Overview

This book addresses one of the most fundamental questions that can be asked about language: how can we explain language universals? There are currently many different views on this question. Some argue for the innateness of general linguistic principles within the human species. Others see a more social foundation to language, with linguistic structure reflecting various communicative functions. Yet others appeal to the psychological demands placed upon language - users in producing and comprehending language in real time. Language is also seen as a reflection of our human perceptual and cognitive apparatus, and there are also more grammar-internal explanations, whereby one part of the grammar is explained by another. This volume brings together all of these different views. The contributors have each been asked to provide some general explanation for which they see evidence, and to provide illustrative universal data supporting it. Expertise from several related disciplines includes linguistic, psycholinguistics and computer science-neural computing and artificial intelligence. The book is divided into five sections: an introductory section on explaining language universals; a section on innateness and learnability; on semantic and pragmatic explanations; on cognitive, perceptual and processing explanations; and on the diachronic dimension in explanation.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Hawkins (University of Southern California)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Wiley-Blackwell
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.652kg
ISBN:  

9780631174561

ISBN 10:   0631174567
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   22 February 1990
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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John A. Hawkins is Professor and Chairman of Department in Linguistics at the University of Southern California.

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