- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books (24 Dec 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0465005217
- ISBN-13: 978-0465005215
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 17.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,881,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A major scientific breakthrough into the common elements of all languages, which give us a deeper insight than ever before into how the mind works. . Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality-and thus the mutual intelligibility-of human thought. We are now on the verge of answering this question. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough, both within linguistics, which will thereby become a full-fledged science for the first time, and in our understanding of the human mind.
About the Author
Mark C. Baker is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Center for Cogni tive Science at Rutgers University. He lives in Ca mden, New Jersey.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
DEEP MYSTERIES OF LANGUAGE are illustrated by an incident that occurred in 1943, when the Japanese military was firmly entrenched around the Bismarck Archipelago. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
DEEP MYSTERIES OF LANGUAGE are illustrated by an incident that occurred in 1943, when the Japanese military was firmly entrenched around the Bismarck Archipelago. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
he Atoms of Language by Mark Baker
One way of looking at this book is that it deals with what Mr. Baker calls the "Navajo Code Talker" paradox (that's basically the author's engaging way of introducing his subject): languages on this planet are very much alike (within limits, any human can learn any language) but also very different. The best example of this is the use of the "Navajo Code Talkers" during WWII: those american citizens were enrolled to translate important messages into their own language (Navajo) for communication on the battle front. The expectation was that Navajo being a hard language, Japanese code breakers would find it difficult to "decrypt" the messages. It appears the initiative was highly successful as the Japanese never managed to "break the code", showing that languages can be very different. But the fact that it is possible to translate back and forth between Navajo and English also shows that languages are not completely non-commensurable. So we have a bit of a paradox.
Mr. Baker uses throughout the book a chemical analogy: there are basic ingredients in the human psyche which he calls the atoms of language. What we observe in nature are the much more complicated analogues of molecules, with many atoms put together and interacting in interesting and not always predictable ways. I'm honestly not sure the analogy is particularly compelling, but the author does not take it so far that it becomes annoying.
So what are Mr. Baker's atoms? They're a bit abstract, even as far as atoms go, since they are really parameters for languages' grammars. If you've got a bit of a computer science mind, this might make some intuitive sense: if I want to produce procedurally an "object" that represents a grammar, what parameters do I need to specify to have a complete description of the grammar? If you're not into this kind of thinking the author will do quite a bit of fairly competent handholding to get you to the point where you should understand what he's saying.
Now what's so interesting about all this? First of all, it appears that parameters are not set randomly. There are certain combinations of parameters that are basically non-sequitur. That's not something that would have been obvious in advance, but it's equally well something that's not particularly easy to interpret. The author actually acknowledges that we don't have the final word on this topic.
In summary, this book provides a fairly pedagogical introduction to a rather advanced current research topic. I'm not entirely convinced that the atom and chemistry analogy route chose by the author was the best way to introduce the subject, but at the end of the day I must acknowledge he gets his point across.
One way of looking at this book is that it deals with what Mr. Baker calls the "Navajo Code Talker" paradox (that's basically the author's engaging way of introducing his subject): languages on this planet are very much alike (within limits, any human can learn any language) but also very different. The best example of this is the use of the "Navajo Code Talkers" during WWII: those american citizens were enrolled to translate important messages into their own language (Navajo) for communication on the battle front. The expectation was that Navajo being a hard language, Japanese code breakers would find it difficult to "decrypt" the messages. It appears the initiative was highly successful as the Japanese never managed to "break the code", showing that languages can be very different. But the fact that it is possible to translate back and forth between Navajo and English also shows that languages are not completely non-commensurable. So we have a bit of a paradox.
Mr. Baker uses throughout the book a chemical analogy: there are basic ingredients in the human psyche which he calls the atoms of language. What we observe in nature are the much more complicated analogues of molecules, with many atoms put together and interacting in interesting and not always predictable ways. I'm honestly not sure the analogy is particularly compelling, but the author does not take it so far that it becomes annoying.
So what are Mr. Baker's atoms? They're a bit abstract, even as far as atoms go, since they are really parameters for languages' grammars. If you've got a bit of a computer science mind, this might make some intuitive sense: if I want to produce procedurally an "object" that represents a grammar, what parameters do I need to specify to have a complete description of the grammar? If you're not into this kind of thinking the author will do quite a bit of fairly competent handholding to get you to the point where you should understand what he's saying.
Now what's so interesting about all this? First of all, it appears that parameters are not set randomly. There are certain combinations of parameters that are basically non-sequitur. That's not something that would have been obvious in advance, but it's equally well something that's not particularly easy to interpret. The author actually acknowledges that we don't have the final word on this topic.
In summary, this book provides a fairly pedagogical introduction to a rather advanced current research topic. I'm not entirely convinced that the atom and chemistry analogy route chose by the author was the best way to introduce the subject, but at the end of the day I must acknowledge he gets his point across.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
oh boy... I think the guy has some really good ideas in there somewhere but this book is not for the novice or the faint-hearted. In fact, the initiated (I've an MA) may find this off-putting. The vast majority of the main section of this book is interminably dull: a catalogue of linguisti minutae which, though put together form something incredibly profound, find my view of the wood obscured by trees.
Basically, he takes a theory which isn't that new, namely that the world's languages are in fact related and share many more characteristics than (he assumes) was previously thought. But Chomsky posited this many moons ago and to drag us through endless comparisons of Welsh and Japanese is a) neither going to be comprehensive enough to convince the skeptical in a book of this genre or size nor b) going to grab the interest of those who already know the field relatively well.
