How the Brain Got Language : The Mirror System Hypothesis - Michael A. Arbib

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How the Brain Got Language

The Mirror System Hypothesis

By: Michael A. Arbib

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Hardcover | 5 July 2012

At a Glance

Hardcover
416 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 2.39

Hardcover

$197.75

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This book explains how the human brain evolved to make language possible and how cultural evolution took over from biological evolution during the transition from basic forms of communication to fully fledged languages. Basing his argument on the latest research in neuroscience, linguistics, and primatology, Michael Arbib presents an up-to-the-minute version of a theory that offers insights into the evolutionary importance of the brain''s mirror neurons that enable monkeys, chimps, and humans to recognize the actions of others. Only in humans have these evolved to allow the "complex imitation" which supports the breakthrough to language. This theory, he shows, lights the path from the simple manual gesture we share with apes, to the imitation of manual skills and pantomime, and to the development of sign language and speech. It also explains why we can learn sign languages as easily as we can learn to speak. The author looks at how the brain mechanisms that made the original emergence of fully-fledged languages possible are still active in the ways that children acquire language today and sign languages continue to emerge. He also shows their crucial role in the processes by which languages change on time scales from decades to centuries. This book explains how the brain evolved to make language Michael Arbib provides nonspecialist readers with all the necessary background in primatology, neuroscience, and linguistics. His compelling account of this fascinating subject is fully accessible to a general audience.

Industry Reviews

"...I recommend Arbib's book to serious students of language evolution.... How the Brain Got Language should be a valuable resource for scholars of language evolution." --PsycCRITIQUES "Arbib's book copiously illustrates the interdisciplinarity of research on language evolution, drawing on data from neuroscience, etholohy, linguistics, human palaeontology and prehistoric archaeology." - Kerstin Hoge, Times Literary Supplement "Arbib's book is well written and engaging. Even if one does not agree with Arbib on how the human brain got language, the book may interest the intended audience [of] educated lay readers, as well as researchers in linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, neurolinguistics, natural language processing, primatology, and anthropology." -Fredrik Heinat, Nordic Journal of Linguistics "Together with introducing is own theory of language evolution, Arbib also rightfully evaluates some contemporary views on language origin. These views differ from Arbib's theory in terms of their different foci on linguistic components, distinct modularity and forms about the proto language, and various scenarios of language origin." -Lan Shuai & Tao Gong, SciVerse ScienceDirect

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