16.528, Books: Anthro Ling/Cog Sci/Lang Acq: Oller, Griebel (Eds)

Tue Feb 22 15:33:09 UTC 2005

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-528. Tue Feb 22 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.528, Books: Anthro Ling/Cog Sci/Lang Acq: Oller, Griebel (Eds)

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1)
Date: 16-Feb-2005
From: David Weininger < dgw at mit.edu >
Subject: The Evolution of Communication Systems: Oller, Griebel (Eds) 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:31:56
From: David Weininger < dgw at mit.edu >
Subject: The Evolution of Communication Systems: Oller, Griebel (Eds) 

Title: The Evolution of Communication Systems 
Subtitle: A Comparative Approach 
Series Title: The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology  

Publication Year: 2004 
Publisher: MIT Press
	   http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Book URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/FL20040262151111 

Editor: D. Kimbrough Oller, University of Memphis
Editor: Ulrike Griebel, University of Memphis

Hardback: ISBN: 0262151111 Pages: 352 Price: U.S. $ 45

Abstract:

The search for origins of communication in a wide variety of species
including humans is rapidly becoming a thoroughly interdisciplinary
enterprise. In this volume, scientists engaged in the fields of
evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental
psychology, philosophy, the cognitive sciences, robotics, and neural
network modeling come together to explore a comparative approach to the
evolution of communication systems. The comparisons range from parrot talk
to squid skin displays, from human language to Aibo the robot dog's
language learning, and from monkey babbling to the newborn human infant
cry. The authors explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the
emergence of human language, which they propose to be intricately connected
with drastic changes in human life style. While it is not yet clear what
the physical environmental circumstances were that fostered social changes
in the hominid line, the volume offers converging evidence and theory from
several lines of research suggesting that language depended upon the
restructuring of ancient human social groups.

The volume also offers new theoretical treatments of both primitive
communication systems and human language, providing new perspectives on how
to recognize both their similarities and their differences. Explorations of
new technologies in robotics, neural network modeling and pattern
recognition offer many opportunities to simulate and evaluate theoretical
proposals.

The North American and European scientists who have contributed to this
volume represent a vanguard of thinking about how humanity came to have the
capacity for language and how non-humans provide a background of remarkable
capabilities that help clarify the foundations of speech.

Contributors
Michael A. Arbib, Morten H. Christiansen, Rick Dale, Robin I. M. Dunbar,
William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch, Peter Gärdenfors, Ulrike Griebel, William
F. Harms, James Hurford, Magnus S. Magnusson, Jennifer Mather, Ruth Garrett
Millikan, D. Kimbrough Oller, Donald H. Owings, Irene Pepperberg, Chris
Sinha, Charles Snowdon, Luc Steels, Debra M. Zeifman. 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     Language Acquisition

Written In: English  (ENG)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=13494

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