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The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language)
 
 
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The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language) (Hardcover)

by Robbins Burling (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 296 pages
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford; illustrated edition edition (25 Aug 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0199279403
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199279401
  • Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 690,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #84 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Biology > Human Biology > Evolution
    #85 in  Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauri > Braille & Sign Language
    #95 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Biology > Genetics > Human Genetics

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Product Description

Review

Burling's book also gives full attention to an idea that has emerged in recent years (The Times Higher )


Product Description

In this fascinating, mind-opening book, Robbins Burling presents the most convincing account of the origins of language ever published. He sheds new light on how language affects the way we think, behave, and relate to each other; and he gives us a deeper understanding of the nature of language itself. The author traces language back to its earliest origins among our distant ape-like forbears several million years ago and charts its growth to the time of our recent human ancestors. He offers a new account of the route by which we acquired our defining characteristic and explores the nature of language as it developed throughout the course of our evolution. He explains what the earliest forms of communication are likely to have been, how they worked, and why they were deployed. He 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. Robbins Burling investigates the first links between signs, sounds, and meanings and explores the beginnings and prehistories of vocabulary and grammar. He connects work in fields extending from linguistics, sign languages, and psychology to human paleontology, evolutionary biology, and archeology. And he does all this in a crystal-clear style, constantly enlivened by flashes of wit and humor.
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Plausible Reconstruction Effort, 20 Dec 2005
By B. M. Still (CANBERRA CITY, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Burling's relatively short volume is very readable, non-technical attempt to mark a path looking at real world forces in connection with the evolution of speech. Centrally, and without bold claims, he stresses the importance of cognitive evolution proceeding physiological evolution: shared meaning, and the understanding of intention must proceed more sophisticated communication practices.

He repudiates the position of those who believe in the necessity of rapid phological evolution: again, as so often demonstrated in evolutionary studies, a rudimentary, or more basic form of an "organ" often serves a demonstrably useful role. Burling paints a highly plausible picture of progressive, incrementally more sophisticated stages of vocal communication appearing amongst our ancestors.

He also rejects Klein's concept of the cognitive "big-bang" taking place around 50,000 years ago: evidence now strongly supports an earlier still impressive degree of cultural sophistication.

This volume is a very important addition to the literature on this topic, and I think one of the most careful and convincing in its approach. Anyone interested in the field will be virtually compelled to read it because of Burling has grasped the nettle and laid out a fairly detailed trajectory for the evolution of this most human of skills, but besides the compulsion on the grounds of keeping abreast with the field, this book is a pleasant and relaxed exposition.

Certainly a more detailed level of mechanistic explanation is warranted than what he has provided here, but he's shone a light onto "a" path of evolution: its now down to others to challenge his model or assist with substantiating it.

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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not Really Worth the Effort..., 22 Mar 2009
By The Tattooed Librarian (London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved (Studies in the Evolution of Language) (Paperback)
I'd start by saying that this is a topic that fascinates me. I bought this book, as I've a fair knowledge of evolution and modern linguistics and thought this would be a good read. How wrong can one be!

The author seems overly concerned with being right ; not a problem in itself, but it does lead to much of the writing being a rebuttal of other opinion. Second, it is overly repetitive (in much the manner of a person trying to hard to convince an audience), with a point being hammered home long after I've either agreed with it or set it aside.

I found myself skipping the ends of paragraphs and then the ends of chapters. At the last, I skipped the end of the book - I decided it was not really worth the effort of ploughing through the stylistically poor penmanship, only to discover that the author was telling me the same thing for the third time, pointing out that another scholar was wrong or just stating the obvious.
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