Author: Edmund Shaftesbury
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adam-man (Artificial language)
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Author: Derek Bickerton
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429930292
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
How language evolved has been called "the hardest problem in science." In Adam's Tongue, Derek Bickerton—long a leading authority in this field—shows how and why previous attempts to solve that problem have fallen short. Taking cues from topics as diverse as the foraging strategies of ants, the distribution of large prehistoric herbivores, and the construction of ecological niches, Bickerton produces a dazzling new alternative to the conventional wisdom. Language is unique to humans, but it isn't the only thing that sets us apart from other species—our cognitive powers are qualitatively different. So could there be two separate discontinuities between humans and the rest of nature? No, says Bickerton; he shows how the mere possession of symbolic units—words—automatically opened a new and different cognitive universe, one that yielded novel innovations ranging from barbed arrowheads to the Apollo spacecraft. Written in Bickerton's lucid and irreverent style, this book is the first that thoroughly integrates the story of how language evolved with the story of how humans evolved. Sure to be controversial, it will make indispensable reading both for experts in the field and for every reader who has ever wondered how a species as remarkable as ours could have come into existence.

Author: Abdelfattah Kilito
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811224945
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
A playful and erudite look at the origins of language In the beginning there was one language—one tongue that Adam used to compose the first poem, an elegy for Abel. “These days, no one bothers to ask about the tongue of Adam. It is a naive question, vaguely embarrassing and irksome, like questions posed by children, which one can only answer rather stupidly.” So begins Abdelfattah Kilito’s The Tongue of Adam, a delightful series of lectures. With a Borgesian flair for riddles, stories, and subtle scholarly distinctions, Kilito presents an assortment of discussions related to Adam’s tongue, including translation, comparative religion, and lexicography: for example, how, from Babel onward, can we explain the plurality of language? Or can Adam’s poetry be judged aesthetically, the same as any other poem? Drawing from the commentators of the Koran to Walter Benjamin, from the esoteric speculations of Judaism to Herodotus, The Tongue of Adam is a nimble book about the mysterious rise of humankind’s multilingualism.

Author: John WEEMES
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Author: Kenneth Copeland
Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers
ISBN: 1606836366
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
Words have played a vital role since the beginning of time. In the book of Genesis, God created the world and everything in it with His words. Today, as believers, we have the same God-like ability to speak those things which be not as though they were. Through God's Word, Kenneth Copeland reveals the Bible secret of words and the vital...

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1686

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 998

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Author:
Publisher: Berachah Prophetic Ministri
ISBN: 8190666452
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 87

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Author: Westmorland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0385529716
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Here is the captivating story of humankind’s enduring quest to build a better language—and overcome the curse of Babel. Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man’s attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, Loglan (not to be confused with Lojban), and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries. With intelligence and humor, Arika Okrent has written a truly original and enlightening book for all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers.