The atoms of language

Bibliographic Information

The atoms of language

Mark C. Baker

Basic Books, c2001

1st ed

  • : pbk

Other Title

The atoms of language : the mind's hidden rules of grammar

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-262) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality- and thus mutual intelligibility- of human thought.We are now on the verge of solving this problem. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough both within linguistics, which will herewith finally become a full-fledged science, and in our understanding of the human mind.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BA59433829
  • ISBN
    • 9780465005222
  • LCCN
    2001035936
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xi, 276 p.
  • Size
    21 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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