1. Introduction: opening up options Peter Carruthers and Jill Boucher; Part I: Language, development and evolution; 2. Thought before language: the expression of motion events prior to the impact of a conventional language model Susan Goldin-Meadow and Ming-Yu Zheng; 3. The prerequisites for language acquisition: evidence from cases of anomalous language development Jill Boucher; 4. Some thoughts about the evolution of lads, with special reference to Tom and Sam Juan-Carlos Gómez; 5. Thinking in language? Evolution and a modularist possibility Peter Carruthers; Part II: Language, reasoning and concepts; Introduction Peter Carruthers and Jill Boucher; 6. Aphasic language, aphasic thought: an investigation of propositional thinking in an a-propositional aphasic Rosemary Varley; 7. Representing representations Gabriel Segal; 8. Magic words: how language augments human computation Andy Clark; 9. The mapping between the mental and the public lexicon Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson; 10. Convention-based semantics and the development of language Stephen Laurence; Part III: Language and conscious reasoning; Introduction Peter Carruthers and Jill Boucher; 11. Language, thought, and the language of thought: Aunty's own argument revisited Martin Davies; 12. Natural language and virtual belief Keith Frankish; 13. The meta-intentional nature of executive functions and theory of mind Josef Perner; 14. Reflections on language and mind Daniel Dennett.