This book presents a unique range of interdisciplinary work on questions of language development and evolution. It makes visible the significant contribution which meaning-oriented linguistics is making to debates about the origins of language - from the perspective of language evolution in the species as well as language development in the child. As well as linguistics in the systemic functional, or Hallidayan, tradition, the book offers contributions from primatology, psychiatry, sociology and education. This book's major themes are highly integrated across the various contributions, reflecting faithfully the rich complexity of such a holistic model of language as SFL. The methods of study (naturalistic and contextualized), the major concepts - system and semiosis, function as metafunction, dimensionalism, and the role of context in relation to meaning and the individual - and the applications of these notions to domains like education, primate studies and psychology, are all woven together into a satisfying and challenging whole. The book is stimulating without being over reliant on arcane terminology, and it also keeps open the possibilities for further development and modification of this approach to language.' ~ W. N. Winser, Research Fellow, University of Adelaide, Australia