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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the Worldby Charles Yang
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:A child's very first word is a miraculous sound, the opening note in a lifelong symphony. Most parents never forget the moment. But that first word is soon followed by a second and a third, and by the age of three, children are typically learning ten new words every day and speaking in complete sentences. The process seems effortless, and for children, it is. But how exactly does it happen? How do children learn language? And why is it so much harder to do later in life? Drawing on cutting-edge developments in biology, neurology, psychology, and linguistics, Charles Yang's The Infinite Gift takes us inside the astonishingly complex but largely subconscious process by which children learn to talk and to understand the spoken word. Yang illuminates the rich mysteries of language: why French newborns already prefer the sound of French to English; why baby-talk, though often unintelligible, makes perfect linguistic sense; why babies born deaf still babble — but with their hands; why the grammars of some languages may be evolutionarily stronger than others; and why one of the brain's earliest achievements may in fact be its most complex. Yang also puts forth an exciting new theory. Building on Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar — the idea that every human being is born with an intuitive grasp of grammar — Yang argues that we learn our native languages in part by unlearning the grammars of all the rest. This means that the next time you hear a child make a grammatical mistake, it may not be a mistake at all; his or her grammar may be perfectly correct in Chinese or Navajo or ancient Greek. This is the brain's way of testing its options as it searches for the local and thus correct grammar — and then discards all the wrong ones. And we humans, Yang shows, are not the only creatures who learn this way. In fact, learning by unlearning may be an ancient evolutionary mechanism that runs throughout the animal kingdom. Thus, babies learn to talk in much the same way that birds learn to sing. Enlivened by Yang's experiences with his own young son, The Infinite Gift is as charming as it is challenging, as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. An absorbing read for parents, educators, and anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of that uniquely human gift: our ability to speak and, just as miraculous, to understand one another. Review:"Charles Yang conducts the reader skillfully on a highly instructive and quite delightful guided tour from the feats of infants that charm every parent and pose extremely difficult scientific problems, through the course of language development and on to the roots of language variation. At every stage, the exposition is based on easy familiarity with the current state of understanding in disciplines ranging from biology to linguistics, and at the same time lucid and engaging. It's an impressive achievement, which should prove most valuable to anyone fascinated by these core elements of human nature and capacities." — Noam Chomsky Synopsis:The ability to speak and respond in kind is one of the most spectacular of human achievements, and yet people learn how to talk effortlessly before they can tie their shoes. A preeminent researcher in language acquisition explains why. Table of ContentsContents Chapter 1: The Greatest Intellectual Feat Chapter 2: Mission Improbable Chapter 3: Silent Rehearsals Chapter 4: Wuckoo Chapter 5: Word Factory Chapter 6: Colorless Green Ideas Chapter 7: Twenty Questions Chapter 8: The Superiority of the German Language Epilogue: The Infinite Gift Notes Glossary Bibliography Acknowledgments Index What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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