Feeling Thinking and Talking

The way the brain body and mind interact with social structure to shape communication has so far not received the attention it deserves. This book addresses this gap by providing a novel account of communication as a social biological and neurological force. Combining theories from communication studies and psycholinguistics and drawing on biological and evolutionary perspectives it shows how communication is inherently both biological and social and that language and the neural systems that support it have evolved in response to a complex social environment. It introduces a clear set of terms based on current research and illustrates key concepts using real-life examples from everyday conversation - speaking to a number of current debates around the evolutionary and biological basis of language and the relationship between language cognition and environment. Thought provoking and engaging it will change the way we think about the relationship between communication and cognition.