THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE: THE STORY OF HOW WE CAME TO TALK

Book ID/图书代码： 00250124C00007

English Summary/英文概要： "A model of popular-science writing" STEVEN POOLE

Who was "the first speaker" and what was their first message?

An erudite, tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of humanity’s greatest mysteries - the origins of language.

Drawing on evidence from many fields, including archaeology, anthropology, neurology and linguistics, Sverker Johansson weaves these disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world, before exploring how language eventually emerged in the very remote human past.

Our intellectual and physiological changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire language. But to what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes, or on environment? How has language evolved further, and how is it changing now, in the process of globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough to reconstruct how language has evolved?

Johansson’s far-reaching, authoritative and research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples, both human and animal, in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do, but why we speak at all.

Translated from the Swedish by Frank Perry

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 谁是“第一位发言者”？他的第一个信息是什么？

本书博学、严谨、文笔优美，讲述了人类最大的谜团之一 —— 语言的起源

Sverker Johansson 约翰逊 借鉴考古学、人类学、神经学和语言学等多个领域的证据，将这些不同的领域搜集到的线索编织在一起，展示我们的人类祖先是如何进化为语言使用者。 《语言的黎明》对语言文法的形成以及世界各地语言之间的差异或相似之处进行了引人入胜的调查，然后探讨了语言最终如何在非常遥远的人类过去出现。

进化过程中我们的智力和生理变化都对我们习得语言的能力产生影响。但语言的进化在多大程度上是依赖于基因还是依赖语环境所在呢？在全球化的过程中，语言又是如何进一步发展的，以及现在又是如何变化的？语言的哪些方面能够确保智能机器人还没有足够的智能来重建语言的进化过程？

约翰逊对语言的研究影响深远、他是这方面的权威，且基于研究的方法将此书通过数十个令人惊叹的例子（包括人类和动物）生动地呈现在这本引人入胜、博学而有趣的书中，此书适合给所有曾经思考过为什么我们会这样说话的人阅读，，同时思考我们到底为什么要说话。

弗兰克·佩里 (Frank Perry) 译自瑞典语

Awards/获奖情况：Reviews of THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE:

‘This magisterial study is a detective story about the deep past.’ – The Telegraph

‘I love a book that teaches me things I didn’t know while provoking in me thoughts I never had before, setting my mind racing in new directions. Such a book is The Dawn of Language’ – Richard Dawkins

‘A model of popular-science writing’ – Steven Poole

‘The Dawn of Language is a fascinating story in its own right, and surprisingly optimistic about human nature, in its emphasis on the necessity of trust and cooperation for language to have ever got off the ground.’ – The Guardian

‘A formidable educational journey… This is the book the linguists in Sweden have needed for so long… I demand an August prize nomination.’ – Expressen

’Johansson tells with enthusiasm and a desire to educate people. The delight is contagious.’ – Språktidningen

’This is science and popular science of the best brand, and there is no book in Swedish that comes close in terms of breadth and depth.’ – BTJ

’A fascinating and interesting overview of human language.’ – Smålandsposten

About the Author/作者介绍： SVERKER JOHANSSON, Doctor of Philosophy in Physics and Master of Philosophy in Linguistics, was born 1961 in Lund in the southern parts of Sweden. He is a senior advisor at Dalarna University, has conducted research at CERN in Switzerland and participated in EVOLANG, the leading international conference for research on the origins and evolution of language, since 2006. Through a bot that he programmed, Lsjbot, Johansson is behind an estimated 8% of all articles on Swedish Wikipedia, covering everything from fungi to municipalities in the Philippines.

Format:HARDCOVER

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