The Origin of Language

Harris, Roy

ISBN 10: 1855064375 / ISBN 13: 9781855064379

Editore: Thoemmes Press, 1996

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item for full refund. Ships USPS Media Mail. Codice articolo OTV.1855064375.VG

Riassunto:

The "Key Issues" series makes available some of the contemporary responses that met important books and debates on their first appearance. Examining the range of contemporary literature - journal articles, book extracts, public letters, sermons and pamphlets - the series should give the reader an insight into the historical, social and political context in which a key publication or particular topic emerged. Each text has been reset and provided with a new editorial introduction to supply the necessary historical background. Public debate about language in the English-speaking world during the 19th century turned on the issue of how language began. The notion that language was a divine gift to humanity, not shared by lower creatures, was supported by the Biblical accounts of Adam naming the animals and of the Tower of Babel. It was still accepted by leading religious authorities. But this notion was seriously brought into question by the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution. Those who rejected Darwinism ridiculed all attempts to conjure up language out of primitive calls, grunts and ejaculations. No animals, it was pointed out, had yet achieved communication remotely resembling the use of words. On the other side were those who held that it was possible to account for the birth of language rationally as a function of the development of human communicational needs in society. Prominent contributors to the controversy included Max Muller (1823-1900), who held the Chair of Comparative Philology at Oxford University, William Dwight Whitney (1837-1894), Professor of Sanskrit at Yale University, USA, and Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), who became Oxford's first Professor of Anthropology in 1895.

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Titolo: The Origin of Language
Casa editrice: Thoemmes Press
Data di pubblicazione: 1996
Legatura: Brossura
Condizione: very_good