The truth about language : That it is and where it came from / Michael C. Corballis.

Background to the problem -- The Rubicon -- Language as
miracle -- Language and natural selection -- The mental
prerequisites -- Thinking without language -- Mind reading
-- Stories -- Constructing language -- Hands on to
language -- Finding voice -- How language is structured --
Over the Rubicon.

"Evolutionary science has long viewed language as,
basically, a fortunate accident—a crossing of wires that
happened to be extraordinarily useful, setting humans
apart from other animals and onto a trajectory that would
see their brains (and the products of those brains) become
increasingly complex. But as Michael C. Corballis
shows in The Truth about Language, it’s time to reconsider
those assumptions. Language, he argues, is not the product
of some “big bang” 60,000 years ago, but rather the
result of a typically slow process of evolution with roots
in elements of grammatical language found much farther
back in our evolutionary history. Language, Corballis
explains, evolved as a way to share thoughts—and,
crucially for human development, to connect our own
“mental time travel,” our imagining of events and people
that are not right in front of us, to that of other
people. We share that ability with other animals, but it
was the development of language that made it powerful: it
led to our ability to imagine other perspectives, to
imagine ourselves in the minds of others, a development
that, by easing social interaction, proved to be an
extraordinary evolutionary advantage. Even as his
thesis challenges such giants as Chomsky and Stephen Jay
Gould, Corballis writes accessibly and wittily, filling
his account with unforgettable anecdotes and fascinating
historical examples. The result is a book that’s perfect
both for deep engagement and as brilliant fodder for that
lightest of all forms of language, cocktail party chatter"
-- Publisher description.