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Description
The Chomskian revolution in linguistics gave rise to a new orthodoxy about mind and language. Michael Devitt throws down a provocative challenge to that orthodoxy. What is linguistics about? What role should linguistic intuitions play in constructing grammars? What is innate about language? Is there a 'language faculty'? These questions are crucial to our developing understanding of ourselves; Michael Devitt offers refreshingly original answers. He argues that linguistics is about linguistic reality and is not part of psychology; that linguistic rules are not represented in the mind; that speakers are largely ignorant of their language; that speakers' intuitions do not reflect information supplied by the language faculty and are not the main evidence for grammars; that the rules of 'Universal Grammar' are largely, if not entirely, innate structure rules of thought; indeed, that there is little or nothing to the language faculty. Devitt's controversial theses will prove highly stimulating to anyone working on language and the mind.
More Details
- Contributor: Michael Devitt
- Imprint: Oxford University Press
- ISBN13: 9780199250967
- Number of Pages: 320
- Packaged Dimensions: 163x242x23mm
- Packaged Weight: 1
- Format: Hardback
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Release Date: 2006-04-27
- Binding: Hardback
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