Explores questions such as: what does it mean to say that linguistics is part of the cognitive sciences; how do the core properties of language compare with the core properties of other human cognitive abilities such as vision, music, mathematics, and other mental building blocks; a
Trade Review
"Amongst the book's strengths, particularly commendable are the connections made to other cognitive domains and the biological sciences." (The Linguist, July 2010)
"Although each subsection is brief, the author includes chapter-by-chapter notes of cited material at the end of the text. The motivated reader will have no trouble tracking down the primary sources that the author discusses." (PsycCRITIQUES, March 2010)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Prologue
Part I: Ever Since Chomsky
Chapter 1: Mind matters: Chomsky’s dangerous idea
Chapter 2: The mechanization of the mind picture
Chapter 3: How the mind grows: From Meno to Noam
Part II: Unweaving the sentence
Chapter 4: Mental chemistry
Chapter 5: The variety of linguistic experience: The towers of Babel and Pisa
Chapter 6: All the roads lead to Universal Grammar
Part III: The mental foundations of behavior
Chapter 7: Making sense of meaning: An instruction manual
Chapter 8: Wonderful mental life: Unthinkable in the absence of Language
Chapter 9: Grammar caught in the act
Part IV: Missing links
Chapter 10: The (mis)measure of mind
Chapter 11: Homo combinans
Chapter 12: Computational organology
Epilogue
Notes
Study guide
References
Index
