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Prelinguistic evolution in hominin mothers and babies: For cryin' out loud!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2005

Dean Falk*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL32306-4531http://www.anthro.fsu.edu/people/faculty/falk.html

Abstract:

Unlike chimpanzees, human infants engage in persistent adult-directed (AD) crying, and human mothers produce a special form of infant-directed vocalization, known as motherese. These complementary behaviors are hypothesized to have evolved initially in our hominin ancestors in conjunction with the evolution of bipedalism, and to represent prelinguistic substrates that paved the way for the eventual emergence of protolanguage.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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