IGNORANCE OF LANGUAGE by Michael Devitt ( 9780199250967 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

IGNORANCE OF LANGUAGE

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£112.50
Our price:	£112.50

ISBN 10:

0199250960

ISBN 13:

9780199250967

Availability:

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

27 April, 2006

Pages:

320

Description:

Synopsis:

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.

Publication:

Imprint:

Clarendon Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

BIOLOGICAL ESSENTIALISM (HB)

COMING TO OUR SENSES

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COMING TO OUR SENSES (PB)

IGNORANCE OF LANGUAGE (PB)

LANGUAGE AND REALITY (PB)