Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and related fields. "Few books really deserve the cliche 'this should be read by every researcher in the field,'" writes Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct, "But Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does."

Foundations of Language 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.

Among the major topics treated are language processing, the relation of language to perception, the innateness of language, and the evolution of the language capacity, as well as more standard issues in linguistic theory such as the roles of syntax and the lexicon. In addition, Jackendoff offers a sophisticated theory of semantics that incorporates insights from philosophy of language, logic and formal semantics, lexical semantics of various stripes, cognitive grammar, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches, and the author's own conceptual semantics.

Here then is the most fundamental contribution to linguistic theory in over three decades.

"[A] significant piece of scholarship." Library Journal

"It's a rich mix, but one laid out in refreshingly plain language....Provides challenging ideas and a fruitful combination of observation and analysis." Merrill Garrett, Science

"A sweeping survey of every major aspect of language and communication....He counters the belief that language stems from syntactic structure alone." Science News

"[Jackendoff's] breadth of knowledge and soundness of judgment, along with just the right amount of adventurousness, make for a book that deserves to be read and reread by anyone seriously interested in the state of the art of research on language." American Scientist

"A masterpiece....The book as a whole deserves a wide readership." Nature

This text presents an overview of generative linguistics and its offshoots since 1965, asking what has been right about it and what in retrospect has proven mistaken. It proposes a contemporary reinterpretation of generative linguistics in the light of cognitive neuroscience.

Part I: Psychological and Biological Foundations

1. The Complexity of Linguistic Structure

2. Language as a Mental Phenomenon

3. Combinatoriality

4. Universal Grammar

Part II: Architectural Foundations

5. The Parallel Architecture

6. Lexical Storage Versus Online Construction

7. Implications for Processing

8. An Evolutionary Perspective on the Architecture

Part III: Semantic and Conceptual Foundations

9. Semantics as a Mentalistic Enterprise

10. Reference and Truth

11. Lexical Semantics

12. Phrasal Semantics

Concluding Remarks