In The First Word Christine Kenneally explores the state of research into the question of the origins of language. She breaks her book into four parts. The first part, Language is not a Thing, takes a particular look at the work of 4 scientists noted for their work in the exploration of language. In If You Have Human Language she explores the suite of attributes that combine to form language in humans and traces where they came from as well as who else (of a non-human nature) possesses each trait. In What Evolves? she explores evolution in the context of language and finally in Where Next? she hypothesizes about the future of research into the origins of language.All in all it was a very interesting book, particularly if you haven’t considered the question of language origination before. She was a tad repetitious but that is really my only quibble with the book. I would recommend it to anyone with a beginner’s interest in the question.
