Impossible Languages - Couverture souple

Moro, Andrea

 
9780262549233: Impossible Languages
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0262549239 ISBN 13 : 9780262549233
Editeur : MIT Press, 2023

Synopsis

An investigation into the possibility of impossible languages, searching for the indelible “fingerprint” of human language.

Can there be such a thing as an impossible human language? A biologist could describe an impossible animal as one that goes against the physical laws of nature (entropy, for example, or gravity). Are there any such laws that constrain languages? In this book, Andrea Moro—a distinguished linguist and neuroscientist—investigates the possibility of impossible languages, searching, as he does so, for the indelible “fingerprint” of human language.

Moro shows how the very notion of impossible languages has helped shape research on the ultimate aim of linguistics: to define the class of possible human languages. He takes us beyond the boundaries of Babel, to the set of properties that, despite appearances, all languages share, and explores the sources of that order, drawing on scientific experiments he himself helped design. Moro compares syntax to the reverse side of a tapestry revealing a hidden and apparently intricate structure. He describes the brain as a sieve, considers the reality of (linguistic) trees, and listens for the sound of thought by recording electrical activity in the brain. Words and sentences, he tells us, are like symphonies and constellations: they have no content of their own; they exist because we listen to them and look at them. We are part of the data.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Andrea Moro is Professor of General Linguistics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy. He is the author of Impossible Languages, The Boundaries of Babel, and A Brief History of the Verb To Be (all published by the MIT Press), and other books.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
MIT Press
Date d'édition
2023
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0262549239
ISBN 13 
9780262549233
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
156
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Allemagne

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780262034890: Impossible Languages

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0262034891 ISBN 13 :  9780262034890
Editeur : The MIT Press, 2016
Couverture rigide