27.1016, Books: Why Only Us: Berwick, Chomsky

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1016. Fri Feb 26 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1016, Books: Why Only Us: Berwick, Chomsky

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Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 14:18:22
From: David Weininger [dgw at mit.edu]
Subject: Why Only Us: Berwick, Chomsky

 


Title: Why Only Us 
Publication Year: 2016 
Publisher: MIT Press
	   http://mitpress.mit.edu/
	

Book URL: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/why-only-us 


Author: Robert C. Berwick
Author: Noam Chomsky

Electronic: ISBN:  9780262333344 Pages: 224 Price: U.S. $ 16.95
Hardback: ISBN:  9780262034241 Pages: 224 Price: U.S. $ 22.95


Abstract:

We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language.
Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few
years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable,
species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language
faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how
it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist
and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language. 

Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary
question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of
how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since
the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key
ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of
human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals.

Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which
views language as a particular object of the biological world; the
computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding;
the tension between Darwin’s idea of gradual change and our contemporary
understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from
nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     General Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Philosophy of Language


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=98373

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