Customer Reviews

Patterns In The Mind: Language And Human Nature

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I picked this up after reading William Calvin's "How Brains Think," which I thought was pretty exciting stuff. While Jackendoff does present some interesting thoughts on how our brains are probably pre-wired for certain abilities (he discusses innate patterns in language, vision, and, less convincingly, in my opinion, cultural adaptation) I was hoping for a more in-depth discussion of how we humans function as pattern recognizing machines, so to speak, and what that means about our brains and how we experience reality. This is really more about linguistics than about "patterns in the mind." Still, in all, an interesting read, and I learned a few cool things about the brain and how it works.

PItM is a very interesting read -- a survey of linguistic, or perhaps more properly neuro-linguistic, thinking a decade or so ago. Since then, considerable advances have been made in the neurosciences, yet we are no closer to answering the fundamental questions Jackendorf poses about how and where, precisely, the brain 'does' language. PItM is, thus, no less compelling today for the passage of years since its publication. For anyone seeking a brief and easygoing introduction to the field, this is as fine a place as any to start.

This is a fairly well organized book for basic concepts of language. And some extrapolation of the conclusions on language is ventured for some other aspects of human nature. The Argument for Mental Grammar leads through the basic evidence leading to the conclusion that much of human language is innate. Any analysis of sentences leaves questions where rules underlying structure could arise. I would say it seems very introductory and add some negative remarks on the author's style.

He adds these silly pencil drawings a few times to help us "picture" his arguments. A bit childish. I wish the author would move a lot faster through the arguments. I get up to page 44 for instance, and here he is comparing the human brain operation to a videotape. What! When you're done though, you are left with a decent perspective on the language faculty. Keep writing reviews on these things people.

How can anyone write a book about language without even mentioning the great Ludwig Wittgenstein, who has shown, beyond any doubt, that what is in this book is mere nonsense. Jackendorff tries to look into the brain, but sees nothing. Wittgenstein says: If God himself looked into our brains he would not know of whom we were talking. That's how language works, through an unfounded system, that is learned by practice and where the parts don't mean anything outside this system. This books tries to prove the opposite. I find it worthless like much that comes from American universities.