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

Acknowledgments viii

Prologue xi

Part I Ever Since Chomsky 1

1 Mind Matters: Chomsky’s Dangerous Idea 3

2 The Mechanization of the Mind Picture 14

3 How the Mind Grows: From Meno to Noam 41

Part II Unweaving the Sentence 55

4 Mental Chemistry 57

5 The Variety of Linguistic Experience: The Towers of Babel and Pisa 82

6 All Roads Lead to Universal Grammar 95

Part III The Mental Foundations of Behavior 109

7 Making Sense of Meaning: An Instruction Manual 111

8 Wonderful Mental Life: Unthinkable without Language 120

9 Grammar Caught in the Act 133

Part IV Missing Links 147

10 The (Mis)Measure of Mind 149

11 Homo Combinans 163

12 Computational Organology 173

Epilogue 183

Notes 189

Guide to Further Study 211

References 219

Index 242