Die Ursprünge der menschlichen Kommunikation

Humans, unlike all other known living creatures on this planet, speak. Generations of scientists have labored over this remarkable fact, speculations about the origins of human language abound, but to this day there is no convincing explanation. With The Origins of Human Communication, Michael Tomasello succeeds in taking a decisive step toward solving this puzzle. Drawing on rich empirical material from primate and infant research and the most influential theories of the philosophy of language, as well as on a variety of striking examples from everyday human communication, he presents a sophisticated multilevel model of language development in both individual-historical and species-historical perspectives. The central point of articulation in this model are gestures, pointing and pantomime, which evolved in the course of the development of language.