Language As A Human Problem

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The Language Animal

Author : Charles Taylor
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674970276
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis The Language Animal by : Charles Taylor

Download or read book The Language Animal written by Charles Taylor and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “We have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human.” —John Cottingham, The Tablet In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being, both as individuals and as a society. In his new book setting forth decades of thought, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process. For centuries, philosophers have been divided on the nature of language. Those in the rational empiricist tradition—Hobbes, Locke, Condillac, and their heirs—assert that language is a tool that human beings developed to encode and communicate information. In The Language Animal, Taylor explains that this view neglects the crucial role language plays in shaping the very thought it purports to express. Language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning and fundamentally shapes human experience. The human linguistic capacity is not something we innately possess. We first learn language from others, and, inducted into the shared practice of speech, our individual selves emerge out of the conversation. Taylor expands the thinking of the German Romantics Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt into a theory of linguistic holism. Language is intellectual, but it is also enacted in artistic portrayals, gestures, tones of voice, metaphors, and the shifts of emphasis and attitude that accompany speech. Human language recognizes no boundary between mind and body. In illuminating the full capacity of “the language animal,” Taylor sheds light on the very question of what it is to be a human being.

Language as a Human Problem

Author : Morton Wilfred Bloomfield
Publisher : W. W. Norton
ISBN 13 : 9780393011128
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (111 download)

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Book Synopsis Language as a Human Problem by : Morton Wilfred Bloomfield

Download or read book Language as a Human Problem written by Morton Wilfred Bloomfield and published by W. W. Norton. This book was released on 1973 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies linguistic problems that affect social and cultural life through discussions of the variety, functions, and learning of language.

Language as a Human Problem

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (141 download)

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Book Synopsis Language as a Human Problem by :

Download or read book Language as a Human Problem written by and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Human Language

Author : Peter Hagoort
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262042630
Total Pages : 753 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Language by : Peter Hagoort

Download or read book Human Language written by Peter Hagoort and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique overview of the human language faculty at all levels of organization. Language is not only one of the most complex cognitive functions that we command, it is also the aspect of the mind that makes us uniquely human. Research suggests that the human brain exhibits a language readiness not found in the brains of other species. This volume brings together contributions from a range of fields to examine humans' language capacity from multiple perspectives, analyzing it at genetic, neurobiological, psychological, and linguistic levels. In recent decades, advances in computational modeling, neuroimaging, and genetic sequencing have made possible new approaches to the study of language, and the contributors draw on these developments. The book examines cognitive architectures, investigating the functional organization of the major language skills; learning and development trajectories, summarizing the current understanding of the steps and neurocognitive mechanisms in language processing; evolutionary and other preconditions for communication by means of natural language; computational tools for modeling language; cognitive neuroscientific methods that allow observations of the human brain in action, including fMRI, EEG/MEG, and others; the neural infrastructure of language capacity; the genome's role in building and maintaining the language-ready brain; and insights from studying such language-relevant behaviors in nonhuman animals as birdsong and primate vocalization. Section editors Christian F. Beckmann, Carel ten Cate, Simon E. Fisher, Peter Hagoort, Evan Kidd, Stephen C. Levinson, James M. McQueen, Antje S. Meyer, David Poeppel, Caroline F. Rowland, Constance Scharff, Ivan Toni, Willem Zuidema

Language and Human Behavior

Author : Derek Bickerton
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295801042
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

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Book Synopsis Language and Human Behavior by : Derek Bickerton

Download or read book Language and Human Behavior written by Derek Bickerton and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What this book proposes to do,” writes Derek Bickerton, “is to stand the conventional wisdom of the behavioral sciences on its head: instead of the human species growing clever enough to invent language, it will view that species as blundering into language and, as a direct result of that, becoming clever.” According to Bickerton, the behavioral sciences have failed to give an adequate account of human nature at least partly because of the conjunction and mutual reinforcement of two widespread beliefs: that language is simply a means of communication and that human intelligence is the result of the rapid growth and unusual size of human brains. Bickerton argues that each of the properties distinguishing human intelligence and consciousness from that of other animals can be shown to derive straightforwardly from properties of language. In essence, language arose as a representational system, not a means of communication or a skill, and not a product of culture but an evolutionary adaptation. The author stresses the necessity of viewing intelligence in evolutionary terms, seeing it not as problem solving but as a way of maintaining homeostasis—the preservation of those conditions most favorable to an organism, the optimal achievable conditions for survival and well-being. Nonhumans practice what he calls “on-line thinking” to maintain homeostasis, but only humans can employ off-line thinking: “only humans can assemble fragments of information to form a pattern that they can later act upon without having to wait on that great but unpunctual teacher, experience.” The term protolanguage is used to describe the stringing together of symbols that prehuman hominids employed. “It did not allow them to turn today’s imagination into tomorrow’s fact. But it is just this power to transform imagination into fact that distinguishes human behavior from that of our ancestral species, and indeed from that of all other species. It is exactly what enables us to change our behavior, or invent vast ranges of new behavior, practically overnight, with no concomitant genetic changes.” Language and Human Behavior should be of interest to anyone in the behavioral and evolutionary sciences and to all those concerned with the role of language in human behavior.

