The Language Game
Morten H. ChristiansenNick Chater

What is language? Why do we have it? Where does it come from? Why does that matter?The Language Game draws on a fascinating range of examples to show the way language works, has shaped our evolution and is critical to our future.

'Highly original and convincing ... a delight to read!' - Daniel Everett
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is language? Why do we have it? Where does it come from? Why does that matter?
Upending centuries of scholarship (including, most recently, Chomsky and Pinker) The Language Game shows how people learn to talk not by acquiring fixed meanings and rules, but by picking up, reusing, and recombining countless linguistic fragments in novel ways.
Drawing on entertaining and persuasive examples from across the world the book explains-
How our short-lived memory copes with the on-rushing deluge of sound that is everyday speech.
Why it is that language is such a challenge for language scientists but learnt effortlessly by toddlers.
Why the languages of the world are so spectacularly varied---and why no two people speak quite the same language.
Why humans have language, but chimps don't.
How language gave us a big brain and changed the course of evolution
How language doesn't limit, but does shape, how we think.
And ultimately, why what we have come to understand about how language works, gives us greater hope for our future.