The Language Organ

Challenging and original, The Language Organ treats human language as the manifestation of a faculty of the mind, a mental organ whose nature is determined by human biology and whose functional properties should be explored just as physiology explores the functional properties of physical organs. It surveys the nature of the language faculty in its various aspects: the systems of sounds, words, and syntax, the development of language in the child and historically, and what is known about its relation to the brain. It discusses the kinds of work that can be carried out in these areas that will contribute to an understanding of the human language organ. This book will appeal to students and researchers in linguistics, and is written to be accessible to colleagues in other disciplines dealing with language as well as to readers with an interest in general science and the nature of the human mind.

ISBN 0521007836   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780521007832 (What's this?)   Pages 284 Publisher Cambridge University Press   Volumes 1 Imprint Cambridge University Press   Weight (grammes) 462 Format Paperback   Published in Cambridge Publication date 19 Sep 2002   Height (mm) 228 Non-book description xix, 263 p. :   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2002073773   Spine width (mm) 20 DEWEY 410   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

		Preface
1		Studying the human language faculty		1
2		Language as a mental organ		18
3		Syntax		41
4		Sound patterns in language		67
5		Describing linguistic knowledge		92
6		Phonetics and the I-linguistics of speech		111
7		Morphology		131
8		Language change		157
9		"Growing" a language		186
10		The organic basis of language		216
		References		244
		Index		257

'A superb overview of the logic of language and its basis in the human mind.' Steven Pinker, MIT and author of The Language Instinct and Words and Rules

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