How the Physical Environment Shaped Language
摘要
This chapter looks at the various environmental conditions that led to language. It is concerned with the geological timescale and investigates the changes in the physical environment that led to anatomical, physiological and neural adaptations in Homo. These, in turn, led to an immense increase in cognitive capacities that favoured the development of language. The chapter starts with tectonics and climate and leads on to the effects of these on the body, vocal tract and brains of early humans.