct Humans and The Fossil Trail
"Michael Corballis has accomplished a Herculean task. Reviewing and
synthesizing data from a range of disciplines, he has woven it all into a book
that is at once enjoyable and easy to read and yet faithful to the complexity
of the subject matter. While this is admittedly a provocative work, the
author has marshaled considerable evidence in support of his thesis. Indeed,
he has done all of us a great service by raising the level of discussion
21
surrounding this controversial topic. This is no small accomplishment."-Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico, General Editor, Evolution of
Communication
"A fascinating journey along the evolutionary path that 'converted us from
wild gesticulators to smooth talkers.' On the path we pass our ape-like
ancestors, the change to bipedalism, increase in brain size, gestures, the
anatomical requirements for vocalization, and finally the spoken language."-Lewis Wolpert, University College London
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
"A lively and well constructed read that bravely tackles head-on the tough
question of where language came from. Corballis intriguingly concludes
that this unique human property has gestural rather than vocal origins; and
along the way he explores numerous fascinating byways that make this a
must read for everyone interested in how humans became the extraordinary
creatures they are."--Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History,
author of Extinct Humans and The Fossil Trail
"Michael Corballis has accomplished a Herculean task. Reviewing and
synthesizing data from a range of disciplines, he has woven it all into a book
that is at once enjoyable and easy to read and yet faithful to the complexity
of the subject matter. While this is admittedly a provocative work, the
author has marshaled considerable evidence in support of his thesis. Indeed,
he has done all of us a great service by raising the level of discussion
surrounding this controversial topic. This is no small accomplishment."-Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico, General Editor, Evolution of
Communication
"A fascinating journey along the evolutionary path that 'converted us from
wild gesticulators to smooth talkers.' On the path we pass our ape-like
ancestors, the change to bipedalism, increase in brain size, gestures, the
anatomical requirements for vocalization, and finally the spoken language."-Lewis Wolpert, University College London
About the Author
Michael C. Corballis is Professor of Psychology and a member of the
Research Center for Cognitive Science at the University of Auckland. He is
the author of three books, including "The Lopsided Ape", and coeditor of
22
"The Descent of Mind". His work has appeared in "Science","Nature",
Scientific American", and "American Scientist".
2003 Foundations of Language : Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution
(Hardcover) by Ray Jackendoff
"Those of us who make it our business to study language often find
ourselves in the curious position of trying to persuade the world at..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Jackendoff (linguistics, Brandeis Univ.) tackles the substantial tasks of
assessing where Noam Chomsky's foundation of research has led linguistics
and reinterpreting his theory of universal grammar. While embracing many
of Chomsky's ideas, Jackendoff proposes his own overall theory of language.
His well-documented discussion covers "combinatoriality" (or grammar
rules) and language processing, as well as lexical and phrasal semantics.
Jackendoff's inquiry draws on and complements research in neuroscience,
psychology, and biological evolution. For example, he examines working
and long-term memory in language production and, most important,
discusses phonology, syntax, and semantics as parallel, equally productive,
or generative aspects of language. Like Lyle Jenkins (Biolinguistics:
Exploring the Biology of Language, Cambridge Univ., 2000), he
emphasizes connections between language and biology. Lacking a glossary
and a list of the numerous abbreviations, this work is scholarly in approach
and hence less accessible than works like Trevor Harely's broad, updated
The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory (Psychology Pr., 2001.
2d ed.). It is nevertheless a significant piece of scholarship and is highly
recommended for academic libraries. Marianne Orme, Des Plaines P.L., IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an
out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant
overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and
related fields. "Few books really deserve the clichi 'this should be read by
every researcher in the field,'" writes Steven Pinker, author of The Language
Instinct, "But Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does."
Foundations of Language offers a radically new understanding of how
language, the brain, and perception intermesh. The book renews the promise
of early generative linguistics: that language can be a valuable entree into
understanding the human mind and brain. The approach is remarkably
23
interdisciplinary. Behind its innovations is Jackendoff's fundamental
proposal that the creativity of language derives from multiple parallel
generative systems linked by interface components. This shift in basic
architecture makes possible a radical reconception of mental grammar and
how it is learned. As a consequence, Jackendoff is able to reintegrate
linguistics with philosophy of mind, cognitive and developmental
psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and computational
linguistics. Among the major topics treated are language processing, the
relation of language to perception, the innateness of language, and the
evolution of the language capacity, as well as more standard issues in
linguistic theory such as the roles of syntax and the lexicon. In addition,
Jackendoff offers a sophisticated theory of semantics that incorporates
insights from philosophy of language, logic and formal semantics, lexical
semantics of various stripes, cognitive grammar, psycholinguistic and
neurolinguistic approaches, and the author's own conceptual semantics.
Here then is the most fundamental contribution to linguistic theory in over
three decades.
2002 The Transition to Language (Oxford Linguistics) (Paperback) by
Alison Wray (Editor)
"A book entitled The Transition to Language could give the impression that
there was a single event at some point in prehistory before which
there..." (more)
Book Description
Linguists, biological anthropologists, and cognitive scientists come together
in this book to explore the origins and early evolution of phonology, syntax,
and semantics. They consider the nature of pre- and proto-linguistic
communication, the internal and external triggers that led to its
transformation into language, and whether and how language may be
considered to have evolved after its inception. Evidence is drawn from
many domains, including computer simulations of language emergence, the
songs of finches, problem-solving abilities in monkeys, sign language, and
the structure of languages today.
2002 The Language Organ : Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology
(Paperback) by Stephen R. Anderson, David W. Lightfoot
"If you meet someone at a cocktail party and tell them you are carpenter, or
a veterinarian, or an astronomer, they are likely to be..." (more)
2002 Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain : The Subcortical Bases of
24
Speech, Syntax, and Thought (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience)
(Paperback) by Philip Lieberman
Book Description
This book is an entry into the fierce current debate among psycholinguists,
neuroscientists, and evolutionary theorists about the nature and origins of
human language. A prominent neuroscientist here takes up the Darwinian
case, using data seldom considered by psycholinguists and neurolinguists to
argue that human language--though more sophisticated than all other forms
of animal communication--is not a qualitatively different ability from all
forms of animal communication, does not require a quantum evolutionary
leap to explain it, and is not unified in a single "language instinct."
Using clinical evidence from speech-impaired patients, functional
neuroimaging, and evolutionary biology to make his case, Philip Lieberman
contends that human language is not a single separate module but a
functional neurological system made up of many separate abilities.
