Research on the evolution of language is often framed in terms of sharp discontinuities in
syntax and semantics between animal communication systems and human language as we …

Recent discussions of animal communication and the evolution of language have advocated
adopting a 'pragmatics-first'approach, according to which “a more productive framework” for …

Studies of animal communication are often assumed to provide the 'royal road'to
understanding the evolution of human language. After all, language is the pre-eminent …

Pinning down precisely what it is that makes human language special has never been so
difficult. It's not that we no longer regard it as special, but almost every time you think you …

Cheney and Seyfarth's groundbreaking studies on vervet monkey alarm calls paved the way
for a serious investigation of what animal signals might mean and their relevance to the …

Rich data gathered in experimental primatology in the last 40 years are beginning to benefit
from analytical methods used in contemporary linguistics, especially in the area of semantics …

Linguistic symbols are conventionalized behavioral expressions that human beings use to
manipulate one another's attention, including everything from words to complex syntactic …

I strongly applaud the attempt of linguists and primatologists to work together to better
understand primate communication and its implications for the biology of language, along …

This chapter illustrates the potential of evolutionary thinking in language studies by
discussing selection of problems in evolutionary linguistics that may be of particular …

In this article we offer a detailed assessment of current approaches to the origins of
language, with a special foots on their historical and theoretical underpinnings. It is a widely …