The Origins of Meaning
(Vol.1 of Language in the Light of Evolution)

James R Hurford,
Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit,
Linguistics Department, University of Edinburgh

PDF of dust jacket

PREFACE

Part 1: MEANING BEFORE COMMUNICATION

• CHAPTER 1 Let's agree on terms
  • 1.1 Defining semantics with evolution in mind
  • 1.2 Health warning about `concepts'
  • 1.3 A scale from no-brainers to cognitive concepts
• CHAPTER 2 Animals approach human cognition
  • 2.1 Induction, generalization and abstraction
  • 2.2 Freewill, or at least some metacognition
  • 2.3 Object permanence and displaced reference
  • 2.4 Biological motion and animacy
  • 2.5 Structured conceptual content and transitive inference
  • 2.6 Semantic memory, a store of nonlinguistic knowledge
  • 2.7 Sensory-motor declarative-imperative co-involvement in concepts
• CHAPTER 3 A new kind of memory evolves
  • 3.1 Episodic memory in animals: knowledge of past and future
  • 3.2 Episodic memory and Kantian analytic/synthetic
• CHAPTER 4 Animals form proto-propositions
  • 4.1 The magical number 4 -- how big is a simple thought?
  • 4.2 Predicate-argument structure in animal brains
  • 4.3 Local and global attention to objects and scenes
  • 4.4 Animal truth, reference and sense
• CHAPTER 5 Toward human semantics
  • 5.1 A parsimonious Begriffsschrift for proto-propositions
  • 5.2 Getting rid of individual constants
    • 5.2.1 The principled unknowability of uniqueness
    • 5.2.2 No clinching psychological evidence
    • 5.2.3 Philosophers split both ways
  • 5.3 Getting rid of ordered arguments and role-markers
  • 5.4 One-place predicates over scenes and objects
  • 5.5 Armchair ontology of objects, events and scenes

• CHAPTER 6 Communication by dyadic acts
  • 6.1 Roughly and readily defining `communication'
  • 6.2 Pragmatic origins
  • 6.3 Things animals do to each other
  • 6.4 Getting the right environmental conditions
    • 6.4.1 The physical environment and the communication medium
    • 6.4.2 Social conditions
    • 6.4.3 Birth and ontogeny
  • 6.5 From innate to learned
• CHAPTER 7 Going triadic: precursors of reference
  • 7.1 Early manipulation of attention
  • 7.2 Indexical/deictic pointing
    • 7.2.1 Begging and pointing in animals
    • 7.2.2 Human pointing and linguistic deixis
  • 7.3 Standardized alarm and food calls
  • 7.4 Beyond innate symbols and learned deixis
• CHAPTER 8 Why communicate? Squaring with evolutionary theory
  • 8.1 Bridges, bullets, monsters and niches
  • 8.2 Evolutionary theories of altruism and cooperation
    • 8.2.1 Cooperation in language
    • 8.2.2 Kin selection and inclusive fitness
    • 8.2.3 Reciprocal altruism -- tit-for-tat
  • 8.3 Evolutionary theories of selfish communication
    • 8.3.1 Communication for display of form
    • 8.3.2 Communication for impressively relevant content
    8.4 (Cultural) group selection
• CHAPTER 9 Cooperation, fair play and trust in primates
  • 9.1 Mind-reading, a prerequisite for intentional cooperation
  • 9.2 Cooperation
  • 9.3 Fair play
  • 9.4 Trust(-worthiness), groups, faces and a hormone
  • 9.5 Wrapping up
  
  
• CHAPTER 10 Epilogue and prologue