Language remains as it began, Lieberman argues: a device for coping with
the world. But in a blow to human narcissism, he makes the case that this
most remarkable human ability is a by-product of our remote reptilian
ancestors' abilities to dodge hazards, seize opportunities, and live to see
another day.
About the Author
Philip Lieberman is Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic
Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University.
2002 Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain : The Subcortical Bases of
Speech, Syntax, and Thought (Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience)
(Paperback) by Philip Lieberman
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
This book is an entry into the fierce current debate among psycholinguists,
neuroscientists, and evolutionary theorists about the nature and origins of
human language. A prominent neuroscientist here takes up the Darwinian
case, using data seldom considered by psycholinguists and neurolinguists to
argue that human language--though more sophisticated than all other forms
of animal communication--is not a qualitatively different ability from all
forms of animal communication, does not require a quantum evolutionary
leap to explain it, and is not unified in a single "language instinct."
25
Using clinical evidence from speech-impaired patients, functional
neuroimaging, and evolutionary biology to make his case, Philip Lieberman
contends that human language is not a single separate module but a
functional neurological system made up of many separate abilities.
Language remains as it began, Lieberman argues: a device for coping with
the world. But in a blow to human narcissism, he makes the case that this
most remarkable human ability is a by-product of our remote reptilian
ancestors' abilities to dodge hazards, seize opportunities, and live to see
another day.
About the Author
Philip Lieberman is Fred M. Seed Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic
Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University.
2002 How the Brain Evolved Language (Paperback) by Donald Loritz
"A baby wildebeest, born on the Serengeti, learns to walk and run in a
matter of minutes..." (more)
Book Description
How can an infinite number of sentences be generated from one human
mind? How did language evolve in apes? In this book Donald Loritz
addresses these and other fundamental and vexing questions about language,
cognition, and the human brain. He starts by tracing how evolution and
natural adaptation selected certain features of the brain to perform
communication functions, then shows how those features developed into
designs for human language. The result -- what Loritz calls an adaptive
grammar -- gives a unified explanation of language in the brain and
contradicts directly (and controversially) the theory of innateness proposed
by, among others, Chomsky and Pinker.
2001 The Origins of Music (Paperback) by Nils L. Wallin (Editor), Björn
Merker (Editor), Steven Brown (Editor)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical
behavior and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music
for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal
features of music and musical behavior across cultures? In this
groundbreaking book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists,
archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists, and linguists
26
come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The
book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary
biomusicology--the study of which will contribute greatly to our
understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution
of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of
acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation
through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the
spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself.
Contributors: Simha Arom, Derek Bickerton, Steven Brown, Ellen
Dissanayake, Dean Falk, David W. Frayer, Walter Freeman, Thomas
Geissmann, Marc D. Hauser, Michel Imberty, Harry Jerison, Drago Kunej,
François-Bernard Mâche, Peter Marler, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller, Jean
Molino, Bruno Nettl, Chris Nicolay, Katharine Payne, Bruce Richman, Peter
J. B. Slater, Peter Todd, Sandra Trehub, Ivan Turk, Maria Ujhelyi, Nils L.
Wallin, Carol Whaling.
About the Author
Nils L. Wallin is Director of the Institute for Biomusicology at Mid Sweden
University, Östersund. Björn Merker is Senior Fellow at the Institute for
Biomusicology at Mid Sweden University, Östersund. Steven Brown is
Fellow at the Institute for Biomusicology at Mid Sweden University,
Östersund.
2001 Genes, Peoples, and Languages (Paperback) by Luigi Luca CavalliSforza
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Jared Diamond says, "It would be a slight exaggeration to say that L.L.
Cavalli-Sforza studies everything about everybody, because actually he is
'only' interested in what genes, languages, archaeology, and culture can
teach us about the history and migrations of everybody for the last several
hundred thousand years." Cavalli-Sforza has been the leading architect of a
revolution (even a paradigm shift) in human genetics since the 1960s.
Because of his work, geneticists no longer think that the human species is
divided into color-coded races. Cavalli-Sforza's studies of the transmission
of family names in Italy, of the relationship between human genes and
languages, of migration and marriage, are the benchmarks of our biological
self-understanding.
27
Genes, Peoples, and Languages is less personal than Cavalli-Sforza's
preceding book, The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and
Evolution. And it is far more compact than the magisterial The History and
Geography of Human Genes (available abridged for those who prefer not to
buy books by the pound). Instead, it is a an excellent overview of CavalliSforza's many-faceted approach to human history and our present condition.
It is that rarest of achievements, holistic without any trace of mushymindedness. --Mary Ellen Curtin --This text refers to an out of print or
unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A geneticist well known for his pioneering DNA studies on variations
between populations over the millennia, Stanford University professor
emeritus Cavalli-Sforza presents numerous startling or controversial
findings in this dryly written but provocative survey of human evolution.
Modern humans most likely originated in Africa, and arrived in Europe only
around 42,000 years ago, rapidly displacing the dominant Neanderthal
hominid species, he believes. Perhaps 20,000 years before this displacement,
waves of modern humans migrated from Africa to Asia, then on to Australia;
Europe came next, while America was probably the last continent to be
occupied by Homo sapiens sapiens, he concludes. By correlating global
studies of genetic markers with archeological evidence and patterns of
linguistic change, Cavalli-Sforza attempts to track the earliest mass
migrations, the spread of agriculture outward from the Middle East, cultural
and genetic exchanges between prehistoric peoples and the birth of IndoEuropean languages. Much of this is conjectural, but he is confident enough
to state that, from a genetic standpoint, "it appears that Europeans are about
two-thirds Asians and one-third African." Moreover, "Black Americans
have... an average of 30 percent of White admixture" in their genes, he
reports. From the vantage point of DNA, according to Cavalli-Sforza, the
idea of separate races is unscientific and fallacious, as different ethnic
groups display superficial variations in body surface, mere outward
adaptations to different climates--an opinion shared by a growing number of
molecular biologists. Illustrated with maps and diagrams, this study sheds
light on the origins of Finns, Hungarians, Basques, Native Americans, Asian
Indians and other diverse limbs of the human family tree. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
28
From Booklist
Over a long scientific career, the author has championed the application of
genetics to the discovery of Homo sapiens' origins. Allied with archaeology
and linguistics, genetics backs up the theory of an African beginning about
150,000 years ago, an initial radiation to Asia, and thence to the ends of the
earth. Cavalli-Sforza's views are here streamlined for jargon-free appeal. He
summarizes the fundamental principles of evolution, then discusses several
specific human genes that he argues trace migrations millennia ago, namely
those controlling the A, B, and O blood types, that controlling the blood's
RH factor, and mitochondrial DNA. Lest he be thought dogmatic about
genetic tracers, Cavalli-Sforza repeatedly asks whether the genes of living
people can really piece together human evolution and presents maps and
statistics that convince him they can. He detects, too, a genetic concordance
with linguistic evidence. Cavalli-Sforza, an emeritus with original views
and an open mind, has shaped evolutionary theories, making this
condensation of his corpus of work an important popular work on the
subject. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable
edition of this title.
the New Scientist
"A thoroughly readable account of some of the most fascinating ideas
around."
