Articulate mammal

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Requiring no prior knowledge of the subject, this text tackles basic questions central to the study of psycholinguistics, such as whether language is restricted to humans, whether there is biological evidence for innate language activity, how children learn language, and how we understand, plan and produce language. The author investigates these issues with regard to animal communication, child language and the language of adults, and provides references and suggestions for further reading.;The book has been substantially revised, in particular taking account of the considerable changes in Chomsky's recent ideas. As a result, the chapters on grammatical innateness, child language acquisition and speech comprehension have been largely rewritten.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface to the First Edition (p. vii)
• Preface to the Fourth Edition (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 The Great Automatic Grammatizator (p. 6)
• 2 Animals That Try to Talk (p. 23)
• 3 Grandmama's Teeth (p. 47)
• 4 Predestinate Grooves (p. 66)
• 5 A Blueprint in the Brain? (p. 91)
• 6 Chattering Children (p. 110)
• 7 Puzzling It Out (p. 135)
• 8 Celestial Unintelligibility (p. 165)
• 9 The White Elephant Problem (p. 183)
• 10 The Case of the Missing Fingerprint (p. 199)
• 11 The Cheshire Cat's Grin (p. 237)
• 12 Banker's Clerk or Hippopotamus? (p. 260)
• Suggestions for Further Reading (p. 266)
• References (p. 272)
• Index (p. 297)