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Introduction: The Beginning of Words

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Abstract

This presents a succinct history of the ideas and theories of language and speech evolution, from the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin to the classical innatist approach made by Noam Chomsky. More recent alternative approaches are also discussed, which include biological interpretations of language origins. Finally, there is a brief account of human evolution, to provide the necessary archaeological context to the history of human communication.

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Aboitiz, F. (2017). Introduction: The Beginning of Words. In: A Brain for Speech. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54060-7_1

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