Language in Cognition: Uncovering Mental Structures and the Rules Behind Them

by Cedric Boeckx

Rare book

Genres: Linguistics

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Othman · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very well-rounded view of Language from a cognitive-science point of view. It covers various, and very important, topics in linguistics. Some of them are:
- the cognitive revolution that took place in the 1950s, and the major factors that gave rise to that revolution
- innate and learned cognitive biases and their roles in language acquisition
- properties of language, such as discreteness, infinity, and hierarchy, that gave impetus to Chomsky's Hierarchy of language
- Universal Grammar as a working hypothesis
- classical brain regions for language
- evolution of language
- the genetic component of language


Although the book is a worthwhile read, its only downside, I think, is the fact that it's syntax-centric.

[Mohammad Ali]

Gave me a realistic view of cognitive science studies. The language of the book is very fluent. A must-read book for those interested in cognitive sciences. The insight he provides into animal studies and computational theories of mind is quite informative. However, I think Boeckx supports Chomsky's ideas too much gets carried away by his emotions. At some points he sounds like a faithful pupil rather than a critical reviewer.