03007cam a2200361 i 4500 79713 316990 927241552 OCoLC 20220314120624.0 151026s2016 mauaf b 001 0 eng 2015038384 9780262533492 40026258215 (OCoLC)927241552 DLC eng rda DLC PUL BTCTA BDX YDXCP YAM S3O VP@ GO3 GYG YUS STF pcc P118 .B475 2016 401.93 23 BRW Berwick, Robert C., author 89425 Why only us : language and evolution / Robert C. Berwick, Noam Chomsky Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, [2016] 215 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 21 cm Includes bibliographical references and index Chapter 1. Why now? -- Chapter 2. Biolinguistics evolving -- Chapter 3. Language architecture and its import for evolution -- Chapter 4. Triangles in the brain -- References 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. -- from dust jacket Language acquisition Psychological aspects 89426 Human evolution Psychological aspects 89427 Minimalist theory (Linguistics) 89428 Biolinguistics 6782 Psycholinguistics 89429 Chomsky, Noam, author 89430 MIT CogNet http://cognet.mit.edu/book/why-only-us MITCogNet Available to Stanford-affiliated users ddc BOOK 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 CL 00168780 CL 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 CL 00168781 CL 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 CL 00168782 CL 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 SRF 00168783 SRF 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 SRF 00168784 SRF 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 SGF 00168785 SRM 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0 0 2022-03-14 0 0 401.93 BRW 2022-03-14 SGF 00168786 SRM 2022-03-14 00:00:00 BOOK ddc 0