Book Description
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was among the first to ask whether the genes of
modern populations contain a historical record of the human species.
Cavalli-Sforza and others have answered this question--anticipated by
Darwin--with a decisive yes. Genes, Peoples, and Languages comprises five
lectures that serve as a summation of the author's work over several decades,
the goal of which has been nothing less than tracking the past hundred
thousand years of human evolution.
Cavalli-Sforza raises questions that have serious political, social, and
scientific import: When and where did we evolve? How have human
societies spread across the continents? How have cultural innovations
affected the growth and spread of populations? What is the connection
between genes and languages? Always provocative and often astonishing,
Cavalli-Sforza explains why there is no genetic basis for racial classification.
Language Notes
29
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian, French
About the Author
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was born in Genoa in 1922 and has taught at the
Universities of Cambridge, Parma, and Pavia. He is currently Professor
Emeritus of Genetics at Stanford University and is the author of The History
and Geography of Human Genes.
2001 Genes, Peoples, and Languages (Paperback) by Luigi Luca CavalliSforza
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Jared Diamond says, "It would be a slight exaggeration to say that L.L.
Cavalli-Sforza studies everything about everybody, because actually he is
'only' interested in what genes, languages, archaeology, and culture can
teach us about the history and migrations of everybody for the last several
hundred thousand years." Cavalli-Sforza has been the leading architect of a
revolution (even a paradigm shift) in human genetics since the 1960s.
Because of his work, geneticists no longer think that the human species is
divided into color-coded races. Cavalli-Sforza's studies of the transmission
of family names in Italy, of the relationship between human genes and
languages, of migration and marriage, are the benchmarks of our biological
self-understanding.
Genes, Peoples, and Languages is less personal than Cavalli-Sforza's
preceding book, The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and
Evolution. And it is far more compact than the magisterial The History and
Geography of Human Genes (available abridged for those who prefer not to
buy books by the pound). Instead, it is a an excellent overview of CavalliSforza's many-faceted approach to human history and our present condition.
It is that rarest of achievements, holistic without any trace of mushymindedness. --Mary Ellen Curtin --This text refers to an out of print or
unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A geneticist well known for his pioneering DNA studies on variations
between populations over the millennia, Stanford University professor
emeritus Cavalli-Sforza presents numerous startling or controversial
30
findings in this dryly written but provocative survey of human evolution.
Modern humans most likely originated in Africa, and arrived in Europe only
around 42,000 years ago, rapidly displacing the dominant Neanderthal
hominid species, he believes. Perhaps 20,000 years before this displacement,
waves of modern humans migrated from Africa to Asia, then on to Australia;
Europe came next, while America was probably the last continent to be
occupied by Homo sapiens sapiens, he concludes. By correlating global
studies of genetic markers with archeological evidence and patterns of
linguistic change, Cavalli-Sforza attempts to track the earliest mass
migrations, the spread of agriculture outward from the Middle East, cultural
and genetic exchanges between prehistoric peoples and the birth of IndoEuropean languages. Much of this is conjectural, but he is confident enough
to state that, from a genetic standpoint, "it appears that Europeans are about
two-thirds Asians and one-third African." Moreover, "Black Americans
have... an average of 30 percent of White admixture" in their genes, he
reports. From the vantage point of DNA, according to Cavalli-Sforza, the
idea of separate races is unscientific and fallacious, as different ethnic
groups display superficial variations in body surface, mere outward
adaptations to different climates--an opinion shared by a growing number of
molecular biologists. Illustrated with maps and diagrams, this study sheds
light on the origins of Finns, Hungarians, Basques, Native Americans, Asian
Indians and other diverse limbs of the human family tree. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Over a long scientific career, the author has championed the application of
genetics to the discovery of Homo sapiens' origins. Allied with archaeology
and linguistics, genetics backs up the theory of an African beginning about
150,000 years ago, an initial radiation to Asia, and thence to the ends of the
earth. Cavalli-Sforza's views are here streamlined for jargon-free appeal. He
summarizes the fundamental principles of evolution, then discusses several
specific human genes that he argues trace migrations millennia ago, namely
those controlling the A, B, and O blood types, that controlling the blood's
RH factor, and mitochondrial DNA. Lest he be thought dogmatic about
genetic tracers, Cavalli-Sforza repeatedly asks whether the genes of living
people can really piece together human evolution and presents maps and
statistics that convince him they can. He detects, too, a genetic concordance
with linguistic evidence. Cavalli-Sforza, an emeritus with original views
31
and an open mind, has shaped evolutionary theories, making this
condensation of his corpus of work an important popular work on the
subject. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable
edition of this title.
the New Scientist
"A thoroughly readable account of some of the most fascinating ideas
around."
Book Description
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was among the first to ask whether the genes of
modern populations contain a historical record of the human species.
Cavalli-Sforza and others have answered this question--anticipated by
Darwin--with a decisive yes. Genes, Peoples, and Languages comprises five
lectures that serve as a summation of the author's work over several decades,
the goal of which has been nothing less than tracking the past hundred
thousand years of human evolution.
Cavalli-Sforza raises questions that have serious political, social, and
scientific import: When and where did we evolve? How have human
societies spread across the continents? How have cultural innovations
affected the growth and spread of populations? What is the connection
between genes and languages? Always provocative and often astonishing,
Cavalli-Sforza explains why there is no genetic basis for racial classification.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian, French
About the Author
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was born in Genoa in 1922 and has taught at the
Universities of Cambridge, Parma, and Pavia. He is currently Professor
Emeritus of Genetics at Stanford University and is the author of The History
and Geography of Human Genes.
