The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology

ISBN-13: 9780521809948 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 284 str.

Stephen R. Anderson; David Lightfoot

Opis

This study treats human language as the manifestation of a faculty of the mind, which is seen as a mental organ whose nature is determined by human biology and whose functional properties should be explored as physiology explores the functional properties of physical organs. The book surveys the nature of the language faculty in its various aspects: the systems of sounds, words, and syntax, the development of language in the child and historically, what is known about its relation to the brain.

Recenzje

'A superb overview of the logic of language and its basis in the human mind.' Steven Pinker, MIT and author of The Language Instinct and Words and Rules

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Studying the human language faculty; 2. Language as a mental organ; 3. Syntax; 4. Sound patterns to language; 5. Describing linguistic knowledge; 6. Phonetics and the I-linguistics of speech; 7. Morphology; 8. Language change; 9. 'Growing' a language; 10. The organic basis of language.