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Early human communication helps in understanding language evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Daniela Lenti Boero
Daniela Lenti Boero*
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Human Sciences, University of Valle d'Aosta, 11010 Aosta, Italy. [email protected]://www.univda.it/lentiboerodaniela
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Abstract

Building a theory on extant species, as Ackermann et al. do, is a useful contribution to the field of language evolution. Here, I add another living model that might be of interest: human language ontogeny in the first year of life. A better knowledge of this phase might help in understanding two more topics among the “several building blocks of a comprehensive theory of the evolution of spoken language” indicated in their conclusion by Ackermann et al., that is, the foundation of the co-evolution of linguistic motor skills with the auditory skills underlying speech perception, and the possible phylogenetic interactions of protospeech production with referential capabilities.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 6 , December 2014 , pp. 560 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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