What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can speak and understand a language? Why cant other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human abilities? Recent dramatic discoveries in linguistics and psychology provide intriguing answers to these age-old mysteries. In this fascinating book, Ray Jackendoff emphasizes the grammatical commonalities across languages, both spoken and signed, and discusses the implications for our understanding of language acquisition and loss.
Patterns In The Mind: Language And Human Nature
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About the Author
Ray Jackendoff, linguist and theoretical psychologist, is professor of linguistics at Brandeis University. He is the author of several books, including "Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar," "Semantics and Cognition," " Consciousness and the Computational Mind," and "Semantic Structures."
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Why are we the way we are? Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Professor Jackendoff presents a sound defence of the thesis that the human brain is pre-programmed with universal grammar. Whether it is true or not is another matter. While much will be familiar from the work of Steve Pinker and others, this book is worth buying for the chapters on phonology and sign language. His description of the ability of deaf children to create a full functioning language, despite official suppression, is particularly impressive.
Unfortunately, the book loses coherence in the later chapters and ends with a breathtakingly uninformed rant against free-market economics (p. 220). Academics, in print at least, should stick to what they know.
Unfortunately, the book loses coherence in the later chapters and ends with a breathtakingly uninformed rant against free-market economics (p. 220). Academics, in print at least, should stick to what they know.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.5 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth a read, but not really about "patterns in the mind"
1 Mar 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I picked this up after reading William Calvin's "How Brains Think," which I thought was pretty exciting stuff. While Jackendoff does present some interesting thoughts on how our brains are probably pre-wired for certain abilities (he discusses innate patterns in language, vision, and, less convincingly, in my opinion, cultural adaptation) I was hoping for a more in-depth discussion of how we humans function as pattern recognizing machines, so to speak, and what that means about our brains and how we experience reality. This is really more about linguistics than about "patterns in the mind." Still, in all, an interesting read, and I learned a few cool things about the brain and how it works.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling discussion of the language instinct
31 Oct 2008
By Librum
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
PItM is a very interesting read -- a survey of linguistic, or perhaps more properly neuro-linguistic, thinking a decade or so ago. Since then, considerable advances have been made in the neurosciences, yet we are no closer to answering the fundamental questions Jackendorf poses about how and where, precisely, the brain 'does' language. PItM is, thus, no less compelling today for the passage of years since its publication. For anyone seeking a brief and easygoing introduction to the field, this is as fine a place as any to start.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Well written but that is the high point
23 Oct 2012
By KsWolf
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am stuck reading this book for a class. And I am very surprised that a professor would use such a self serving book as the text book. The terminology used in the books is a misuse of scientific terms for the authors conjectures. And the author's imaginary critic that he pose in the the book offers no real criticisms of the theories and is just used as an idiotic foil to make the author seem like he has all of the answers. This book offers a lot of guesses with nothing substantial to back them up.
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2.5 out of 5 stars
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