LANGUAGE: THE CULTURAL TOOL

Like other tools, language was invented, can be reinvented or lost, and shows significant variation across cultures. It's as essential to survival as fire - and, like fire, is found in all human societies. This book presents the bold and controversial idea that language is not an innate component of the brain, as has been famously argued by Chomsky and Pinker. Fusing adventure, anthropology, linguistics and psychology, Everett argues that language is embedded within - and is inseparable from - its specific culture.