If a chimpanzee could talk and other reflections on language acquisition
By: Jerry H. Gill.
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Tucson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 163
Subjects: Language acquisition.; Language and culture.
Description: "In this book, a philosopher combines famous cases with a lifetime of study to examine the threshold of language--that point "between speech and not quite speech." He provides fascinating accounts of the deaf and blind Helen Keller, of chimpanzees like Washoe, and of feral children such as Victor, the "wild child of Aveyron," putting a new spin on their stories. When does it start, he asks, that miracle most of us take for granted? Where does it come from, that uniquely human power to transform perception and action into thought and the singular activity we call speech?"--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-160) and index.
Table of contents: title: If a chimpanzee could talk; title: Wolf children and language acquisition; title: The case of Helen Keller; title: Autism and language acquisition; title: Psychology, language, and knowledge; title: Forked tongues, otherness, and understanding; title: Language and reality : the work of Benjamin Lee Whorf; title: A point of departure.