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The Origin of Speech
About the Author
 Peter MacNeilage has written over 120 papers on the topic of complex action systems and their evolution. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioural and Social Sciences. ...from the book jacket
"The Origin of Speech "combines a critique of the Non-Darwinian approach to speech of Noam Chomsky with a presentation of two Neodarwinian theories regarding the evolution of speech production. According to the "Frame/Content" theory, the mouth close-open alternation underlying the basic consonant-vowel syllable of speech had its origin in the cyclical mouth movements of chewing, sucking, and licking. According to the "Postural Origins" theory, both right handedness and the specialization of the left cerebral hemisphere for speech had a deep heritage in a left hemisphere specialization for the control of the body under routine circumstances."...Peter MacNeilage, Professor of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin
 Description
"This book explores the origin and evolution of speech. The human speech system is in a league of its own in the animal kingdom and its possession dwarfs most other evolutionary achievements. During every second of speech we unconsciously use about 225 distinct muscle actions. To investigate the evolutionary origins of this prodigious ability, Peter MacNeilage draws on work in linguistics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and animal behavior. He puts forward a neo-Darwinian account of speech as a process of descent in which ancestral vocal capabilities became modified in response to natural selection pressures for more efficient communication. His proposals include the crucial observation that present-day infants learning to produce speech reveal constraints that were acting on our ancestors as they invented new words long ago.
This important and original investigation integrates the latest research on modern speech capabilities, their acquisition, and their neurobiology, including the issues surrounding the cerebral hemispheric specialization for speech. Written in a clear style with minimal recourse to jargon the book will interest a wide range of readers in cognitive, neuro-, and evolutionary science, as well as all those seeking to understand the nature and evolution of speech and human communication." ...from the book jacket
The Origin of Speech is listed on Amazon.com for $50...
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