LINGUIST List 22.654 Tue Feb 08 2011 Books: Cognitive Sci/Lang Acquisition/Philosophy of Lang: Clark, Lappin Editor for this issue: Fatemeh Abdollahi <fatemehlinguistlist.org> Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers are available at the end of this issue. Directory         1.     Katherine Ward , Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus: Clark, Lappin Message 1: Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus: Clark, Lappin Date: 27-Oct-2010 From: Katherine Ward <kwardwiley.com> Subject: Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus: Clark, Lappin E-mail this message to a friend Title: Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus Published: 2011 Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell                 http://www.wiley.com Book URL: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405187840.html Author: Alexander Clark Author: Shalom Lappin Hardback: ISBN: 1405187840 9781405187848 Pages: 272 Price: U.S. $ 99.95 Abstract: "Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus" explores the question of how children acquire knowledge of their native language, one of the most difficult and long-standing problems in cognitive science. For the past fifty years linguistics and psychology have been dominated by the view that the linguistic input which children receive is insufficient to explain the rich and rapid development of their knowledge of their first language(s) through general learning mechanisms. This view holds that humans have a specialized, innate ability to learn language, which is species-specific. Clark and Lappin critically examine different forms of the argument from the poverty of the stimulus (APS) in connection with the architecture of the mind, the evolution of language, and formal models of learning. With cogent explanations of machine learning and computational complexity in learning, The book argues that if we make realistic assumptions about the way in which children actually learn their native language, then it is possible to explain this process largely through general methods of induction that extract structure and patterns from data across many different kinds of information. The authors, one a computational linguist and the other an expert in computational learning theory, have collaborated to produce a work that will surely spark further debate and research. Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science                             Language Acquisition                             Philosophy of Language Written In: English (eng ) See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=51192 Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue -------------------------- Major Supporters -------------------------- Brill http://www.brill.nl Cambridge Scholars Publishing http://www.c-s-p.org Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/ Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd http://www.continuumbooks.com De Gruyter Mouton http://www.degruyter.com/mouton Edinburgh University Press http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/ Elsevier Ltd http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics Equinox Publishing Ltd http://www.equinoxpub.com/ Georgetown University Press http://www.press.georgetown.edu John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/ Lincom GmbH http://www.lincom.eu MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/ Morgan & Claypool Publishers Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/ Palgrave Macmillan http://www.palgrave.com Rodopi http://www.rodopi.nl/ University of Toronto Press http://www.utpjournals.com/ ---------------------- Other Supporting Publishers ---------------------- Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT http://www.lotpublications.nl/ University of Nebraska Press Page Updated: 08-Feb-2011       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.