2001 Biolinguistics : Exploring the Biology of Language (Paperback) by
Lyle Jenkins
"Chomsky has commented as follows on the futility of attempting "the study
of everything": In this connection, it is perhaps worthwhile to recall some
32
further..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Jenkin's book is useful for the range of topics it discusses, and for the
historical dimension that it provides on biolinguistic exploration as seen
from a Chomskyan viewpoint.' Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, Diachronica
Review
"Jenkins's book is useful for the range of topics that it discusses, and for the
historical dimension that it provide on biolinguistic exploration as seen from
a Chomskyan viewpoint." Reviews
Book Description
This book investigates the nature of human language and its importance for
the study of the mind. It asks what language is from a biological point of
view and what the relative contribution of nature and nurture is when a child
learns his or her language. Finally it asks how human language evolved and
considers the similarities and differences between human language and
animal communication systems. Uniquely, it argues that genetic or
biological endowment plays a more central role in the aquisition of
language than instruction, learning, or cultural determinants.
Book Info
Investigates the nature of human language and its importance for the study
of the mind. Examines current work on the biology of language and reviews
the evidence that language is best characterized by a generative grammar of
the kind introduced by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s and developed in
various directions since then. DLC: Biolinguistics. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
2000 The Language Instinct : How the Mind Creates Language (Perennial
Classics) (Paperback) by Steven Pinker
"As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders
of the natural world..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A three-year-old toddler is "a grammatical genius"--master of most
constructions, obeying adult rules of language. To Pinker, a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology psycholinguist, the explanation for this miracle is
that language is an instinct, an evolutionary adaptation that is partly "hard33
wired" into the brain and partly learned. In this exciting synthesis--an
entertaining, totally accessible study that will regale language lovers and
challenge professionals in many disciplines--Pinker builds a bridge between
"innatists" like MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, who hold that infants are
biologically programmed for language, and "social interactionists" who
contend that they acquire it largely from the environment. If Pinker is right,
the origins of language go much further back than 30,000 years ago (the
date most commonly given in textbooks)--perhaps to Homo habilis , who
lived 2.5 million years ago, or even eons earlier. Peppered with mindstretching language exercises, the narrative first unravels how babies learn
to talk and how people make sense of speech. Professor and co-director of
MIT's Center for Cognitive Science, Pinker demolishes linguistic
determinism, which holds that differences among languages cause marked
differences in the thoughts of their speakers. He then follows neurolinguists
in their quest for language centers in the brain and for genes that might help
build brain circuits controlling grammar and speech. Pinker also argues that
claims for chimpanzees' acquisition of language (via symbols or American
Sign Language) are vastly exaggerated and rest on skimpy data. Finally, he
takes delightful swipes at "language mavens" like William Safire and
Richard Lederer, accusing them of rigidity and of grossly underestimating
the average person's language skills. Pinker's book is a beautiful hymn to
the infinite creative potential of language. Newbridge Book Clubs main
selection; BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Following fast on the heels of Joel Davis's Mother Tongue ( LJ 12/93) is
another provocative and skillfully written book by an MIT professor who
specializes in the language development of children. While Pinker covers
some of the same ground as did Davis, he argues that an "innate
grammatical machinery of the brain" exists, which allows children to
"reinvent" language on their own. Basing his ideas on Noam Chomsky's
Universal Grammar theory, Pinker describes language as a "discrete
combinatorial system" that might easily have evolved via natural selection.
Pinker steps on a few toes (language mavens beware!), but his work, while
controversial, is well argued, challenging, often humorous, and always
fascinating. Most public and academic libraries will want to add this title to
their collections.
Laurie Bartolini, Lincoln Lib., Springfield, Ill.
34
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
New York Times Book Review
"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." --This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
Atlantic Monthly
"An exciting book, certain to produce argument." --This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
Boston Globe Book Review
"An excellent book full of wit and wisdom and sound judgement." --This
text refers to the Paperback edition.
From Booklist
Pinker, a respected cognitive scientist at MIT, has given the nonstudent a
bridge into the interesting yet still controversial world of linguistics and
cognitive science. Here, under a rather heavy Chomsky influence, Pinker
discusses, among other things, how language evolved, how children acquire
and develop language skills, and why the English language and its spelling
aren't as nonlogical as such critics as George Bernard Shaw have claimed.
Written for popular consumption, Pinker's discussions of such complicated
arguments and theories as the various, disputable universal grammars and
languages of thought, Quine's gavagai, and the world of morphemes and
phonemes are all painless to read. Examples are clear and easy to
understand; Pinker's humor and insight make this the perfect introduction to
the world of cognitive science and language. Highly recommended for all
academic libraries and for public libraries with solid psychology and
philosophy collections. Caroline Andrew --This text refers to an out of print
or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Another in a series of books (Joel Davis's Mother Tongue, p. 1303; Ray
Jackendorf's Patterns in the Mind, p. 1439) popularizing Chomsky's once
controversial theories explaining the biological basis of language. Variously
mellow, intense, and bemused--but never boring--Pinker (Director, Center
for Cognitive Neuroscience/MIT), emphasizes Darwinian theory and
defines language as a ``biological adaptation to communicate.'' While
35
Pinker bases his argument on the innate nature of language, he situates
language in that transitional area between instinct and learned behavior,
between nature and culture. Starting with what he calls a ``grammar gene,''
Pinker describes the way primitives, children (his special interest), even the
deaf evolve natural languages responding to the universal need to
communicate. He refutes the ``comic history'' of linguistic determinism, the
belief that language shapes thinking, undermining it with examples from
music, mathematics, and kinship theory. Following his lively, user-friendly
demonstration of even the most forbidding aspects of linguistics, and his
discussion of vocabulary, how words are acquired, built, and used, he rises
to a celebration of the ``harmony between the mind...and the texture of
reality.'' This theme, the power and mystery of the human mind, permeates
Pinker's engaging study, balanced with the more sober scientific belief that
the mind is an ``adapted computational model'': ``To a scientist,'' he writes,
``the fundamental fact of human language is its sheer improbability.''
Among the many interesting though not sequential ideas: If language is
innate, biologically based, then it can't be taught either to animals or
computers. Pinker shows why adults have difficulty learning a foreign
language, and he mediates coolly between rules and usage, between
systematic and non-prescriptive grammar. Designed for a popular audience,
this is in fact a hefty read full of wonder and wisdom. -- Copyright ©1993,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of
print or unavailable edition of this title.
Boston Globe Book Review
"An excellent book full of wit and wisdom and sound judgement."
Noam Chomsky
"An extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written."
New Scientist
"Extremely important." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Atlantic Monthly
"An exciting book, certain to produce argument."
Mind and Language
"A brilliant piece of work."
36
New Scientist
"Extremely important."
Mind and Language
"A brilliant piece of work." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
New Scientist
"Extremely important." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Noam Chomsky
"An extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written." -This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
In this classic study, the world's leading expert on language and the mind
lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about languages:
how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes
it, and how it envolved. With wit, erudition, and deft use it everyday
examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast
knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human
instinct, wired into our brains by evolution like web spinning in spiders or
sonar bats. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize
from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award
from the Linguistics Society of America.
