"This volume contains a collection of contributions from leading scholars who study language and communication from comparative, developmental, and biological perspectives. The goals of the volume are four-fold. They are to (1) sketch the parallels and differences between animal communication systems and human language, (2) advance our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in human language development; (3) clarify infants' understanding of the social or communicative functions that language serves; and (4) better understand how language supports and advances aspects of development beyond language itself. We organized the volume into two parts. Part I focuses on Origins and Part II focuses on Functions. Part I, on Phylogenetic Origins, explores the development of human language and communication from both phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives. The first three chapters focus on phylogenetic issues. The first chapter by Catherine Hobaiter (A very long look back at language development: exploring the evolutionary origins of human language) describes the communication "tool kit" that humans share with modern apes, and analyzes the shared modes of communication and the nature of the information conveyed. The second chapter by Athena Vouloumanos and Amy Yamashiro (Building a communication system in infancy) discusses how the preference of young animals to listen to the speech of other members of their own species develops, and how they use this information to recognize when information with a communicative function is being transmitted. The third chapter by Ann Senghas (Connecting language acquisition and language evolution: Clues from the emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language) offers evidence suggesting that the evolution of complex human syntax from a simple communication system can evolve over just a few generations of language users, if the users are children. Taken together, these chapters offer a fascinating picture of how human language might have evolved"-- Provided by publisher