The Seeds of Speech

Copyright Jean Aitchison 1996; first published 1996, REPRINTED 1998 — this copy; ISBN 0 521 46793 4 paperback; LC 95-47738. Illustrations by Priscilla Barrett. The title comes from the epigraph, Macbeth: “If you can look into the seeds of time, / And say which grain will grow and which will not…”, set beside Stephen Gosson’s “But Tall Cedars from little graynes shoote high”. Aitchison’s fourth title here, and the one that sits directly beside Lieberman, Calvin and Bickerton on the origins question.