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Vyvyan Evans.
The Language Myth: why language is not an instinct.
CUP. 2014

Language is central to our lives, the cultural tool that arguably sets us apart from other species. Some scientists have argued that language is innate, a type of unique human ‘instinct’ pre-programmed in us from birth. In this book, Vyvyan Evans argues that this received wisdom is, in fact, a myth.

Debunking the notion of a language ‘instinct’, Evans demonstrates that language is related to other animal forms of communication; that languages exhibit staggering diversity; that we learn our mother tongue drawing on general properties and abilities of the human mind, rather than an inborn ‘universal’ grammar; that language is not autonomous but is closely related to other aspects of our mental lives; and that, ultimately, language and the mind reflect and draw upon the way we interact with others in the world.

Compellingly written and drawing on cutting-edge research, The Language Myth sets out a forceful alternative to the received wisdom, showing how language and the mind really work.

Vyvyan Evans.
The Crucible of Language: how language and mind create meaning.
CUP. 2015

From the barbed, childish taunt on the school playground, to the eloquent sophistry of a lawyer prising open a legal loophole in a court of law, meaning arises each time we use language to communicate with one another. How we use language – to convey ideas, make requests, ask a favour, express anger, love, dismay – is of the utmost importance; indeed, linguistic meaning can be a matter of life and death. And yet, until relatively recently, the communicative value of language was all but relegated to the margins of scientific enquiry.

In The Crucible of Language, Vyvyan Evans explains what we know, and what we do, when we communicate using language; he shows how linguistic meaning arises, where it comes from, and the way language enables us to convey the meanings that can move us to tears, bore us to death or make us dizzy with delight. Meaning is, he argues, one of the final frontiers in the mapping of the human mind.