Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-333) and index.
Contents
The infinite library -- Dissection by linguistics -- Broken telephone -- In single combat -- Word nerds -- Of mice and men -- Kids say the darnedest things -- The horrors of the German language -- The black box -- A digital mind in an analog world.
Summary
"In Words and Rules, Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. The phenomenon - regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the theories of Noam Chomsky and his critics; the attempts to simulate language using computer simulations of neural networks; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the nature of human concepts; the peculiarities of the English language; major ideas in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain."--Jacket.
