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Words and rules : the ingredients of language / Steven Pinker. Pinker, Steven, 1954-
New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, c1999.
xi, 348 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
In Words and Rules, Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. The phenomenon - regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the theories of Noam Chomsky and his critics; the attempts to simulate language using computer simulations of neural networks; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the nature of human concepts; the peculiarities of the English language; major ideas in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain.