Patterns In The Mind: Language And Human Nature

by Ray S Jackendoff

Overview

What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can speak and understand a language? Why can't other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human abilities? Recent dramatic discoveries in linguistics and psychology provide intriguing answers to these age-old mysteries. In this fascinating book, Ray Jackendoff emphasizes the grammatical commonalities across languages, both spoken and signed, and discusses the implications for our understanding of language acquisition and loss.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465054626
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	01/04/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1230L (what's this?)

About the Author

Ray Jackendoff, linguist and theoretical psychologist, is professor of linguistics at Brandeis University. He is the author of several books, including Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar, Semantics and Cognition, Consciousness and the Computational Mind, and Semantic Structures.

Editorial Reviews

In the late 1950s, Noam Chomsky revolutionized linguistics by proposing that the infant's ability to learn language cannot be explained by simple learning principles but is dependent upon the existence of complex, innate mental structures. Jackendoff explains the current state of Chomskyan theory by organizing his book around the question ``What do we need in order to be able to talk?'' In order to find an answer, he reviews fascinating material from developmental psychology, neurology, and the cognitive sciences as well as linguistics. He goes beyond the standard linguistics arguments to posit the existence of parallel mental structures governing other processes such as music and vision. The author is that rare creature, an academic who can convey his fascination with his field to the general reader. Highly recommended for all academic libraries, as well as for public libraries serving an educated populace.-- Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wa.

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