WORDS AND RULES by Steven Pinker ( 9780753810255 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

WORDS AND RULES
THE INGREDIENTS OF LANGUAGE

By:

Steven Pinker

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£12.99

Our price:

£9.48

Discount:

27% off

You save:

£3.51

ISBN 10:

0753810255

ISBN 13:

9780753810255

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-2 days.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 3 available

Publisher:

ORION PUBLISHING CO

Pub. date:

5 October, 2000

Series:

Science Masters

Pages:

416

Description:

One of the world's science superstars presents a brilliantly illuminating, entertaining and cutting-edge account of how language actually works.

Synopsis:

One of the world's science superstars presents a brilliantly illuminating, entertaining and cutting-edge account of how language actually works. How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Chaucer's English almost incomprehensible? Steven Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the sources of the major themes in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain. Pinker makes sense of all of this with the help of a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules.

Illustrations:

10 Line Drawing(s)

Publication:

Imprint:

Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Returns:

Returnable

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