Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-262) and index.

introduction -- The faculty of language : -- what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? / Marc D. hauser, Noam Chomsky and W. Tecumseh Fitch -- Language architecture. -- Some simple evo devo theses : -- how true might they be for language? / Noam Chomsky ; -- Your theory of language evolution depends on your theory of language / Ray Jackendoff ; -- Three meaning of "recursion" : -- key distinctions for biolinguistics / W. Tecumseh Fitch ; -- On obfuscation, obscurantism, and opacity : -- evolving conceptions of the faculty of language / Marc D. Hauser -- Language and interface systems. -- Prospection as a cognitive precursor to symbolic communication / Peter G?rdenfors and Mathias Osvath ; -- Did language evolve before speech? / Michael C. Corballis ; -- A pragmatic perspective on the evolution of language / Dan Sperber and Gloria Origgi -- Biological and neurological foundations. -- Plasticity and canalization in the evolution of linguistic communication : -- an evolutionary developmental approach / Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka ; -- What is language, that it may have evolved, and what is evolution, that it may apply to language / Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini ; -- The creative capacity of language, in what manner is it unique, and who had it? / Philip Lieberman ; -- Genetics and the evolution of language : -- what genetic studies reveal about the evolution of language / Karin Stromswold -- Anthropological context. -- A putative role for language in the origin of human consciousness / Ian Tattersall ; -- On two incompatible theories of language evolution / Derek Bickerton ; -- On the evolution of language : -- implications of a new and general theory of human origins, properties, and history / Paul M. Bingham.