The Origins of Meaning

James Hurford's first volume in his landmark Oxford series asks how human language — specifically meaning — could have evolved from the cognitive capacities of animals that do not have language. His answer draws on extensive evidence from primate and ape cognition to show that rich mental representations of the world exist just below the threshold of human speech, and that these capacities are the evolutionary seeds of abstract thought and reference. Reviewers in linguistics and cognitive science called it a landmark contribution and the fullest account yet published of language evolution. The honest caveats are clear: this is strictly academic in scope and language, inaccessible without significant background in linguistics and cognitive science, and incomplete without the companion second volume. For graduate students and researchers in evolutionary linguistics, this is essential reading. Worth It.