{"title":"Derek Bickerton","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the groundbreaking work of Derek Bickerton, a pioneer in creole language studies and language evolution. His compelling theories offer fascinating insights for linguistics enthusiasts.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"adam-s-tongue-book-derek-bickerton-9780809016471","title":"Adam's Tongue","description":"How language evolved has been called 'the hardest problem in science'. 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Drawing on \"living linguistic fossils\" such as \"ape talk,\" the \"two-word\" stage of small children, and pidgin languages, and on recent discoveries in paleoanthropology, Bickerton shows how a primitive \"protolanguage\" could have offered Homo erectus a novel ecological niche. He goes on to demonstrate how this protolanguage could have developed into the languages we speak today.   \"You are drawn into [Bickerton's] appreciation of the dominant role language plays not only in what we say, but in what we think and, therefore, what we are.\"—Robert Wright, New York Times Book Review  \"The evolution of language is a fascinating topic, and Bickerton's Language and Species is the best introduction we have.\"—John C. 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The story focuses on languages so low in the pecking order that many people don't regard them as languages at all - Creole languages spoken by descendants of slaves and indentured labourers in plantation colonies all over the world. The story is told by Derek Bickerton, who has spent more than thirty years researching these languages on four continents and developing a controversial theory that explains why they are so similar to one another. A published novelist, Bickerton (once described as 'part scholar, part swashbuckling man of action') does not present his findings in the usual dry academic manner. Instead, you become a companion on his journey of discovery. You learn things as he learned them, share his disappointments and triumphs, explore the exotic locales where he worked, and meet the colourful characters he encountered along the way. The result is a unique blend of memoir, travelogue, history, and linguistics primer, appealing to anyone who has ever wondered how languages grow or what it's like to search the world for new knowledge.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49975715201297,"sku":"CIN0809028166G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008052822289,"sku":"NIN9780809028160","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51765467054353,"sku":"CIN0809028166VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52610446819601,"sku":"GOR004232437","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52613317755153,"sku":"NLS9780809028160","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0809028166.jpg?v=1751329240"},{"product_id":"the-gold-run-rare-book-derek-bickerton-1659011977ada","title":"The Gold Run","description":"1960. 191 pages. This is an ex-Library book. White pictorial dust jacket over black cloth. Expected library inserts, stamps and inscriptions. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. M","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50073346605329,"sku":"1659011977ADA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1659011977ADA_1.jpg?v=1722879803"},{"product_id":"language-and-species-book-derek-bickerton-9780226046105","title":"Language and Species","description":"Language and Species presents the most detailed and well-documented scenario to date of the origins of language. Drawing on \"living linguistic fossils\" such as \"ape talk,\" the \"two-word\" stage of small children, and pidgin languages, and on recent discoveries in paleoanthropology, Bickerton shows how a primitive \"protolanguage\" could have offered Homo erectus a novel ecological niche. He goes on to demonstrate how this protolanguage could have developed into the languages we speak today. \"You are drawn into [Bickerton's] appreciation of the dominant role language plays not only in what we say, but in what we think and, therefore, what we are.\"--Robert Wright, New York Times Book Review \"The evolution of language is a fascinating topic, and Bickerton's Language and Species is the best introduction we have.\"--John C. 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It tells the true but almost unbelievable story of a Trinidadian badjohn who in the 1940s and 1950s was a much reported celebrity of the criminal and legal world. Believed to have committed scores of murders in his guise as a pirate who dumped would-be migrants from Trinidad to Venezuela overboard to the sharks, he was hanged for just one proven crime, a murder he in fact may not have done, and for which no body was found. The story that Derek Bickerton tells is a classic because it both focuses on themes that remain pertinent to Trinidadian culture and reminds the reader that current alarms about crime and an escalating murder rate are very far from new. Bickerton recognizes in Boysie Singh a particularly Trinidadian villain, one who for several decades evaded the law in part because of a popular ambivalence about crime. What was seen as \"smartness\" in challenging a deeply hierarchical colonial society was often admired, even if its victims were not from the elite.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50406170099985,"sku":"NGR9781845234492","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51435579212049,"sku":"GOR014277001","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53597993828625,"sku":"CIN1845234499G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845234499.jpg?v=1751059660"},{"product_id":"dynamics-of-a-creole-system-book-derek-bickerton-9780521110150","title":"Dynamics of a Creole System","description":"In this volume the author describes and systematically accounts for language variation in a Creole-speaking community and assesses the implications the study has on generally accepted notions of the nature of language. Based on an extensive study of Guyana, South America, the volume analyses the bewildering diversity found in the syntax and underlying semantics of tense and aspect of the language of that country and shows that data which at first sight appear merely chaotic in fact represent different developmental stages of the language existing side by side in the contemporary community. The volume also offers strong support for theories of Creole origins of 'Black English' in the United States. It should be of interest not only to those linguists involved in Creole and pidgin studies but also to anyone concerned with general linguistic theory.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51003034632465,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51003038269713,"sku":"NIN9780521110150","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52478097260817,"sku":"NLS9780521110150","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0521110157.jpg?v=1750911198"},{"product_id":"more-than-nature-needs-book-derek-bickerton-9780674724907","title":"More than Nature Needs","description":"The human mind is an unlikely evolutionary adaptation. How did humans acquire cognitive capacities far more powerful than anything a hunting-and-gathering primate needed to survive? Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder with Darwin of evolutionary theory, saw humans as \"divine exceptions\" to natural selection. Darwin thought use of language might have shaped our sophisticated brains, but his hypothesis remained an intriguing guess--until now. Combining state-of-the-art research with forty years of writing and thinking about language evolution, Derek Bickerton convincingly resolves a crucial problem that both biology and the cognitive sciences have hitherto ignored or evaded.  