About the Author
Steven Pinker is one of the world's leading experts on language and the
mind. He has won several major awards for his teaching and his scientific
research. Pinker is director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
2000 The Human Inheritance : Genes, Languages, and Evolution
(Hardcover) by Bryan Sykes
"We are, of course, as humans all members of one species, Homo sapiens
sapiens, and the differences among us are really quite limited..." (more)
2000 Evolution and the Human Mind : Modularity, Language and MetaCognition (Paperback) by Peter Carruthers (Editor), Andrew
37
Chamberlain (Editor)
"The extension of Darwin's theory of evolution to human form, function and
behaviour has always been controversial..." (more)
2000 Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca (Mark Seielstad trans.). 2000. Genes,
Peoples, and Language. New York: North Point Press.
1999 Sykes, Bryan Ed. 1999. The Human Inheritance: Genes, Language,
and Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.
1999 Lock, Andrew & Charles R. Peters (Editors). 1999. Handbook of
Human Symbolic Evolution. Oxford: Blackwell.
1. Photogallery of fossil skulls
2. An outline of human phylogeny
Bernard G. Campbell
2.1 The nature of the evidence
2.2 The earliest apes
2.3 The earliest Hominidae: Australopithecus
2.4 The earliest humans: Homo habilis
2.5 Homo erectus
2.6 Modern humans: Homo sapiens
2.7 Discussion
Editorial notes
References
3. Evolutionary trees of apes and humans
from DNA sequences Peter J. Waddell
David Penny
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Reconstructing relationships: from DNA sequences to evolutionary
history
3.2.1 Basic steps in obtaining a tree
for a selected stretch of DNA
3.2.2 Putting dates on a tree
3.2.3 Results from other molecular data
3.2.4 Polymorphisms and population
variability
3.2.5 Total error on estimated
divergence times
3.3 Human genetic data: mtDNA sequences
3.3.1 Out-of-Africa, or mitochondrial Eve
38
3.3.2 Problems with trees from large numbers of sequences
3.3.3 Results from re-analysing the data
3.3.4 When, where, who, and how
3.3.4.1 When and where
3.3.4.2 Dating trees with archaeological evidence
3.3.4.3 Who and how
3.4 Trees of human relationships from
nuclear genetic data
3.4.1 Alleles and polymorphisms
3.4.2 Ingroup dating of the tree
3.5 Conclusions and prospects
Epilogue
Notes
References
4. Evolution of the human brain Ralph Holloway
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The human brain
4.3 Lines of evidence regarding human brain evolution
4.4 Palaeoneurological evidence
4.4.1 Brain size
4.4.1.1 Absolute brain size
4.4.1.2 Encephalization quotients
4.4.2 Organization of the brain
4.4.2.1 Relative increase in parietal
lobe association cortex
4.4.2.2 A more human-like third inferior
frontal convolution
4.4.2.3 Asymmetries of the brain and
laterality
4.4.2.4 Towards a synthesis
4.5 Conclusion
Appendix: Sexual dimorphism and the brain
Notes
1998 The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain
(Paperback) by Terrence W. Deacon
"As our species designation-sapiens-suggests, the defining attribute of
human beings is an unparalleled cognitive ability..." (more)
1998 Approaches to the Evolution of Language : Social and Cognitive
39
Bases (Paperback) by James R. Hurford (Editor), Michael StuddertKennedy (Editor), Chris Knight (Editor)
"How unique is speech?..." (more)
1996 The Origin of Language : Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue
(Paperback) by Merritt Ruhlen
"Inasmuch as written language, so far as anyone knows, is only about 5,000
years old-and spoken language by itself leaves no historical trace at allone..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
As a sophomore in college, I desperately wanted to major in theoretical
linguistics, but I knew only three languages, and I was advised that this was
insufficient for the major. Things might have been different if this book
were available then: unlike most books about language evolution, Ruhlen's
Origin of Language actually gets you involved in applying standard
linguistic techniques to carefully chosen examples--by the end of the book,
you will have constructed a family tree of the world's languages. And you
needn't know any other than your mother tongue when you start, but you'll
probably want to go out and learn several more languages by time you are
done. Recommended.
From Library Journal
The study of linguistics has always been a good guidepost to research and
studies in the other social sciences and humanities. Ruhlen (A Guide to the
World's Languages, Stanford Univ. Pr., 1987) is a leader in the new attempt
to write a unified theory of language development and diffusion. Starting
with a do-it-yourself classification of language, he makes the case for one
early language, using Joseph Greenberg's study of Native American
languages as the key methodology in the reevaluation. He also cites the
evidence in many fields pointing to an African development and then
diffusion of Homo sapiens. An argumentative, controversial book but
strongly reasoned and presented. Ruhlen explains the relationship among
genetics, archaeology, and linguistic classification as an important new
development in the study of prehistory and discusses the questions of the
dating of early settlements in the Americas and Europe and the Banty
Expansion. For informed lay readers.
Gene Shaw, NYPL
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
40
From Booklist
Believing that doing is learning, Ruhlen encourages his readers to try their
hand (and eye) at classifying languages. This exercise helps us appreciate
the challenges inherent in the fascinating and controversial science of
comparative linguistics. The theory behind this discipline states that
languages evolve, travel, and interrelate. Working backward in time and
history, Ruhlen describes the family of languages most familiar to his
audience, the Indo-European, but soon has us scanning lists of words from a
selection of African, Asian, and Native American tongues. Just as in a
family tree, genetic linguistics links daughters to mothers to grandmothers,
all the way back to prehistoric ancestors. At each crucial juncture, Ruhlen
summarizes the pioneering work of linguists Sir William Jones, Joseph
Greenberg, and Edward Sapir, each of whom discovered a protofamily at
the root of hundreds of languages worldwide. The story of why these
revelations were met with such resistance and resentment is a study in
prejudice and close-mindedness. Ruhlen confidently concludes with a
convincing argument for a common origin of all extant languages, whether
that offends our cultural pride or not. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an
out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
A world-class linguist demonstrates similarities among the globe's 5,000
languages to argue the case for a single, unifying Mother Tongue. Ruhlen
(A Guide to the World's Languages, not reviewed) lets the lay reader share
in the thrill of discovery with his hands-on lessons in classifying languages
and reconstructing hypothetical proto-languages. A Stanford prot‚g‚ of
controversial language- classification giant Joseph H. Greenberg (cited in
the ample bibliography), the author aggressively takes on academic
opponents who disdain comparative vocabulary studies in favor of regular
sound correspondences in the establishment of language families. After the
reader finds the cognate patterns among (unlabeled) words from different
languages in a given table, the author lets us know that our findings would
be rejected by the Indo-Europeanists who deny that Aryans have any
linguistic relatives (read: No people of color need apply). With the help of
global genetic studies, these old white racist farts are shown to be
perpetuating ``one of the great hoaxes of twentieth-century science.'' While
many of us can cheer that ``it's a small world after all,'' Ruhlen has his own
tilt towards a pan-racial homeland in Africa. He thus parts with the wellpublicized founders of Nostratic, the language superfamily that points to an
origin in the Near East, where both the Bible (never mentioned here) and
41
archaeology place the oldest talking humans. The reader does not get to hear
or test theories on the whys and hows of linguistic diversity, but from
Ruhlen's word tables, language trees, and maps there emerges a well-argued
thesis against the Eurocentrists and for a monogenesis of language. A
courageous, eloquent book of great significance to all who care about where
we came from. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights
reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this
title.
