Metaphor, Riddles, and the Origin of Language

This book contributes to the debate surrounding the origin of language by demonstrating that riddles and myths can be examined as evidence of the emergence of conceptual metaphors, a prerequisite for the development of a complete language. Scientific evidence for the origin of speech is abundant, but evidence for the origin of language as separate from speech as a naming system remains speculative. What evidence can be utilized that will furnish relevant insights on the origin or language? This book attempts to provide an answer by suggesting that the first riddles of humanity, along with the first myths, reveal that language may have emerged as a mode of reflection via metaphor—a mode that involves blending speech forms together to produce complex, abstract cognition.