title: Early human communication helps in understanding language evolution.
abstract: Building a theory on extant species, as Ackermann et al. do, is a useful contribution to the field of language evolution. Here, I add another living model that might be of interest: human language ontogeny in the first year of life. A better knowledge of this phase might help in understanding two more topics among the "several building blocks of a comprehensive theory of the evolution of spoken language" indicated in their conclusion by Ackermann et al., that is, the foundation of the co-evolution of linguistic motor skills with the auditory skills underlying speech perception, and the possible phylogenetic interactions of protospeech production with referential capabilities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Human Sciences,University of Valle d'Aosta,11010 Aosta,Italy.d.lentiboero@univda.ithttp://www.univda.it/lentiboerodaniela.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lenti Boero
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D011323:Primates / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*