Synopses & Reviews
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 cliché '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.
Review
"A sweeping survey of every major aspect of language and communication ... He counters the belief that language stems from syntactic structure alone."--
Science News"Few books really deserve the cliche 'this should be read by every researcher in the field,' but Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does. I think it is the most important book in the sciences of language to have appeared in many years. Jackendoff has long had a genius for seeing both he forest and the trees, and he puts his gift to good use here in a dazzling combination of theory-building and factual integration. The result is a compelling new view of language and its place in the natural world."--Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, MIT, and author of The Language Instinct and Words and Rules
"A masterpiece.... The book as a whole deserves a wide readership."--Nature
"Jackendoff is certainly right in thinking that the question of why language has come to be as it is is one that linguists cannot permanently ignore... His 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
"Jackendoff drastically overhauls linguistic theory...providing for a natural (re-)integration with psycholinguistics and the other sister sciences. Foundations of Language is a monumental scholarly achievement, which should be obligatory reading for any psycholinguist."--William J.M. Levelt, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
"Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language is a masterpiece. If Ray didn't have decades of research time ahead of him, I would call it the culmination of his life's work. The book deserves to be the reference point for all future theorizing about the language faculty and its interconnections."--Frederick J. Newmeyer, Professor and Vice-President/President Elect Linguistic Society of America; Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle
"Ray Jackendoff, one of the most influential researchers in cognitive science today, offers a clear and engaging analysis of many of the raging controversies in the language sciences. The book offers a point of entry into these issues for neuroscientists, psycholinguists, and philosophers of language as well as linguists from various generative and cognative backgrounds. You may not agree with everything he says, but you are bound to appreciate the clarity, precision, depth of analysis, breadth of knowledge and impressive range of data he brings to the debate."--Adele Goldberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Review
"Nicholas John Cull has made a major study of Britain's potent efforts to get a reluctant United States to fight."--International Herald Tribune
"...this is a sensible, thoughtful, and--in revealing the foibles of many key actors--an often amusing book."--Kirkus Reviews
"Cull writes with wit and zest about the efforts of Britons to help Roosevelt to bring the USA into the war....Based on careful research in many archives, this book provides a definitive account of important factors bearing on a decisive moment in world history."--Angus Calder, author of The
People's War and The Myth of the Blitz
Review
"The intellectual journey of one of the most original and creative thinkers in modern linguistics."--John R. Taylor, Studies in Language
"It's a rich mix, but one laid out in refreshingly plain language.... Provides challenging ideas and a fruitful combination of observation and analysis.... My advice is to read the book for the exceptional effort at synthesis that it is."--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 is certainly right in thinking that the question of why language has come to be as it is is one that linguists cannot permanently ignore... His 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
"Few books really deserve the cliche 'this should be read by every researcher in the field,' but Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does. I think it is the most important book in the sciences of language to have appeared in many years. Jackendoff has long had a genius for seeing both he forest and the trees, and he puts his gift to good use here in a dazzling combination of theory-building and factual integration. The result is a compelling new view of language and its place in the natural world."--Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, MIT, and author of The Language Instinct and Words and Rules
"A masterpiece.... The book as a whole deserves a wide readership."--Nature
About the Author
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.
Table of Contents
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