creators_name: Steklis, Horst Dieter
creators_name: Harnad, Stevan
editors_name: Harnad, Stevan
editors_name: Steklis, Horst Dieter
editors_name: Lancaster, Jane B.
type: bookchapter
datestamp: 2000-07-15
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:21
metadata_visibility: show
title: From hand to mouth: Some critical stages in the evolution of language
ispublished: pub
subjects: bio-evo
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: evol-psy
subjects: hist-ling
full_text_status: public
keywords: language, evolution, lateralization, gesture, propositions, symbols, translatability, speech
abstract: A theory of the evolution of lanaguage, beginning with bipedalism and lateralization, through instrumental and iconic gesture, to arcbitrary symbols, propositions and speech. The "translatability thesis" is also introduced, to the effect that all languages are intertranslatable (hence all can express any and every proposition).
date: 1976
date_type: published
publication: Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech
publisher: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 280
pagerange: 445-455
refereed: FALSE
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citation:   Steklis, Horst Dieter and Harnad, Stevan  (1976) From hand to mouth: Some critical stages in the evolution of language.  [Book Chapter]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/866/1/harnad76.hand.html