Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality (Mit Bicentennial Studies Series: N0. 4) [Paperback]

Morris Halle (Editor), Sheila Blumstein (Editor), Joan Bresnan (Editor), Susan Carey (Editor), Ray S. Jackendoff (Editor), Michael Maratsos (Editor), George Miller (Editor), Keith Stenning (Editor), Eric Wanner (Editor), Edgar Zurif (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Mit Bicentennial Studies Series: N0. 4 | Publication Date: March 16, 1981

"Any adequate psychology of man must provide some way to understand the human capacity for language," the editors of this volume write. "It was a belief shared by quite a few among us that developments in linguistics and psychology were leading to similar conclusions by separate routes and that this was an appropriate time to explore the implications of these apparently parallel developments for future, perhaps joint, work. This volume represents a few initial steps in the direction of that goal." The nine chapters of this book were written by linguists and psychologists, after extended collaboration and exchange of ideas. In the first chapter, "A Realistic Transformational Grammar," Joan Bresnan (MIT) explores some of the consequences of her proposal that the role of many transformations in generative grammar should be subsumed by the lexical component. The character of lexical entries is the central topic of "Semantic Relations Among Words," by George A. Miller (Rockefeller University); he reports views and suggestions that he has developed since the publication of his and Johnson-Laird's monumental Language and Perception (1976). The chapter by Eric Wanner (Rockefeller University) and Michael Maratsos (University of Minnesota), "An ATN Approach to Comprehension," presents a nontransformational model of language processing that uses concepts developed in automatic parsing systems. The relations between their psychological model and Bresnan's lexical-transformational model is outlined in Chapter 1. "Anaphora as an Approach to Pragmatics" by Keith Stenning (University of Liverpool) explores the central problem of pragmatics: a sentence can express different meanings in different contexts. He proposes that a successful account of antecedent-anaphor relations must recognize the relation between a linguistic entity and its context, linguistic or nonlinguistic. Ray Jackendoff (Brandeis), in "Grammar as Evidence for Conceptual Structure," attempts to use the information about semantic structure that is provided by the interpretation of various syntactic configurations in order to gain insights into basic attributes of human cognition. The remaining chapters deal with ways knowledge of a language is acquired and lost. In "Language and the Brain," Edgar B. Zurif (Boston University Medical School) and Sheila E. Blumstein (Brown University and Boston University Medical School) survey some recent work on aphasia in the light of different theoretical models of language. Michael Maratsos, in "New Models in Linguistics and Language Acquisition," inquires into the implications that a language model with restricted transformational component has for understanding of the way children acquire syntax. In "The Child as Word Learner" Susan Carey (MIT) examines the rapidity with which children learn words; she proposes that the process involves two stages: an almost instantaneous assignment of a new world to a field of related words, followed by a slow working out of its place in that field. Finally, Morris Halle (MIT), in "Knowledge Unlearned and Untaught: What speakers know about the sounds of their language," cites facts that normal speakers of English demonstrably know but could never have been explicitly taught, nor in some cases even learned. Halle suggests this is a manifestation of innate knowledge that is genetically programmed into organisms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Central to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn"s "TheOak and the Calf"... is his critical, controversial portrait of the late Aleksandr Tvardovsky, editor of the liberal Soviet journal Novy Mir which launched Solzhenitsyn as awriter. Now we have a powerful rebuttal,written originally in samizdat by Novy Mir "sdeputy editor-literary critic who witnessedthe tense events Solzhenitsyn relates in hismemoir.... Point by point he takes onSolzhenitsyn"s charges against Tvardovsky.... Lakshin"s bill of particulars is notmere internecine squabble but rather an authentic attempt to right the record, a telling, important document." Publishers Weekly

A diverse collection of papers centering around the question of how linguistic information is acquired, represented, and used.

"A fine collection, containing important new proposals nicely blended with background information to form a lively and informative survey of recent research on a variety of topics centering around the question of how linguistic information is acquired, represented, and used." Contemporary Psychology

"This collection of nine papers, all appearing for the first time... represents a reevaluation of some of the basic tenets of transformational grammar theory in response to the issue of psychological reality, and it offers some observations about real language behavior that relate to this problem." The Linguistic Reporter

About the Author

Morris Halle is Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 16, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262580438
• ISBN-13: 978-0262580434
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,222,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars Transformational, November 15, 2010

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Stephen Pellerine (In a bookshelf somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality (Mit Bicentennial Studies Series: N0. 4) (Paperback)

I think this book, given the date of its first publication (1978) and its origins (MIT), smells a lot like Chomskyian grammar theories, so accordingly you can judge if the book would be your cup of tea or not (it actually makes refence to Chomsky setting a stage in the opening sentence). For a rounded linguist interest should be high. For those interested in building an understanding of Chomsky's ideas I think you will be able to do it with this volume.

The book is more of one in psycholinguistics rather than cognitive linguistics - so it dissects a lot of sentences and phrases at the grammatical level. If you are keen on language at this level, and within such contexts, I think you will enjoy this book a lot.

It is not a fun easy read, for most, but more of an academic approach dissecting language - so beware: not a NYTimes best seller, but I feel a very good "classic" in linguistic theory.