The Language Organ: Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology

by Stephen R. Anderson, David W. Lightfoot

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521809948
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/19/2002
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1480L (what's this?)

About the Author

Stephen R. Anderson is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Yale University. He is the author of The Organization of Phonology (1974), Phonology in the Twentieth Century (1985), and A-Morphous Morphology (Cambridge, 1992).

David W. Lightfoot is Dean of the Graduate School, Georgetown University. He is the author of eight books, including The Development of Language (1999).

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"A superb overview of the logic of language and its basis in the human mind." —Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, MITand author of The Language Instinct and Words and Rules

From the Publisher