Book Description
The Origin of Language
A critically acclaimed journey back through time in search of the Mother
Tongue and the roots of the human family
"Invites the reader to learn and apply the common process used by
linguists." —Science News
"This book represents exactly the kind of thinking that is needed to pull
historical linguistics out of its twentieth-century doldrums. . . . [W]ithout a
doubt, a very readable book, well adapted to its popularizing aim." —LOS
Forum
"Believing that doing is learning, Ruhlen encourages his readers to try their
hand (and eye) at classifying languages. This exercise helps us appreciate
the challenges inherent in this fascinating and controversial science of
comparative linguistics." —Booklist
"Ruhlen is a leader in the new attempt to write the unified theory of
language development and diffusion." —Library Journal
"A powerful statement [and] also a wonderfully clear exposition of
linguistic thinking about prehistory. . . . [Q]uite solid and very well
presented." —Anthropological Science
From the Back Cover
The Origin of Language
A critically acclaimed journey back through time in search of the Mother
Tongue and the roots of the human family
"Invites the reader to learn and apply the common process used by
linguists." —Science News
42
"This book represents exactly the kind of thinking that is needed to pull
historical linguistics out of its twentieth-century doldrums. . . . [W]ithout a
doubt, a very readable book, well adapted to its popularizing aim." —LOS
Forum
"Believing that doing is learning, Ruhlen encourages his readers to try their
hand (and eye) at classifying languages. This exercise helps us appreciate
the challenges inherent in this fascinating and controversial science of
comparative linguistics." —Booklist
"Ruhlen is a leader in the new attempt to write the unified theory of
language development and diffusion." —Library Journal
"A powerful statement [and] also a wonderfully clear exposition of
linguistic thinking about prehistory. . . . [Q]uite solid and very well
presented." —Anthropological Science
About the Author
MERRITT RUHLEN, Ph.D., is one of the world's foremost linguists, and
his work has been featured in nearly every recent major article on the
history of language. Dr. Ruhlen received his Ph.D. in linguistics from
Stanford University, and studied linguistics at the University of Paris, the
University of Bucharest, and the University of Illinois. He has published
more than forty articles, monographs, and books on various topics in
linguistics.
1996 The History and Geography of Human Genes : (Abridged paperback
edition) [ABRIDGED] (Paperback) by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo
Menozzi, Alberto Piazza
Editorial Reviews
Time magazine
Nothing less than the first genetic atlas of the world.... [This] landmark
global study flattens The Bell Curve, proving that racial differences are only
skin deep.
Science magazine
This is the most comprehensive treatment of human genetic variations
available.... It will likely play an important role in future research in
anthropological genetics.... An impressive display of synthesis and analysis.
Review
43
A crowning achievement, a compendium of a career's work, and a
sourcebook for years to come. . . . a landmark publication, a standard by
which work in this field must be judged in the future.
Book Description
Hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of human evolution, The
History and Geography of Human Genes offers the first full-scale
reconstruction of where human populations originated and the paths by
which they spread throughout the world. By mapping the worldwide
geographic distribution of genes for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily
aboriginal populations, the authors charted migrations and devised a clock
by which to date evolutionary history. This monumental work is now
available in a more affordable paperback edition without the myriad
illustrations and maps, but containing the full text and partial appendices of
the authors' pathbreaking endeavor.
From the Publisher
Hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of human evolution, The
History and Geography of Human Genes offers the first fullscale
reconstruction of where human populations originated and the paths by
which they spread throughout the world. By mapping the worldwide
geographic distribution of genes for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily
aboriginal populations, the authors charted migrations and devised a clock
by which to date evolutionary history. This monumental work is now
available in a more affordable paperback edition without the myriad
illustrations and maps, but containing the full text and partial appendices of
the authors' pathbreaking endeavor.
From the Inside Flap
"The enormous breadth of its conclusions and its global scope will make
this an extremely important book in the whole field of the humanities and in
the scientific study of human populations. The authors are pioneering in
their mapping of gene frequency distributions and in their historical
interpretations of that patterning."--Colin Renfrew, Jesus College,
University of Cambridge
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
1996 Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
(Paperback) by Daniel C. Dennett
"We used to sing a lot when I was a child, around the campfire at summer
44
camp, at school and Sunday school, or gathered around..." (more)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
One of the best descriptions of the nature and implications of Darwinian
evolution ever written, it is firmly based in biological information and
appropriately extrapolated to possible applications to engineering and
cultural evolution. Dennett's analyses of the objections to evolutionary
theory are unsurpassed. Extremely lucid, wonderfully written, and
scientifically and philosophically impeccable. Highest Recommendation!
From Publishers Weekly
Dennett's philosophical argument in support of Darwinism was a National
Book Award finalist.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Dennett, the author of Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown, 1991) and
director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, challenges
us to examine Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection with
renewed, emphatic vigor. Current controversies associated with the origin of
life, sociobiology, punctuated equilibrium, the evolution of culture and
language, and evolutionary ethics are investigated rigorously within the
context of Darwinian science and philosophy. Dennett challenges the ideas
of several imminent scientists, including Roger Penrose and Stephen Jay
Gould, who, Dennett asserts, tend to limit the power or implications of
Darwin's dangerous ideas. Gould's influential publications have contributed
to a seriously distorted perception of evolutionary biology, according to
Dennett. As he explores issues of morality and consciousness, Dennett
essentially extends the theories of natural selection far beyond the biological
disciplines. Dennett's assertions and ideas stimulate. Enthusiastically
recommended for scholars, specialists, and informed lay readers.