What evolved first was neither language nor intelligence--merely normal animal communication plus displacement. That was enough to break restrictions on both thought and communication that bound all other animals. The brain self-organized to store and automatically process its new input, words. But words, which are inextricably linked to the concepts they represent, had to be accessible to consciousness. The inevitable consequence was a cognitive engine able to voluntarily merge both thoughts and words into meaningful combinations. Only in a third phase could language emerge, as humans began to tinker with a medium that, when used for communication, was adequate for speakers but suboptimal for hearers.  Starting from humankind's remotest past, More than Nature Needs transcends nativist thesis and empiricist antithesis by presenting a revolutionary synthesis--one that instead of merely repeating \"nature and nurture\" clichés shows specifically and in a principled manner how and why the synthesis came about.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51125730509073,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51125732213009,"sku":"CIN0674724909G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52986880524561,"sku":"GOR010864709","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0674724909.jpg?v=1750912060"},{"product_id":"city-and-the-desert-book-derek-bickerton-9780999693803","title":"The City and the Desert","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51651243016465,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51651243213073,"sku":"NIN9780999693803","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0999693808.jpg?v=1750885540"},{"product_id":"biological-foundations-and-origin-of-syntax-book-derek-bickerton-9780262549127","title":"Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax","description":"\u003cb\u003eInterdisciplinary perspectives on the evolutionary and biological roots of syntax, describing current research on syntax in fields ranging from linguistics to neurology.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Syntax is arguably the most human-specific aspect of language. Despite the proto-linguistic capacities of some animals, syntax appears to be the last major evolutionary transition in humans that has some genetic basis. Yet what are the elements to a scenario that can explain such a transition? In this book, experts from linguistics, neurology and neurobiology, cognitive psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and computer modeling address this question. Unlike most previous work on the evolution of language, \u003ci\u003eBiological Foundations and Origin of Syntax\u003c\/i\u003e follows through on a growing consensus among researchers that language can be profitably separated into a number of related and interacting but largely autonomous functions, each of which may have a distinguishable evolutionary history and neurological base. The contributors argue that syntax is such a function.The book describes the current state of research on syntax in different fields, with special emphasis on areas in which the findings of particular disciplines might shed light on problems faced by other disciplines. It defines areas where consensus has been established with regard to the nature, infrastructure, and evolution of the syntax of natural languages; summarizes and evaluates contrasting approaches in areas that remain controversial; and suggests lines for future research to resolve at least some of these disputed issues.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eContributors\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Andrea Baronchelli, Derek Bickerton, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, Denis Bouchard, Robert Boyd, Jens Brauer, Ted Briscoe, David Caplan, Nick Chater, Morten H. Christiansen, Terrence W.Deacon, Francesco d'Errico, Anna Fedor, Julia Fischer, Angela D. Friederici, Tom Giv n, Thomas Griffiths, Balazs Gulyas, Peter Hagoort, Austin Hilliard, James R. Hurford, Peter Ittzes, Gerhard J ger, Herbert J ger, Edith Kaan, Simon Kirby, Natalia L. Komarova, Tatjana Nazir, Frederick Newmeyer, Kazuo Okanoya, Csaba Pl h, Peter J. Richerson, Luigi Rizzi, Wolf Singer, Mark Steedman, Luc Steels, Szabolcs Szamad , E rs Szathmary, Maggie Tallerman, Jochen Triesch, Stephanie Ann White","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52122569572625,"sku":"NLS9780262549127","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780262549127.jpg?v=1757440907"},{"product_id":"language-and-human-behavior-book-derek-bickerton-9780295974583","title":"Language and Human Behavior","description":"“What this book proposes to do,” writes Derek Bickerton, “is to stand the conventional wisdom of the behavioral sciences on its head: instead of the human species growing clever enough to invent language, it will view that species as blundering into language and, as a direct result of that, becoming clever.” According to Bickerton, the behavioral sciences have failed to give an adequate account of human nature at least partly because of the conjunction and mutual reinforcement of two widespread beliefs: that language is simply a means of communication and that human intelligence is the result of the rapid growth and unusual size of human brains.  Bickerton argues that each of the properties distinguishing human intelligence and consciousness from that of other animals can be shown to derive straightforwardly from properties of language. In essence, language arose as a representational system, not a means of communication or a skill, and not a product of culture but an evolutionary adaptation.  The author stresses the necessity of viewing intelligence in evolutionary terms, seeing it not as problem solving but as a way of maintaining homeostasis—the preservation of those conditions most favorable to an organism, the optimal achievable conditions for survival and well-being. Nonhumans practice what he calls “on-line thinking” to maintain homeostasis, but only humans can employ off-line thinking: “only humans can assemble fragments of information to form a pattern that they can later act upon without having to wait on that great but unpunctual teacher, experience.”  The term protolanguage is used to describe the stringing together of symbols that prehuman hominids employed. “It did not allow them to turn today’s imagination into tomorrow’s fact. But it is just this power to transform imagination into fact that distinguishes human behavior from that of our ancestral species, and indeed from that of all other species. It is exactly what enables us to change our behavior, or invent vast ranges of new behavior, practically overnight, with no concomitant genetic changes.”  Language and Human Behavior should be of interest to anyone in the behavioral and evolutionary sciences and to all those concerned with the role of language in human behavior.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52995932061969,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52995932422417,"sku":"NIN9780295974583","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780295974583.jpg?v=1767665662"},{"product_id":"king-of-the-sea-book-derek-bickerton-9780394505169","title":"King of the Sea","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53043593609489,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53043593773329,"sku":"CIN0394505166G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780394505169.jpg?v=1768924883"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-derek-bickerton.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}