Book Proposal: In Search of the Roots of Human Language

In Search of the Roots of Human Language: 

The Autobiography of Christopher Thad Collins

Synopsis/Back Cover:

Follow the life journey of a mild-mannered professor from modest beginnings, deep into the heart of Africa in search of the meaning of life and the secrets of human language.

After an unhappy childhood marked by the painful divorce of his parents, the author made his way to MIT to study mathematics as an undergraduate. Then in a life altering decision, he signed up for the Peace Corps to teach in Togo, West Africa for two years. The author shows how these intense experiences coalesced into a desire to understand human language, which landed him back at MIT again, this time for graduate study under the founder of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky, and the towering linguistic genius of Ken Hale. 

Chronicling his expeditions into Africa, the author presents his discoveries about the roots of human language, including the origin of the human capacity for language, the relationship between language and thought and the very definition of what it means to be human. From the vast hidden world of English language syntax, to the staggering complexity of the click languages of southern Africa, this book takes the reader on a journey which will challenge their preconceptions about human language, getting them to think about it in an entirely new light. 

In trying to understand how the pieces of his life fit together, and why he followed the path that he did, the author comments on a range of contemporary social issues. The book is written in an informal non-technical style to make it accessible to the widest possible audience.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Early Years

2. MIT Mathematics

3. Peace Corps Togo

4. MIT Linguistics

5. I am a Syntactician

6. African Expeditions

7. The Roots of Human Language

8. Epilogue

References

For Publisher:

This book should attract college educated readers curious about the human mind and the human capacity for language. At the same time, it should appeal to readers of the genres of biography, autobiography and memoir. Related books include: Steven Pinker’s ‘The Language Instinct’ (Harper Perennial Modern Classics), Mark Baker’s ‘Atoms of Language’ (Basic Books) and Daniel Dennett’s ‘I’ve Been Thinking’ (W.W. Norton & Company).