But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” (Tom Wolfe, Harper’s), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than seven thousand languages that exist today.Although fossil hunters and linguists have brought us closer to unearthing the true origins of language, Daniel Everett’s discoveries have upended the contemporary linguistic world, reverberating far beyond academic circles. While conducting field research in the Amazonian rainforest, Everett came across an age-old language nestled amongst a tribe of hunter-gatherers. Challenging long-standing principles in the field, Everett now builds on the theory that language was not intrinsic to our species. In order to truly understand its origins, a more interdisciplinary approach is needed—one that accounts as much for our propensity for culture as it does our biological makeup.Language began, Everett theorizes, with Homo Erectus, who catalyzed words through culturally invented symbols. Early humans, as their brains grew larger, incorporated gestures and voice intonations to communicate, all of which built on each other for 60,000 generations. Tracing crucial shifts and developments across the ages, Everett breaks down every component of speech, from harnessing control of more than a hundred respiratory muscles in the larynx and diaphragm, to mastering the use of the tongue. Moving on from biology to execution, Everett explores why elements such as grammar and storytelling are not nearly as critical to language as one might suspect.In the book’s final section, Cultural Evolution of Language, Everett takes the ever-debated “language gap” to task, delving into the chasm that separates “us” from “the animals.” He approaches the subject from various disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, and archaeology, to reveal that it was social complexity, as well as cultural, physiological, and neurological superiority, that allowed humans—with our clawless hands, breakable bones, and soft skin—to become the apex predator.How Language Began ultimately explains what we know, what we’d like to know, and what we likely never will know about how humans went from mere communication to language. Based on nearly forty years of fieldwork, Everett debunks long-held theories by some of history’s greatest thinkers, from Plato to Chomsky. The result is an invaluable study of what makes us human.

    Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Saussure and Chomsky, "Introducing Linguistics" reveals the rules and beauty that underlie language, our most human skill.

    A great vocabulary can enhance your speaking, writing, and even thinking skills. This course will boost your vocabulary, whether you want to enhance your personal lexicon, write or speak more articulately in professional settings, or advance your knowledge of the English language. For anyone who has ever grasped for the perfect word at a particular moment, this course provides a research-based and enjoyable method for improving your vocabulary. Building a Better Vocabulary offers an intriguing look at the nuts and bolts of English, teaches you the etymology and morphology - or the history and structure - of words, and delves into the cognitive science behind committing new words to long-term memory. By the end of the 36 enjoyable lectures, you will have a practical framework for continuing to build your vocabulary by discovering new words and fully mastering the nuances of familiar ones. If you are an avid reader, you may have previously encountered some of the words in this course. But even the most voracious reader will be surprised and delighted by these eye-opening lectures, which delve into the building blocks of the English language and reveal intriguing new nuances to words you thought you knew well. These lectures will kindle a passion for the process by which words are created and for the beauty of the words you read, speak, and hear every day.

    That's the point of it. So, what do you want to achieve following your communication? Do you want someone to answer 'yes'? Do you want to improve your relationships? Do you want people to understand exactly what you're talking about, first time? Whatever you want to achieve, you'll need decent communication to get there, and expert and bestselling author Andy Bounds shows us exactly how to nail our communication. Using the same conversational style that made "The Jelly Effect" so popular, "The Snowball Effect" is packed with short, rapid fire sections complete with visuals and special features to help us get serious results from our communication.The "Snowball Effect" explains how to: - Persuade people to say "yes" more quickly, more often - Enjoy your job more - because you'll be calling the shots for a change - Remove the communication frustrations you feel all too often - Get more done, more quickly - because you're getting people on your side faster (these techniques have saved people at least one month every year).

     Empower Your Students - This book will teach you how to allow students to show their thinking, demonstrate their learning, and share their work with authentic audiences - to use technology in meaningful ways that prepare them for the future! Start with 20 Simple Tools - This book focuses on 20 essential tools that will help teachers to easily make student thinking visible, give every student a voice and allow them to share their work. Examples You Can Use Tomorrow - With instructions for incorporating twenty of the best Google-friendly tools, including a special bonus section on Digital Portfolios

    Once students have understood the terms and concepts in their own language, it is easier for them to understand their textbook. With simple explanations and numerous examples, this brief handbook compares English and Spanish grammar and points out the similarities and differences.

    Whether you are a student, in the military, a professional or in any situation where studying to advance your circumstances is required, this is the book for you. By the time you finish this report, you will know: • How to remove the one major barrier to understanding. • How to quickly absorb the basics of any subject and give yourself a bedrock foundation to what you want to know. • How to make it almost impossible for anyone (even a teacher) to ask you a question you cannot answer correctly. • How to learn on your own (without classes and teachers) through a fool-proof method that has been suppressed by educators for years. • How to quickly absorb and understand whole books. • How to "lay in concrete" a full understanding of the subject you are studying through the use of simple bric-a-brac found in any home. • How to learn the secrets of acquiring quick understanding through an almost unknown use of the dictionary. • How to burn whole lists of data into your memory so that you can automatically recall them anytime. These simple methods, applied faithfully, will start you on your road to a better life.

    The textbook logically introduces a range of fundamental concepts--such as SLA in adults and children, formal and informal learning contexts, and diverse socio-cultural settings. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, encouraging students to consider SLA from linguistic, psychological and social perspectives.

    That is all the more reason why this favorite reference book for students, writers, and educators requires periodic updating. In this new edition, the authors review the fundamentals of correct sentence structure, then present twenty basic sentence patterns that encompass virtually every effective way of writing simple, compound, and complex sentences. They give advice on ways to vary rhythm and sentence patterns to produce a more interesting writing style. Example sentences as well as brief essays by recognized writers are presented and analyzed. This brand-new edition, updated with many contemporary examples of fine writing style, will inspire both students and seasoned writers to make their own essays sing.

    Programmed text for acquisition of reading skills for beginning courses or rapid review.

    Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by", metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.

    Dehaene's research will fascinate not only readers interested in science and culture, but also educators concerned with debates on how we learn to read, and who wrestle with pathologies such as dyslexia. Like Steven Pinker, Dehaene argues that the mind is not a blank slate: Writing systems across all cultures rely on the same brain circuits, and reading is only possible insofar as it fits within the limits of a primate brain. Setting cutting-edge science in the context of cultural debate, Reading in the Brain is an unparalleled guide to a uniquely human ability.

    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 laborers 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 colorful 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.

    If you are hungry, you 'want eat'. To teach is to 'give knowledge'.Training your mind to think in Toki Pona can lead to deeper insights. The micro-language filters out the noise of our excess thoughts and points to the centre of things.

    Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.