Foundations of Language Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution

F"oundations of Language is a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of I research in generative Linguistics and related fields. It 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 entree 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. In addition, Jackendoff offers a sophisticated theory of semantics. Among the major topics treated are language processing, the relation of language to perception, and the evolution of the Language capacity. "Foundations of Language is the most fundamental contribution to Linguistic theory in over three decades.

Ray Jackendoff is Professor of Linguistics at Brandeis University. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, president elect of the Linguistic Society of America, and past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, he is the author of Semantics and Cognition, Consciousness and the Computational Mind, and The Architecture of the Language Faculty.