Book review: The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally
This book contains a few good ideas, but spends more time than I want discussing the personalities and politics that have been involved in the field.
It presents some good arguments against the “big bang” theory of the origin of human language (which suggests that one mutation may have created syntactic abilities that don’t correspond to anything in other species), mainly by presenting evidence that human language is not a monolithic feature, and that most aspects of it resemble features which can be seen in other species. For example, some of our syntactic ability involves reusing parts of the brain that provide motor control.
I’m uncertain whether the “big bang” theory she argues against is actually believed by any serious scholar, because those who may have advocated it haven’t articulated much of a theory (partly because they think there’s too little evidence to say much about the origin of language).
The most valuable idea I got from the book was the possibility that the development of human language may have been a byproduct of a sophisticated theory of mind. Other apes seem to get less benefit from communications because with only the limited theory of mind that a typical chimp has, there’s little that improved communication by one individual can do to increase cooperation between individuals.