Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465002191)

Scientists have long theorized that abstract, symbolic thinking evolved to help humans negotiate such classically male activities as hunting, tool making, and warfare, and eventually developed into spoken language. In Finding Our Tongues, Dean Falk overturns this established idea, offering a daring new theory that springs from a simple observation: parents all over the world, in all cultures, talk to infants by using baby talk or "Motherese." Falk shows how Motherese developed as a way of reassuring babies when mothers had to put them down in order to do work. The melodic vocalizations of early Motherese not only provided the basis of language but also contributed to the growth of music and art.

Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with classic anthropology, Falk offers a potent challenge to conventional wisdom about the emergence of human language.

Author: Dean Falk
ISBN-10: 0465002196
ISBN-13: 9780465002191
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 03/17/2009
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/19/2009 pg. 50
Booklist 03/15/2009 pg. 33
Science Books & Films 05/01/2009 pg. 100
New York Review of Books 10/22/2009 pg. 44
Choice 02/01/2010
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2010 pg. 246