Explaining Language Universals (Paperback)

John Hawkins

ISBN 10: 0631174567 / ISBN 13: 9780631174561

Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Hoboken, 1990

About this Item

Paperback. 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. 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 of this question. Some argue for the innateness of general linguistic principles within the human species. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780631174561

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Explaining Language Universals (Paperback)
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Hoboken
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0631174567
• ISBN 13: 9780631174561
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

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 of 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 appleal 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 (such as some aspect of surface form) is explained by another (such as the semantics of that form).

This book is a state-of-the-art vollume which brings together all of these different views. The contributors have each benn asked to offer some general explanation for which they see evidence, and to provide illustrative universal data supporting it.

About the Author

John A. Hawkins is Professor and Chairman of Department in Linguistics at the University of Southern California.