-?Donald G. Frank, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Wall Street Journal
Dennett is a philosopher of rare originality, rigor, and wit. Here he does one
of the things philosophers are supposed to be good at: clearing up
conceptual muddles in the sciences.
From Booklist
In 1991 Dennett wrote Consciousness Explained, and it so burned up the
religious minded they tagged it Consciousness Explained Away. Here,
45
Dennett presses forward the implications of natural selection (the
"dangerous idea" ) in a presentation most readers will find rather technical,
but for those who persevere, understanding of its mechanisms, particularly
the algorithms by which natural selection operates, should gradually sink in.
Understanding is facilitated by Dennett's cogent organization, which
accounts for all possible evolutionary outcomes (a virtual infinity of
possibilities dubbed Design Space), followed by his explanation of the
relentless, purposeless winnowing that results in the life-forms that exist
today. Yet, however persuasive Dennett's view is, not all evolutionists share
it, namely the oft-cited Stephen Gould, and readers who enjoy
argumentativeness can follow Dennett blasting Gould's idea of "punctuated
equilibrium" for dozens of pages. Ending with a Nietzschean explanation
for human morals, Dennett's deep-diving work challenges studious readers
but should survive the struggle for shelf space in big, highly evolved
libraries. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable
edition of this title.
Review
James Moore
coauthor of Darwin
A brilliant piece of persuasion, excitingly argued and compulsively readable.
Its lucid metaphors and charming analogies are reminiscent of On the
Origin of Species.
Carl Sagan
The Washington Post Book World
A breath of fresh air.
Richard Dawkins
author of The Blind Watchmaker
A surpassingly brilliant book. Where creative, it lifts the reader to new
intellectual heights. Where critical, it is devastating.
Richard Rorty
Lingua Franca
46
One of our most original and most readable philosophers....Once in a blue
moon an analytic philosopher comes along who redeems his subdiscipline
by combining professional persnicketiness with a romantic spirit, a vivid
imagination, and a sense of humor.
John Gribbin
Sunday Times, London
This is the best single-author overview of all the implications of evolution
by natural selection available....Lucid and entertaining.
Review
John Gribbin Sunday Times, London This is the best single-author overview
of all the implications of evolution by natural selection available....Lucid
and entertaining.
Book Description
In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett,
whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative
thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of
natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and
illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett
vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with
impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the
views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.
About the Author
Daniel Dennett is the author of Brainstorms, Elbow Room, and
Consciousness Explained. He is currently the Distinguished Arts and
Sciences Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts
University. He lives in North Andover, Massachusetts, with his wife and has
two children.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Tell Me Why
1. Is Nothing Sacred?
We used to sing a lot when I was a child, around the campfire at summer
camp, at school and Sunday school, or gathered around the piano at home.
47
One of my favorite songs was "Tell Me Why." (For those whose personal
memories don't already embrace this little treasure, the music is provided in
the appendix. The simple melody and easy harmony line are surprisingly
beautiful.)
Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me why the sky's so blue.
Then I will tell you just why I love you.
Because God made the stars to shine,
Because God made the ivy twine,
Because God made the sky so blue.
Because God made you, that's why I love you.
This straightforward, sentimental declaration still brings a lump to my throat
-- so sweet, so innocent, so reassuring a vision of life!
And then along comes Darwin and spoils the picnic. Or does he? That is the
topic of this book. From the moment of the publication of Origin of Species
in 1859, Charles Darwin's fundamental idea has inspired intense reactions
ranging from ferocious condemnation to ecstatic allegiance, sometimes
tantamount to religious zeal. Darwin's theory has been abused and
misrepresented by friend and foe alike. It has been misappropriated to lend
scientific respectability to appalling political and social doctrines. It has
been pilloried in caricature by opponents, some of whom would have it
compete in our children's schools with "creation science," a pathetic
hodgepodge of pious pseudo-science.
Almost no one is indifferent to Darwin, and no one should be. The
Darwinian theory is a scientific theory, and a great one, but that is not all it
is. The creationists who oppose it so bitterly are right about one thing:
Darwin's dangerous idea cuts much deeper into the fabric of our most
fundamental beliefs than many of its sophisticated apologists have yet
admitted, even to themselves.
The sweet, simple vision of the song, taken literally, is one that most of us
have outgrown, however fondly we may recall it. The kindly God who
48
lovingly fashioned each and every one of us (all creatures great and small)
and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight -- that God is, like
Santa Claus, a myth of childhood, not anything a sane, undeluded adult
could literally believe in. That God must either be turned into a symbol for
something less concrete or abandoned altogether.
Not all scientists and philosophers are atheists, and many who are believers
declare that their idea of God can live in peaceful coexistence with, or even
find support from, the Darwinian framework of ideas. Theirs is not an
anthropomorphic Handicrafter God, but still a God worthy of worship in
their eyes, capable of giving consolation and meaning to their lives. Others
ground their highest concerns in entirely secular philosophies, views of the
meaning of life that stave oft despair without the aid of any concept of a
Supreme Being -- other than the Universe itself. Something is sacred to
these thinkers, but they do not call it God; they call it, perhaps, Life, or
Love, or Goodness, or Intelligence, or Beauty, or Humanity. What both
groups share, in spite of the differences in their deepest creeds, is a
conviction that life does have meaning, that goodness matters.
But can any version of this attitude of wonder and purpose be sustained in
the face of Darwinism? From the outset, there have been those who thought
they saw Darwin letting the worst possible cat out of the bag: nihilism. They
thought that if Darwin was right, the implication would be that nothing
could be sacred. To put it bluntly, nothing could have any point. Is this just
an overreaction? What exactly are the implications of Darwin's idea -- and,
in any case, has it been scientifically proven or is it still "just a theory"?
Perhaps, you may think, we could make a useful division: there are the parts
of Darwin's idea that really are established beyond any reasonable doubt,
and then there are the speculative extensions of the scientifically irresistible
parts. Then -- if we were lucky -- perhaps the rock-solid scientific facts
would have no stunning implications about religion, or human nature, or the
meaning of life, while the parts of Darwin's idea that get people all upset
could be put into quarantine as highly controversial extensions of, or mere
interpretations of, the scientifically irresistible parts. That would be
reassuring.
But alas, that is just about backwards. There are vigorous controversies
swirling around in evolutionary theory, but those who feel threatened by
Darwinism should not take heart from this fact. Most -- if not quite all -- of
49
the controversies concern issues that are "just science"; no matter which
side wins, the outcome will not undo the basic Darwinian idea. That idea,
which is about as secure as any in science, really does have far-reaching
implications for our vision of what the meaning of life is or could be.
