The Mind of a Savant: Language, Learning and Modularity [Paperback]

Neil Smith (Author), Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0631190171 | ISBN-13: 978-0631190172 | Edition: 1

Savants are people who are mentally and often physically impaired but who have one dazzling talent. Cases of savants, like Christopher who is described here, are not unheard of, but have never been reported before. Despite being unable to look after himself because he has difficulty with everyday tasks, Christopher can read, write, translate and communicate in fifteen to twenty different languages.

In this original, detailed and wide-ranging study, Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli not only provide insight into the mind of one unique individual, but simultaneously cast light on the nature of language and thought in general. By exploiting recent developments in both linguistics and psychology the authors have made an essential contribution to the whole field of cognitive science.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a very interesting book that any linguist, cognitive scientist or philosopher of mind will love to read." Luca Bonatti, University of Paris VIII at St Denis

"Even for those who don't share the authors' nativist inclinations, Smith and Tsimpli's in-depth case study raises some fascinating issues about the relation between cognition and language. Essential reading for all cognitive scientists." Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Medical Research Council

"In their fine and careful study of an individual with remarkable linguistic abilities but otherwise limited capabilities, Smith and Tsimpli provide new and important evidence concerning the modularity of mind, invariant principles of language, and their role in first and second language acquisition, the interaction of pragmatic and conceptual factors in language use, and much else. It is a very valuable and illuminating study." Chomsky, MIT

"This book, with its focus on understanding the architecture of the mind, makes an important contribution to psycholinguistics and the broader field of cognitive science......Like other great case studies, their attempts to elucidate the architecture of the mind by studying a single, unique individual are noteworthy."Victoria Garlock and Elaina Frieda, University of Alabama

From the Back Cover

Savants are people who are mentally and often physically impaired but who have one dazzling talent. Cases of savants, like Christopher who is described here, are not unheard of, but have never been reported before. Despite being unable to look after himself because he has difficulty with everyday tasks, Christopher can read, write, translate and communicate in fifteen to twenty different languages.

In this original, detailed and wide-ranging study, Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli not only provide insight into the mind of one unique individual, but simultaneously cast light on the nature of language and thought in general. By exploiting recent developments in both linguistics and psychology the authors have made an essential contribution to the whole field of cognitive science.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (February 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631190171
• ISBN-13: 978-0631190172
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,459,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This text is a comprehensive study of a linguistic savant., September 27, 1997

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[e-mail] (DuBois, Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mind of a Savant: Language, Learning and Modularity (Paperback)

This text is a case study of an individual, Christopher, who was chosen due to his apparent ability to communicate in over a dozen languages despite the fact that his scores on a variety of tests that measure intelligence were below average. In the eyes of the authors, Christopher qualifies as a linguistic savant, and as such provides an example of double dissociation which, upon study, may yield data applicable to the human mind in general and have impact in particular on existing psycholinguistic theories. As such, the authors state a complex hypothesis in question form, which they then set about to explore through an observational study based on Christopher's responses, history, and behavior. Hypothesis Questions in the hypothesis can be framed in two categories - cognition and second language acquisition. In regards to a theory of mind, the framework set by Fodor's theory of mental architecture and Anderson's model of intelligence are discussed and compared. Within the area of second language acquisition, the question of whether Christopher's performance in non-native languages is independent of his general cognitive abilities is addressed, with an emphasis placed on his stages of development in each non-native language. Data relevant toward an in-depth study of each of these issues was then gathered by the researchers over a period of four years, continuously analyzed and applied to reformulation of current theories of mind and language acquisition. The resulting model is provided in Figure 5.3. First Language Competency In relation to first language acquisition, the researchers tested Christopher for structures including declaratives, passives, negatives, interrogatives, relatives, clefts, pseudo-clefts, and others involving variations in word-order, the use of polarity items, etc. (p.44). The researchers recorded several thousand of these types of interactions with him during the study. The conclusion was that Christopher was linguistically competent in his native language, English. Results and Conclusions While Christopher demonstrated knowledge of between fifteen to twenty languages other than his native English, he was not able to demonstrate native use of any of them. The structure of his first language acted as a continuous influence on the translation of the form systems of the other languages, and often his attempts could be characterized as word by word translation rather semantic or syntactic processing. Christopher tended to display a mastery of morphological properties and of encyclopedic aspects of the lexicon, yet struggled with whole sentence translation and answering rhetorical types of questions.