Foundations of Language by Jackendoff, Ray;

Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution

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Product details:

Publisher OUP Oxford
Date of Publication 24 January 2002

ISBN 9780198270126
Binding Hardback
No. of pages498 pages
Size 251x180x31 mm
Weight 995 g
Language English
Illustrations numerous figures

Short description:

A landmark in linguistics and cognitive science. Ray Jackendoff proposes a new holistic theory of the relation between the sounds, structure, and meaning of language and their relation to mind and brain. Foundations of Language exhibits the most fundamental new thinking in linguistics since Noam Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax in 1965 -- yet is readable, stylish, and accessible to a wide readership. Along the way it provides new insights on the evolution of language, thought, and communication.

Long description:

Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and related fields. "Few books really deserve the cliché 'this should be read by every researcher in the field'," writes Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct, "but Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does." Foundations of Language offers a radically new understanding of how language, the brain, and perception intermesh. The book renews the promise of early generative linguistics: that language can be a valuable entrée into understanding the human mind and brain. The approach is remarkably interdisciplinary. Behind its innovations is Jackendoff's fundamental proposal that the creativity of language derives from multiple parallel generative systems linked by interface components. This shift in basic architecture makes possible a radical reconception of mental grammar and how it is learned. As a consequence, Jackendoff is able to reintegrate linguistics with philosophy of mind, cognitive and developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and computational linguistics. Among the major topics treated are language processing, the relation of language to perception, the innateness of language, and the evolution of the language capacity, as well as more standard issues in linguistic theory such as the roles of syntax and the lexicon. In addition, Jackendoff offers a sophisticated theory of semantics that incorporates insights from philosophy of language, logic and formal semantics, lexical semantics of various stripes, cognitive grammar, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches, and the author's own conceptual semantics.

Jackendoff engages in a moderate and reasonable way with some of the critics of Chomsky's many controversial claims ... well written and provides a valuable and interesting account of the Chomskian approach to linguistics and how Jackendoff thinks this school of thought should reform itself in order to respond better to some of the intellectual challenges that it currently faces.

Part I: Psychological and Biological Foundations
The Complexity of Linguistic Structure
Language as a Mental Phenomenon
Combinatoriality
Universal Grammar
Part II: Architectural Foundations
The Parallel Architecture
Lexical Storage Versus Online Construction
Implications for Processing
An Evolutionary Perspective on the Architecture
Part III: Semantic and Conceptual Foundations
Semantics as a Mentalistic Enterprise
Reference and Truth
Lexical Semantics
Phrasal Semantics
Concluding Remarks