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What is From Hand to Mouth : The Origins of Language about?

A groundbreaking theory of how language arose from primate gesturesIt is often said that speech is what distinguishes us from other animals. But are we all talk? What if language was bequeathed to us not by word of mouth, but as a hand-me-down?The notion that language evolved not from animal cries but from manual and facial gestures—that, for most of human history, actions have spoken louder than words—has been around since Condillac. But never before has anyone developed a full-fledged theory of how, why, and with what effects language evolved from a gestural system to the spoken word. Marshaling far-flung evidence from anthropology, animal behavior, neurology, molecular biology, anatomy, linguistics, and evolutionary psychology, Michael Corballis makes the case that language developed, with the emergence of Homo sapiens, from primate gestures to a true signed language, complete with grammar and syntax and at best punctuated with grunts and other vocalizations. While vocal utterance played an increasingly important complementary role, autonomous speech did not appear until about 50,000 years ago—much later than generally believed.Bringing in significant new evidence to bolster wha

Author

Michael C. Corballis

Publisher

Princeton: Princeton University Press

Published

2002

Language

EN

ISBN

9780691116730

Subjects

Language Learning, Science, Linguistics

Updated

2026-03-24