16.1915, Books: Lang Acquisition/Ling Theories: Sampson

Wed Jun 22 13:50:22 UTC 2005

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1915. Wed Jun 22 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1915, Books: Lang Acquisition/Ling Theories: Sampson

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1)
Date: 21-Jun-2005
From: Jennifer Lovel < jlovel at continuumbooks.com >
Subject: The 'Language Instinct' Debate: Sampson 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 09:48:45
From: Jennifer Lovel < jlovel at continuumbooks.com >
Subject: The 'Language Instinct' Debate: Sampson 

Title: The 'Language Instinct' Debate 
Subtitle: Revised Edition 
Publication Year: 2005 
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
	   http://www.continuumbooks.com

Author: Geoffrey Richard Sampson, University of Sussex

Hardback: ISBN: 0826473849 Pages: 240 Price: U.K. £ 65
Paperback: ISBN: 0826473857 Pages: 240 Price: U.K. £ 19.99

Abstract:

'The definitive response to Pinker's book and Chomskyan nativism in general.'
Donald Carroll, The Languse List

'As an empiricist counterblast [to Pinker's The Language Instinct], written
at a popular, non-technical level, the book is an impressive tour de force.'
James R. Hurford, University of Edinburgh, Journal of Linguistics

'... a most interesting and instructive book which I recommend to all
linguists, whatever their persuasion.'
Ernst Pulgram, University of Michigan, Language

When it was first published in 1997, Geoffrey Sampson's Educating Eve was
described as the definitive response to Steven Pinker's The Language
Instinct and Noam Chomsky's nativism. In this revised and expanded new
edition, Sampson revisits his original arguments in the light of fresh
evidence that has emerged since the original publication. 

Since Chomsky revolutionized the study of language in the 1960s, it has
increasingly come to be accepted that language and other knowledge
structures are hard-wired in our genes. According to that view, human
beings are born with a rich structure of cognition already in place. But
people do not realize how thin the evidence for that idea is.

The 'Language Instinct' Debate examines the various arguments for
instinctive knowledge, and finds that each one rests on false premisses or
embodies logical fallacies. The structures of language are shown to be
purely cultural creations. 

With a new chapter entitled 'How People Really Speak'  which uses corpus
data to analyse how language is used in spontaneous English conversation,
responses to critics, extensive revisions throughout, and a new foreword by
Paul M. Postal of New York University, this new edition will be an
essential purchase for students, academics, and general readers interested
in the debate about the 'language instinct'. 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Linguistic Theories

Written In: English  (ENG)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=15339

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

	Cambridge University Press          
		http://us.cambridge.org	

	Cascadilla Press          
		http://www.cascadilla.com/	

	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd          
		http://www.continuumbooks.com	

	Edinburgh University Press          
		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/	

	Elsevier Ltd.          
		http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics	

	Equinox Publishing Ltd.          
		http://www.equinoxpub.com/	

	Georgetown University Press          
		http://www.press.georgetown.edu	

	Hodder Arnold          
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	John Benjamins          
		http://www.benjamins.com/	

	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates          
		http://www.erlbaum.com/	

	Lincom GmbH          
		www.lincom.at	

	MIT Press          
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

	Mouton de Gruyter          
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com	

	Oxford University Press          
		http://www.oup.com/us	

	Rodopi          
		http://www.rodopi.nl/	

	Routledge (Taylor and Francis)          
		http://www.routledge.com/	

	Springer-Verlag          
		http://www.springeronline.com	

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc., Umass
		http://glsa.hypermart.net/ 

	International Pragmatics Assoc.
		http://ipra-www.uia.ac.be/ipra/ 

	Kingston Press Ltd
		http://www.kingstonpress.com/ 

	MIT Working Papers in Linguistics
		http://web.mit.edu/mitwpl/ 

	Multilingual Matters
		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/ 

	Pacific Linguistics
		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/ 

	Palgrave Macmillan
		http://www.palgrave.com 

	SIL International
		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp 

	St. Jerome Publishing Ltd.
		http://www.stjerome.co.uk 

	Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ 

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