The origins of grammar : an anthropological perspective /

Edwardes's attempt to locate the evolution of grammar in basic communication and social modeling is interesting. Both factors involve a mixture of gesture and vocalization in the modeling of self and other in what Edwardes calls a "two-argument A-relationship-B model." He points out that the key features of grammar are the dual capacity to model others and to model the self and concludes that the latter is especially important because it enables recursion--the ability to model a self modeling a self. On the way to this conclusion, the author provides useful discussions of other ideas about the origins of language and grammar. He includes interesting accounts of grammaticalization and nonhuman communication, a summary of cognitive linguistics, a discussion of the self, and summaries and critiques of other attempts to locate the sources of grammar and language. Written in a clear, readable style, this accessible book will be valuable to readers who have little or no previous knowledge of linguistics or of arguments about the origins of grammar and language. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. S. A. Tyler Rice University