Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, a look at the simple concepts that we use to devise works as complex as love sonnets and tax laws, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Steven Pinker shows us ...(展开全部)

n Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon -- regular and irregular verbs -- and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the histor...(展开全部)

How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Chaucer's English almost incomprehensible? Steven Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonish...(展开全部)

How does language work, and how do we learn to speak? Why do languages change over time, and why do they have so many quirks and irregularities? In this original and totally entertaining book written in the same engaging style that illuminated his bestselling classics, The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Seven Pinker explores the profound mysteries of language. By...(展开全部)

In this provocative work, John McCumber asks us to understand Hegel’s system as a new approach to linguistic communication. Hegel, he argues, is concerned with building community and mutual comprehension rather than with completing metaphysics or developing historical critique. According to McCumber’s radial interpretation, Hegel constructs a complex ideal of how we should use ...(展开全部)

Understanding speech in our native tongue seems natural and effortless; listening to speech in a nonnative language is a different experience. In this book, Anne Cutler argues that listening to speech is a process of native listening because so much of it is exquisitely tailored to the requirements of the native language. Her cross-linguistic study (drawing on experimental work...(展开全部)

Understanding speech in our native tongue seems natural and effortless; listening to speech in a nonnative language is a different experience. In this book, Anne Cutler argues that listening to speech is a process of native listening because so much of it is exquisitely tailored to the requirements of the native language. Her cross-linguistic study (drawing on experimental work...(展开全部)

This skillfully crafted work...combines acute theoretical insight, deep understanding of a wide variety of typologically different languages, and impressive lucidity. It is a wonderful and valuable achievement."--Noam Chomsky. Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implicati...(展开全部)

This skillfully crafted work...combines acute theoretical insight, deep understanding of a wide variety of typologically different languages, and impressive lucidity. It is a wonderful and valuable achievement."--Noam Chomsky. Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implicati...(展开全部)