Drawing on the author's breakthrough research, THE SYMBOLIC SPECIES presents an entirely new explanation of our unique language ability. Language evolved in only one species and in only one way - without precedent and without parallel. Terrence Deacon asserts that language evolution did not require the sudden appearance of a specialized language instinct, nor the development of more complex brains. Instead, language reflects a new kind of thinking: symbolic thinking. 'Turns everything we know about language on its head' - Jerome Burne, Sunday Telegraph