The Language Instinct

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062032526
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis The Language Instinct by : Steven Pinker

Download or read book The Language Instinct written by Steven Pinker and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-12-14 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.

Music, Language, and Human Evolution

Author : Nicholas Bannan
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199227349
Total Pages : 359 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Music, Language, and Human Evolution by : Nicholas Bannan

Download or read book Music, Language, and Human Evolution written by Nicholas Bannan and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The accompanying DVD provides some glimpses of the practice of music in a variety of cultures and illustrates ways of listening to the human voice that reveal its intrinsic musicality. The DVD was edited by Pedro Espi-Sanchis, who recorded further material in South Africa.

Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can

Author : Herbert S. Terrace
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231550014
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can by : Herbert S. Terrace

Download or read book Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can written by Herbert S. Terrace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1970s, the behavioral psychologist Herbert S. Terrace led a remarkable experiment to see if a chimpanzee could be taught to use language. A young ape, named “Nim Chimpsky” in a nod to the linguist whose theories Terrace challenged, was raised by a family in New York and instructed in American Sign Language. Initially, Terrace thought that Nim could create sentences but later discovered that Nim’s teachers inadvertently cued his signing. Terrace concluded that Project Nim failed—not because Nim couldn’t create sentences but because he couldn’t even learn words. Language is a uniquely human quality, and attempting to find it in animals is wishful thinking at best. The failure of Project Nim meant we were no closer to understanding where language comes from. In this book, Terrace revisits Project Nim to offer a novel view of the origins of human language. In contrast to both Noam Chomsky and his critics, Terrace contends that words, as much as grammar, are the cornerstones of language. Retracing human evolution and developmental psychology, he shows that nonverbal interaction is the foundation of infant language acquisition, leading up to a child’s first words. By placing words and conversation before grammar, we can, for the first time, account for the evolutionary basis of language. Terrace argues that this theory explains Nim’s inability to acquire words and, more broadly, the differences between human and animal communication. Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can is a masterful statement of the nature of language and what it means to be human.

The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain

Author : Terrence W. Deacon
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393343022
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (933 download)

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Book Synopsis The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain by : Terrence W. Deacon

Download or read book The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain written by Terrence W. Deacon and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1998-04-17 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A work of enormous breadth, likely to pleasantly surprise both general readers and experts."—New York Times Book Review This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions. Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

On Language

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : The New Press
ISBN 13 : 1595587616
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (955 download)

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Book Synopsis On Language by : Noam Chomsky

Download or read book On Language written by Noam Chomsky and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two most popular titles by the noted linguist and critic in one volume—an ideal introduction to his work. On Language features some of Noam Chomsky’s most informal and highly accessible work. In Part I, Language and Responsibility, Chomsky presents a fascinating self-portrait of his political, moral, and linguistic thinking. In Part II, Reflections on Language, Chomsky explores the more general implications of the study of language and offers incisive analyses of the controversies among psychologists, philosophers, and linguists over fundamental questions of language. “Language and Responsibility is a well-organized, clearly written and comprehensive introduction to Chomsky’s thought.” —The New York Times Book Review “Language and Responsibility brings together in one readable volume Chomsky’s positions on issues ranging from politics and philosophy of science to recent advances in linguistic theory. . . . The clarity of presentation at times approaches that of Bertrand Russell in his political and more popular philosophical essays.” —Contemporary Psychology “Reflections on Language is profoundly satisfying and impressive. It is the clearest and most developed account of the case of universal grammar and of the relations between his theory of language and the innate faculties of mind responsible for language acquisition and use.” —Patrick Flanagan

Language in Our Brain

Author : Angela D. Friederici
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262036924
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Language in Our Brain by : Angela D. Friederici

Download or read book Language in Our Brain written by Angela D. Friederici and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of the neurobiological basis of language, arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution.

Problems and mysteries in the study of human language

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (471 download)

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Book Synopsis Problems and mysteries in the study of human language by : Noam Chomsky

Download or read book Problems and mysteries in the study of human language written by Noam Chomsky and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Language, Minorities and Human Rights

Author : Fernand de Varennes
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004479252
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Language, Minorities and Human Rights by : Fernand de Varennes

Download or read book Language, Minorities and Human Rights written by Fernand de Varennes and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most vexing issues in many of the world's so-called ethnic or minority conflicts is the question of language use by the State and its citizens. While international and national law has traditionally viewed language preference to be within a State's prerogative - at least when involving governmental activities and machinery - this position has proved to be a continuous source of acrimony and conflict, and wrong in some respects. Language, Minorities, and Human Rights is the most complete book ever written on the topic, providing for the first time an analysis of every aspect of language and the law. In addition to presenting a theoretical model for language's particular position and relevance in human rights, it constitutes an invaluable reference document by including the provisions of close to 100 international, multilateral and bilateral instruments involving language rights, as well as the constitutional provisions of 140 countries dealing with language. By addressing little explored areas such as the language rights of indigenous peoples, non-citizens and even the use of script, in addition to more traditional topics such as nationalism and language, freedom of expression and non-discrimination, Language, Minorities and Human Rights proposes a complete descriptive picture of language and human rights as well as proposing a number of suggestions on how to address and balance the many problems currently caused by the linguistic demands of various individuals and the interests of states in nation building.

