LINGUIST List 14.3245

Tue Nov 25 2003

Books: Cognitive Science: Wiese/Baker

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. jreid, Numbers, Language, and the Human Mind: Wiese
2. jreid, Lexical Categories: Baker

 


Title: Numbers, Language, and the Human Mind 

Publication Year: 2003 

Publisher: Cambridge University Press 
http://www.cup.org 

Book URL: 
http://us.cambridge.org/titles/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521831822 

Availability: Available 

Author: Heike Wiese, Humboldt University, Berlin 

Hardback: ISBN: 0521831822, Pages: 362, Price: U.S.: 75 
Hardback: ISBN: 0521831822, Pages: 362, Price: U.K.: 50 

Abstract: 

What constitutes our number concept? What makes it possible for us to 
employ numbers the way we do; which mental faculties contribute to our 
grasp of numbers? What do we share with other species, and what is 
specific to humans? How does our language faculty come into the 
picture? This book addresses these questions and discusses the 
relationship between numerical thinking and the human language 
faculty, providing psychological, linguistic, and philosophical 
perspectives on number, its evolution, and its development in 
children. Heike Wiese argues that language as a human faculty plays a 
crucial role in the emergence of systematic numerical thinking. She 
characterises number sequences as powerful and highly flexible mental 
tools that are unique to humans and shows that it is language that 
enables us to go beyond the perception of numerosity and to develop 
such mental tools. 

Introduction 
1. Numbers and objects 
2. What does it mean to be a number? 
3. Can words be numbers? 
4. The language legacy 
5. Children?s route to number: from iconic representations to 
numerical thinking 
6. The organisation of our cognitive number domain 
7. Non-verbal number systems 
8. Numbers in language: the grammatical integration of numerical tools 
Appendix. 

Lingfield(s): Cognitive Science 

Written In: English (Language Code: English) 

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=7907

 


Title: Lexical Categories 
Subtitle: Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives 
Series Title: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 102 

Publication Year: 2003 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 
http://www.cup.org 

Book URL: 
http://us.cambridge.org/titles/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521806380 

Availability: Available 

Author: Mark C. Baker, Rutgers University 

Hardback: ISBN: 0521806380, Pages: 370, Price: U.S.: 70.00 
Hardback: ISBN: 0521806380, Pages: 370, Price: U.K.: 50.00 

Abstract: 

For decades, generative linguistics has said little about the 
differences between verbs, nouns, and adjectives. This book seeks to 
fill this theoretical gap by presenting simple and substantive 
syntactic definitions of these three lexical categories. Mark C. Baker 
claims that the various superficial differences found in particular 
languages have a single underlying source which can be used to give 
better characterizations of these 'parts of speech'. These new 
definitions are supported by data from languages from every continent, 
including English, Italian, Japanese, Edo, Mohawk, Chichewa, Quechua, 
Choctaw, Nahuatl, Mapuche, and several Austronesian and Australian 
languages. Baker argues for a formal, syntax-oriented, and universal 
approach to the parts of speech, as opposed to the functionalist, 
semantic, and relativist approaches that have dominated the few 
previous works on this subject. This book will be welcomed by 
researchers and students of linguistics and by related cognitive 
scientists of language. 

1. The problem of the lexical categories 
2. Verbs as licensers of subjects 
3. Nouns as bearers of a referential index 
4. Adjectives as neither nouns nor verbs 
5. Lexical categories and the nature of the grammar 
Appendix: Adpositions as functional categories. 

Lingfield(s): Cognitive Science 
Syntax 

Written In: English (Language Code: English) 

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=7874