Why Only Us: Language and Evolution

by Robert C. Berwick and Noam Chomsky

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Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it.

“A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.”
New York Review of Books

We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including...

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  • ISBN10 0262533499
  • ISBN13 9780262533492
  • Publish Date 12 May 2017
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher MIT Press
  • Imprint The MIT Press