Description
Book SynopsisWe understand our thoughts and ourselves through language, but what is the nature of language?
Trade ReviewCombining wide learning, sharp insight, and deft style, these enlightening and intriguing vignettes carry us through the ages to reach considerable understanding of the distinctive linguistic capacity that sets humans apart from the rest of the natural world. -- Noam Chomsky, author of What Kind of Creatures Are We? There is much to find appealing in this pocket-size, readable historical panorama of important thinkers who have pondered the nature of language from the ancient Greeks to the present day. Nobody has drawn out the historical links in the story of language science in this way, and most nonspecialists would learn much from Moro's quite original observations. -- Robert C. Berwick, Massachusetts Institute of Technology I Speak, Therefore I Am explores the intriguing connections between linguistics on the one hand and the sciences and philosophy on the other. The book is abundant with entertaining anecdotes of intellectual history that shed light on these connections. Moro plays the role of wise guide, and leads the reader through a remarkable journey. -- Robert Frank, Yale University The author manages the considerable feat of making insightful remarks about a wide variety of figures in a very short space. Library Journal
Table of ContentsPreface: Choice, Then Order, Then Chance, Finally Only Light 1. God 2. Plato 3. Aristotle 4. Marcus Terentius Varro 5. Roger Bacon 6. Descartes 7. Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot 8. Sir William Jones 9. Hermann Osthoff and E. Karl Brugmann 10. Ferdinand de Saussure 11. Bertrand Russell 12. Martin Joos 13. Roman Jakobson 14. Joseph Greenberg 15. Eric H. Lenneberg 16. Niels Jerne 17. Noam Chomsky Finale Postscript Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography
