Words and Rules (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Steven Pinker
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Language
- Genres: Nonfiction
- Subjects: Language or languages, Children, Genetics, Learning or scholarship, Wounds or injuries, Research, Thought or thinking, Grammar, Brain
One of the great mysteries of the human mind is how language is acquired. In the first years of life, children quickly become fluent in their native tongue, learning the rules of language quite naturally. Just how is it that children can master the complexities of language, in spite of all of its quirks and irregularities?
Some linguists, such as Noam Chomsky, have argued that human speech is the result of hidden rules of language that are “hard wired” somewhere in the brain. Many computer scientists, following the ideas of the seventeenth century British philosopher John...
[The entire page is 1958 words long]
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