The Atoms of Language

Fülszöveg

Science / Linguistics
Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been the 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. In this lively and accessible book, Mark C. Baker shows how researchers have used the theory of one of the world's greatest linguists, Noam Chomsky, to reveal 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 such rules and how they must vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the flinda-mental structure of all human language.
"A milestone in the field of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Science / Linguistics
Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been the 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. In this lively and accessible book, Mark C. Baker shows how researchers have used the theory of one of the world's greatest linguists, Noam Chomsky, to reveal 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 such rules and how they must vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the flinda-mental structure of all human language.
"A milestone in the field of linguistics."—Publishers Weekly
"One of the best introductions to the formal approach to language I have ever —American Scientist
"A welcome introduction to what many linguists are actually engaged in every day."—Books & Culture
MARK C. BAKER is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He lives in Camden, New Jersey. Vissza