In 1543, Copernicus proposed that the Earth was not the center of the
universe but in fact revolved around the Sun. It took over a century for the
idea to sink in, a gradual and actually rather painless transformation. (The
religious reformer Philipp Melanchthon, a collaborator of Martin Luther,
opined that "some Christian prince" should suppress this madman, but aside
from a few such salvos, the world was not particularly shaken by
Copernicus himself.) The Copernican Revolution did eventually have its
own "shot heard round the world": Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two
Chief World Systems, but it was not published until 1632, when the issue
was no longer controversial among scientists. Galileo's projectile provoked
an infamous response by the Roman Catholic Church, setting up a shock
wave whose reverberations are only now dying out. But in spite of the
drama of that epic confrontation, the idea that our planet is not the center of
creation has sat rather lightly in people's minds. Every schoolchild today
accepts this as the matter of fact it is, without tears or terror.
In due course, the Darwinian Revolution will come to occupy a similarly
secure and untroubled place in the minds -- and hearts -- of every educated
person on the globe, but today, more than a century after Darwin's death, we
still have not come to terms with its mind-boggling implications. Unlike the
Copernican Revolution, which did not engage widespread public attention
until the scientific details had been largely sorted out, the Darwinian
Revolution has had anxious lay spectators and cheerleaders taking sides
from the outset, tugging at the sleeves of the participants and encouraging
grandstanding. The scientists themselves have been moved by the same
hopes and fears, so it is not surprising that the relatively narrow conflicts
among theorists have often been not just blown up out of proportion by their
adherents, but seriously distorted in the process. Everybody has seen, dimly,
that a lot is at stake.
Moreover, although Darwin's own articulation of his theory was
monumental, and its powers were immediately recognized by many of the
scientists and other thinkers of his day, there really were large gaps in his
theory that have only recently begun to be properly filled in. The biggest
gap looks almost comical in retrospect. In all his brilliant musings, Darwin
50
never hit upon the central concept, without which the theory of evolution is
hopeless: the concept of a gene. Darwin had no proper unit of heredity, and
so his account of the process of natural selection was plagued with entirely
reasonable doubts about whether it would work. Darwin supposed that
offspring would always exhibit a sort of blend or average of their parents'
features. Wouldn't such "blending inheritance" always simply average out
all differences, turning everything into uniform gray? How could diversity
survive such relentless averaging? Darwin recognized the seriousness of
this challenge, and neither he nor his many ardent supporters succeeded in
responding with a description of a convincing and well-documented
mechanism of heredity that could combine traits of parents while
maintaining an underlying and unchanged identity. The idea they needed
was right at hand, uncovered ("formulated" would be too strong) by the
monk Gregor Mendel and published in a relatively obscure Austrian journal
in 1865, but, in the best-savored irony in the history of science, it lay there
unnoticed until its importance was appreciated (at first dimly) around 1900.
Its triumphant establishment at the heart of the "Modern Synthesis" (in
effect, the synthesis of Mendel and Darwin) was eventually made secure in
the 1940s, thanks to the work of Theodosius Dobzhansky, Julian Huxley,
Ernst Mayr, and others. It has taken another half-century to iron out most of
the wrinkles of that new fabric.
The fundamental core of contemporary Darwinism, the theory of DNAbased reproduction and evolution, is now beyond dispute among scientists.
It demonstrates its power every day, contributing crucially to the
explanation of planet-sized facts of geology and meteorology, through
middle-sized facts of ecology and agronomy, down to the latest microscopic
facts of genetic engineering. It unifies all of biology and the history of our
planet into a single grand story. Like Gulliver tied down in Lilliput, it is
unbudgeable, not because of some one or two huge chains of argument that
might -- hope against hope -- have weak links in them, but because it is
securely tied by hundreds of thousands of threads of evidence anchoring it
to virtually every other area of human knowledge. New discoveries may
conceivably lead to dramatic, even "revolutionary" shifts in the Darwinian
theory, but. the hope that it will be "refuted" by some shattering
breakthrough is about as reasonable as the hope that we will return to a
geocentric vision and discard Copernicus.
51
Still, the theory is embroiled in remarkably hot-tempered controversy, and
one of the reasons for this incandescence is that these debates about
scientific ma...
1995 Puppel, Stanislaw Ed. 1995. The Biology of Language. Amsterdam:
J. Benjamins.
1995 Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature (Paperback) by
Ray Jackendoff
"Why are we the way we are?..." (more)
1994 The History and Geography of Human Genes by Luigi Luca CavalliSforza, Paolo Menozzi, Alberto Piazza
"For some time, geneticists had been aware of a certain amount of genetic variation
among the individuals forming a species, but the remarkable extent of..." (more)
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Table of Contents
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Preface
Acknowledgments
Ch. 1 Introduction to Concepts, Data, and Methods
Ch. 2 Genetic History of World Populations
Ch. 3 Africa
Ch. 4 Asia
Ch. 5 Europe
Ch. 6 America
Ch. 7 Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands
Ch. 8 Epilogue
Literature Cited
Index
Editorial Reviews
Time magazine
Nothing less than the first genetic atlas of the world.... [This] landmark global
study flattens The Bell Curve, proving that racial differences are only skin deep.
52
Science magazine
This is the most comprehensive treatment of human genetic variations
available.... It will likely play an important role in future research in
anthropological genetics.... An impressive display of synthesis and analysis.
Book Description
Hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of human evolution, The History
and Geography of Human Genes offers the first full-scale reconstruction of
where human populations originated and the paths by which they spread
throughout the world. By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of genes
for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily aboriginal populations, the authors
charted migrations and devised a clock by which to date evolutionary history.
This monumental work is now available in a more affordable paperback edition
without the myriad illustrations and maps, but containing the full text and partial
appendices of the authors' pathbreaking endeavor.
From the Publisher
Hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of human evolution, The History
and Geography of Human Genes offers the first fullscale reconstruction of
where human populations originated and the paths by which they spread
throughout the world. By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of genes
for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily aboriginal populations, the authors
charted migrations and devised a clock by which to date evolutionary history.
This monumental work is now available in a more affordable paperback edition
without the myriad illustrations and maps, but containing the full text and partial
appendices of the authors' pathbreaking endeavor.
1994 Nature's Mind: The Biological Roots of Thinking, Emotions, Sexuality,
Language, and Intelligence (Paperback) by Michael S. Gazzaniga
53