My other criticism is that while he has the audacity to acknowledge that language as a cognitive-cultural product is actually having something of a revival among those in the know, he simply moves on. If he really wants to stick his head in the sand, he should have simply ignored this point. Rather, by mentioning this and not commenting, he risks showing that generative linguistics not only has little to offer the real world of language as a communicative, relational tool but that generative linguists are doing nothing to rid itself of this image. Perhaps the ivory tower gives a commanding view similar to that of Babel.
And for those who are into languages but not linguistics: be warned, this may turn you off!
Basically, he takes a theory which isn't that new, namely that the world's languages are in fact related and share many more characteristics than (he assumes) was previously thought. But Chomsky posited this many moons ago and to drag us through endless comparisons of Welsh and Japanese is a) neither going to be comprehensive enough to convince the skeptical in a book of this genre or size nor b) going to grab the interest of those who already know the field relatively well.
My other criticism is that while he has the audacity to acknowledge that language as a cognitive-cultural product is actually having something of a revival among those in the know, he simply moves on. If he really wants to stick his head in the sand, he should have simply ignored this point. Rather, by mentioning this and not commenting, he risks showing that generative linguistics not only has little to offer the real world of language as a communicative, relational tool but that generative linguists are doing nothing to rid itself of this image. Perhaps the ivory tower gives a commanding view similar to that of Babel.
And for those who are into languages but not linguistics: be warned, this may turn you off!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
16 reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book, but not for everyone
25 May 2004
Format:Paperback
The Principle and Parameters approach in linguistics is one of Chomsky's most profound theoretical insights, and its elegance and depth in explaining linguistic phenomena across languages is one of the most impressive achievements in linguistics. Baker's book is the best popular introduction to the approach that I have read. It is not as fun and entertaining as Pinker, but it is certainly as understandable, and it does not "dumb down" quite as much as Pinker. The book is a quick read, and contains an impressive chapter on Mohawk. Baker takes the theoretical approaches that he introduces earlier in the book, applies it to the case of Mohawk, formulates a novel explanation, and shows how we can get a deep understanding of the structure of Mohawk from a few, easily understood and elegant principles.
All in all, the book is an excellent introduction to how linguistics is done, and the models through which linguists currently think about languages and linguistic phenomena. It gives the best, most understandable explanation of central theoretical concepts such as "parameter" and "I-language" that I have seen, and gives a brief overview of "optimality theory" and other hypotheses in competition to Chomsky's version of P&P.
There is much to learn from this book, but I think that only those with a genuine interest in and sympathy to generative linguistics will find this book illuminating. To appreciate the depth and insight of the Principles and Parameters approach, you need some mastery of the technicalities and constructions, and mastery of the technicalities requires patience. To understand the problems and solutions that arise, you have to be willing to sit, think, and go over words and sentences in exotic languages slowly, including their inflections, affixes, and word order. Baker provides enough so that anyone can understand them; but you will still need to spend some time on these sections. I recommend this book to educated readers with some competence in linguistics, or to those who have a genuine interest in learning about generative grammar by looking at specific exotic languages.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
The Excitement of Dry Categorization
21 Sep 2003
Format:Paperback
The title of the book comes from the realization that the syntax of languages may be composed of true elements, like atoms which can normally combine only in particular ways so that certain kinds of langauges will not occur, or will do so for only for a short time before decomposing into a more stable type of language.
Linguists are still in the process of identifying these atoms and Baker is giving a popular account of the current state of investigation.
Mark C. Baker explains modern attempts to break down and categorize language by its syntax and by binary parameters that work thoughout each language providing rules that people following unconsciously in generating new utterances within any particular language.
He demonstrates that languages can be catagorized according to particular parameters which don't appear to have ANY relationship to the culture of the people speaking the language. For example, in building phrases within phrases most languages consistantly add new elements to phrases to create a larger phrase either always at the begnning of the smaller phrase or always at the end.
This seems to refute beliefs that differences in languages indicate fundamental differences in world views. Factually people of almost identical culture live side by side speaking languages that differ drastically syntactically.
So languages seemingly do NOT vary from each other in unlimited ways. Therefore there MUST be rules about what does and does not NORMALLY happen and presumably rules to the exceptions and to the exceptions to the exceptions.
These rules would be innate in human consciousness and would provide the foundations on which the actual syntax of a languages is based.
Languages can be classified syntactically according to type and sub-type and so forth entirely independantly of any genelogical relationships between them.
Baker's writing is lucid and transparent and he lets his subject matter and the puzzles it presents carry the excitement in the book.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
A superb, exciting book about linguistics and languages
18 April 2002
Format:Hardcover
This is a lucid, exciting introduction to the fascinating science of modern linguistics. With a minimum of technical jargon, the author shows us how different the languages of the world look - and how similar they really are. With the periodic table of the elements as a guiding metaphor, the author shows how languages form an intricate pattern, and lets us in on some of the discoveries he and other linguists have made about this pattern. The book teaches us about languages as exotic as Mohawk, and left me (at least) quite impressed with the wonders of the human mind. Some of the material towards the end of the book is less impressive, as the author speculates about what it all means, but by then the reader is well and truly hooked anyway, so the flaw is minor.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
