LINGUIST List 12.3170

Sat Dec 22 2001

Books: Psycholinguistics

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. HENDERSON, Philip, Foundations of Language by Ray JAckendoff

Foundations of Language
Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution

Author: Ray Jackendoff, Professor of Linguistics at Brandeis University.

Foundations of Language offers a radical overhaul of the last thirty-five
years of research in generative linguistics, and a profound new
understanding of how language, the brain, and perception intermesh. It
renews the promise of early generative linguistics: that language can be a
valuable entr�e into understanding the human mind and brain. 

The approach is remarkably interdisciplinary. Behind its innovations is
Jackendoff's fundamental proposal that the creativity of language derives
from multiple parallel generative systems linked by interface components.
This shift in basic architecture makes possible a radical reconception of
mental grammar and how it is learned. As a consequence, Jackendoff is able
to reintegrate linguistics with philosophy of mind, cognitive and
developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and
computational linguistics. 

Among the major topics treated are language processing, the relation of
language to perception, the innateness of language, and the evolution of the
language capacity, as well as more standard issues in linguistic theory such
as the roles of syntax and the lexicon. In addition, Jackendoff offers a
sophisticated theory of semantics that incorporates insights from philosophy
of language, logic and formal semantics, lexical semantics of various
stripes, cognitive grammar, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches,
and the author's own conceptual semantics. 

Hardback, ISBN 0-19-827012-7
UK Publication date: 24 January 2002
http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-827012-7



Philip Henderson
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