Why Only Us

Author : Robert C. Berwick
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262533499
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Only Us by : Robert C. Berwick

Download or read book Why Only Us written by Robert C. Berwick and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it. “A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.” —New York Review of Books We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language. Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals. Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which views language as a particular object of the biological world; the computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding; the tension between Darwin's idea of gradual change and our contemporary understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.

SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human

Author : Simon Prentis
Publisher : Hogsaloft
ISBN 13 : 9781916893511
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (935 download)

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Book Synopsis SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human by : Simon Prentis

Download or read book SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human written by Simon Prentis and published by Hogsaloft. This book was released on 2022-04-08 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I couldn't stop reading until I finished it. This book should be widely read!" - JAMES LOVELOCK "I'm glad I read it. A literate and stylish writer." - RICHARD DAWKINS "I think you're right." - STEVEN PINKER What makes us human? Why are we the only animals who wear clothes, drive cars, trawl the internet, and fly helicopters on Mars? It's all because we've learnt to talk: yet remarkably, we still don't know how we did it. SPEECH! suggests an answer that's been hiding in plain sight - the simple yet radical shift that turned our analog grunts and shrieks into words. But its consequences are far from simple: being able to share ideas through language was an evolutionary tipping point - it allowed us to link up our minds. SPEECH! traces our roller-coaster ride with language from hunter-gatherer to urban hipster: the epic tale of the struggle for knowledge against the false gods of culture, religion and identity - as we teeter toward a destination we may still resist, but ultimately cannot escape. About the author: Simon Prentis has spent a lifetime working with other cultures and languages in over fifty countries. A veteran translator and interpreter of Japanese, his clients have ranged from academic and international institutions to cultural icons like Paul McCartney, Stanley Kubrick, Frank Zappa and Yoko Ono. A graduate of Oxford University, and a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting since 1990, he has worked extensively with the broadcast media, given expert testimony in high-profile intellectual property disputes, translated four books and reams of technical documents, and presented papers on translation and interpreting at international conferences. This is his first book. "Crisp and clear - I agree with your hypothesis." - DESMOND MORRIS "Bravo! A compelling read." - YOKO ONO "If you liked Sapiens, you're going to love this." - JEE MANDAYO

The Sociogenesis of Language and Human Conduct

Author : Bruce Bain
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1489915257
Total Pages : 581 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (899 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sociogenesis of Language and Human Conduct by : Bruce Bain

Download or read book The Sociogenesis of Language and Human Conduct written by Bruce Bain and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Cole To the unwary reader, even the table of contents of this book will appear incon gruous. What notion, let alone set of principles, could bring coherence to the follow ing concepts: playing peekaboo with small children, aging, human alienation, con versations with Uzbeki peasants, toolmaking, sexism, the world of the deaf, the ecology of hunting groups? After sfhe has had a chance to scan the entire set, the reader can see that this book seems to center on language. But it clearly is not a book about linguistics. It is about a notion that combines two other notions that we usually find located in very different kinds of books, language and human nature. There is no widely accepted term for this combined notion. It does not fit into those ways of thinking of the world that have gotten us where we are. Walker Percy, philosopher novelist, succinctly nails the source of our problem: The importance of a study of language, as opposed to a scientific study of a space-time event like a solar eclipse or rat behavior is that as soon as one scratches the surface of the familiar and comes face to face with the nature of language, one also finds himself face to face with the nature of man. (1975, p. 10) Once we reinvent this insight, its implications begin to work into our lives; our central problem becomes to figure out how to deal with the dilemmas it implies.

Language, Ideology, and the Human

Author : Dusan Radunović
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317107950
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Language, Ideology, and the Human by : Dusan Radunović

Download or read book Language, Ideology, and the Human written by Dusan Radunović and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language, Ideology, and the Human: New Interventions redefines the critical picture of language as a system of signs and ideological tropes inextricably linked to human existence. Offering reflections on the status, discursive possibilities, and political, ideological and practical uses of oral or written word in both contemporary society and the work of previous thinkers, this book traverses South African courts, British clinics, language schools in East Timor, prison cells, cinemas, literary criticism textbooks and philosophical treatises in order to forge a new, diversified perspective on language, ideology, and what it means to be human. This truly international and interdisciplinary collection explores the implications that language, always materialising in the form of a historically and ideologically identifiable discourse, as well as the concept of ideology itself, have for the construction, definition and ways of speaking about 'the human'. Thematically arranged and drawing together the latest research from experts around the world, Language, Ideology, and the Human offers a view of language, ideology and the human subject that eschews simplifications and binary definitions. With contributions from across the social sciences and humanities, this book will appeal to scholars from a range of disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, law, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy and political science.