Vico, Metaphor and the Origin of Language Author: Marcel Danesi Year: 1993 Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press Pages: 191 The book is written by Marcel Danesi (b. 1946), a professor of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto. This is one of his first major publications where he attempts to re-view the idea of origin of language with reference to Giambattista Vico's New Science . The book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter one discusses various theories of the origin of language. Those theories are also categorized in Echoic theories, Gestural theories, and Pragmo-Communicative theories. After that author discusses the scientific evidences in the study of the origin of language, such as Swadesh’s analysis of high and non-high vowels associated with some specific meaning. Historical-comparative studies and reconstruction are also discussed. Genetic perspective is also put forward. Second chapter talks about the idea of primitive m...