Language in Cognition - Uncovering MentalStructures and the Rules Behind Them

ISBN-13: 9781405158824 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 264 str.

Cedric Boeckx

Opis

This textbook explores the ways in which language informs the structure and function of the human mind, offering a point of entry into the fascinating territory of cognitive science. Focusing mainly on syntactic issues, Language in Cognition is a unique contribution to this burgeoning field of study.

• Guides undergraduate students through the core questions of linguistics and cognitive science, and provides tools that will help them think about the field in a structured way
• Uses the study of language and how language informs the structure and function of the human mind to introduce the major ideas in modern cognitive science, including its history and controversies
• Explores questions such as: what does it mean to say that linguistics is part of the cognitive sciences; how do the core properties of language compare with the core properties of other human cognitive abilities such as vision, music, mathematics, and other mental building blocks; and what is the relationship between language and thought?
• Includes an indispensable study guide as well as extensive references to encourage further independent study

Recenzje

"Amongst the book′s strengths, particularly commendable are the connections made to other cognitive domains and the biological sciences." ( The Linguist, July 2010)

"Although each subsection is brief, the author includes chapter–by–chapter notes of cited material at the end of the text. The motivated reader will have no trouble tracking down the primary sources that the author discusses." ( PsycCRITIQUES, March 2010)

Spis treści

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Part I: Ever Since Chomsky

Chapter 1: Mind matters: Chomsky s dangerous idea

Chapter 2: The mechanization of the mind picture

Chapter 3: How the mind grows: From Meno to Noam

Part II: Unweaving the sentence

Chapter 4: Mental chemistry

Chapter 5: The variety of linguistic experience: The towers of Babel and Pisa

Chapter 6: All the roads lead to Universal Grammar

Part III: The mental foundations of behavior

Chapter 7: Making sense of meaning: An instruction manual

Chapter 8: Wonderful mental life: Unthinkable in the absence of Language

Chapter 9: Grammar caught in the act

Part IV: Missing links

Chapter 10: The (mis)measure of mind

Chapter 11: Homo combinans

Chapter 12: Computational organology

Epilogue

Notes

Study guide

References

Index

O autorze

Cedric Boeckx is Research Professor at the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies (ICREA), and a member of the Center for Theoretical Linguistics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Most recently he was Associate Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University. He is the author of Islands and Chains (2003), Linguistic Minimalism (2006), Understanding Minimalist Syntax (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007), and Bare Syntax (2008); and the founding co–editor, with Kleanthes K. Grohmann, of the Open Access journal Biolinguistics.

Blurb

The study of human language as a biological object is in many respects a perfect instrument for understanding cognitive science. As linguistics becomes increasingly integrated in the cognitive sciences, we need answers to such questions as: how do the core properties of language compare with the core properties of other human cognitive abilities such as vision, music, mathematics, and other mental building blocks; and what is the relationship between language and thought? Language in Cognition guides undergraduate students through these key questions.

By focusing on the study of language and how language informs the structure and function of the human mind, this much–needed textbook offers a point of entry into the fascinating territory of cognitive science, including its history and controversies. It contains a comprehensive study guide as well as extensive references to encourage further independent study and to structure learning. Focusing mainly on syntactic issues, Language in Cognition is a unique contribution to this burgeoning field of study.