Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: 1 online resource (xiv, 461 pages) : , digital, PDF file(s).

Edition: Third edition.

ISBN: 1-316-43013-8 , 1-316-43510-5 , 1-139-97963-9

Content: Noam Chomsky continues to be one of the most influential intellectual figures of modern times. His wide-ranging contributions to the fields of linguistics, psychology, philosophy and politics have revolutionised our view of language, the mind and human nature. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, this book explores Chomsky's key theories, especially recent developments in his Minimalist Program, addressing issues such as: how do we know a language? How do children acquire this knowledge? How did language evolve? This third edition has been expanded and thoroughly updated and includes an exploration of Chomsky's contributions to philosophy and psychology, outlining the impact of his radical and often controversial views. It concludes with an account of his political activism and his critique of recent developments such as the Arab Spring, Wikileaks and the Occupy movement. There is also a new section covering his views on climate change and nuclear disarmament.

Note: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Jan 2016). , Cover -- Half-title page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface to the third edition -- Preface to the second edition -- Preface to the first edition -- Introduction -- Chomsky's achievement -- Inspiration and influence -- 1 The mirror of the mind -- Linguistics as a science -- The nature of idealization -- Common sense -- Modularity -- Double dissociation -- Modules and quasi-modules -- Intelligence and "learning" -- Competence and performance -- Competence and grammar -- Rules -- I-language and E-language -- Performance, parsing, and pragmatics -- Parsing considerations -- Pragmatic considerations -- Competence and performance versus I-language and E-language -- Evolution and innateness -- Language acquisition -- Poverty of the stimulus -- Word meaning -- Universals -- Natural language and the language of thought -- Summary -- 2 The linguistic foundation -- Introduction -- What has been achieved? -- Knowledge of language -- The lexicon -- Knowledge of structure -- Knowledge of structural relations -- Descriptive adequacy -- The formal background -- Levels of representation -- Constituents and rules -- Deep structure -- Description versus explanation -- Towards explanatory adequacy -- From rules to principles -- The elimination of PS rules -- X-bar theory -- Government and Binding theory -- The status of transformations -- Principles and parameters -- Lexical and functional categories -- Beyond explanatory adequacy -- Minimalism -- Spartan linguistics: The elements of Minimalism -- Economy -- (Virtual) conceptual necessity -- Third factor considerations -- Implementation -- Perfect syntax -- Taking stock: the historical progression -- Evolution -- 3 Language and psychology -- Causality and explanation -- Theories and data -- Behaviorism -- Psychological reality and the nature of evidence -- Intuitions. , Language processing -- The derivational theory of complexity -- Grammars and parsers -- Parsing problems -- Economy -- Language acquisition (Plato's problem) -- Teaching versus learning without being taught -- Learning versus growing -- Parameter setting -- The critical period hypothesis -- Maturation -- Language pathology -- Agenesis of the corpus callosum -- The polyglot savant -- Specific Language Impairment (SLI) -- The behaviorists strike back -- Connectionism -- Constructivism and statistical learning -- Emergentism -- Conclusions -- 4 Philosophical realism: commitments and controversies -- Introduction -- Commitments -- Realism about the mind -- Innate structure -- Methodological naturalism -- I-language revisited -- Representation and computation -- Mentalism -- Rationalism and knowledge of language -- Controversies -- Internalism about language -- Extensional views of language -- Language and communication -- Internalism about meaning -- Innateness -- The mind-body problem -- Unification and reduction -- Conclusions -- 5 Language and freedom -- Explanation and dissent: the common threads -- Relentless dissent -- Common sense and theory -- Rationality, creativity, and modularity -- Rationality -- Creativity -- Modularity -- Malleability and plasticity -- The anarchist background -- Marxism and libertarian socialism -- Power and politics -- The Encyclopédistes -- The critique of (American) foreign policy -- Vietnam -- East Timor -- 9/11: Terrorism and the "war on terror" -- US wars in West Asia from 2001 -- The Arab Spring -- Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden -- The critique of domestic policy -- Occupy, the 1%, and the 99% -- Pig farming in Haiti -- Drug trafficking -- Prospects for survival -- The critique of media control -- Murder -- Third world elections -- The treason of the intellectuals -- The technique of dissection. , The exposure of warped perspective -- The exposure of suppressed precursor events -- The exposure of debased language -- Moral absolutes and options for the future -- The Faurisson affair -- Islamic authoritarianism -- Authority -- The positive program -- Conclusion -- Envoi -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index. , English

Additional Edition: ISBN 1-107-44267-2

Additional Edition: ISBN 1-107-08214-5

Language: English

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139979634