Why Only Us - Robert C. Berwick & Noam Chomsky

Why Only Us

By Robert C. Berwick & Noam Chomsky

  • Release Date: 2015-12-30
  • Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines

Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and our 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.

Comments:

12 Comments
Taylor Mackenzie
Amazing! I love this site
Aston Ayers
Only Signup is easy and free, finally I can read this book Why Only Us with good quality. Thank you!
Ashley Ann
Been waiting to download this book for months. and finally came out too
Cheryl Lynn
This book Why Only Us is very nice, with quick read and download
Erin Cochran Cole
Great selection and quality is better than many Book Store, no kidding.
Kyle Magner
yes, i am also through this to download books
Eric Mn
Yes this really works! Just got my free account
Terry Barnes
One of the best book I've seen this year!
Pastor Shahuano
Excited, Happy Reading guys !!!
Laura Velez Garcia
Thanks, I'm so glad to be reading this book
Wouter van der Giessen
Laura Velez Garcia yes same me too
Janet McCann
Sign up was really easy. Less than 1 minute I was hooked up