Language Evolution

Rudolf Botha is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and Honorary Professor of Linguistics at Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

'In 2006, Rudie Botha launched an all out attack on the legitimacy of the claim that the South African archaeological site of Blombos had evidence of 'fully syntactic' language 75,000 years ago. No one has been able to counter the logic of his argument, and this book applies that same relentless, illuminating logic to other claims in the study of language origins. In doing so, Botha shows just how carefully any claims must be justified, and just how powerful his Windows Approach is. Students and researchers in archaeology, primatology, linguistics, and comparative ethology cannot ignore this book.' Iain Davidson, University of New England

• Part I. Preliminaries: 1. The Windows Approach; 2. Conceptual foundations of the approach; Part II. Correlate Windows: 3. Sea shells, ancient beads, and Middle Stone Age symbols; 4. Fossil skulls and ancestral brains; Part III. Analogue Windows: 5. Incipient pidgins and creoles; 6. Homesign systems and emergent sign languages; 7. Modern motherese; 8. Hunter-gatherers' use of language; 9. Language acquisition; Part IV. Abduction Windows: 10. Modern music and language; 11. Comparative animal behaviour; Part V. Epilogue: 12. A tool fit for demystifying language evolution?