Pathways of the Brain: The Neurocognitive Basis of Language. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, Volume 170

The brain is the organ of knowledge and organizer of our abilities, our means of recognizing a face in a crowd, of conversing about anything we experience or imagine, of forming thoughts and developing ideas, of instantly understanding words coming rapidly in conversation. How does it manage all this? Does it represent information in symbols or in the connectivity of a vast network?__Pathways of the Brain__ builds a theory to answer such questions. Using a top-down modeling strategy, it charts relationships among words and other products of the brain’s linguistic system to reveal properties of that system. Going beyond earlier linguistics, it sets three plausibility requirements for a valid neurocognitive theory: operational, developmental, and neurological: It must show how the linguistic system can operate for speaking and understanding, how it can be learned by children, and how it is implemented in neural structures. Unlike theories that leave linguistics isolated from science, it builds a bridge to biology.Of interest to anthropologists, linguists, neurologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists, and any thoughtful person interested in language or the brain.__The author is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences__. The brain is the organ of knowledge and organizer of our abilities, our means of recognizing a face in a crowd, of conversing about anything we experience or imagine, of forming thoughts and developing ideas, of instantly understanding words coming rapidly in conversation. How does it manage all this? Does it represent information in symbols or in the connectivity of a vast network?Pathways of the Brain builds a theory to answer such questions. Using a top-down modeling strategy, it charts relationships among words and other products of the brain’s linguistic system to reveal properties of that system. Going beyond earlier linguistics, it sets three plausibility requirements for a valid neurocognitive theory: operational, developmental, and neurological: It must show how the linguistic system can operate for speaking and understanding, how it can be learned by children, and how it is implemented in neural structures. Unlike theories that leave linguistics isolated from science, it builds a bridge to biology.
Of interest to anthropologists, linguists, neurologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists, and any thoughtful person interested in language or the brain.
The author is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences. The brain is the organ of knowledge and organizer of our abilities, our means of recognizing a face in a crowd, of conversing about anything we experience or imagine, of forming thoughts and developing ideas, of instantly understanding words coming rapidly in conversation. How does it manage all this? Does it represent information in symbols or in the connectivity of a vast network? Pathways of the Brain builds a theory to answer such questions. Using a top-down modeling strategy, it charts relationships among words and other products of the brain’s linguistic system to reveal properties of that system. Going beyond earlier linguistics, it sets three plausibility requirements for a valid neurocognitive theory: operational, developmental, and neurological: It must show how the linguistic system can operate for speaking and understanding, how it can be learned by children, and how it is implemented in neural structures. Unlike theories that leave linguistics isolated from science, it builds a bridge to biology. Of interest to anthropologists, linguists, neurologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists, and any thoughtful person interested in language or the brain. The author is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences . The brain is the organ of knowledge and the organizer of human abilities, the means of recognizing a face in a crowd, of conversing about experiences and images, of forming thoughts and developing ideas, and of instantly understanding words coming rapidly in conversation. This book seeks to explain how the brain accomplishes all that it does. Using a top-down modeling strategy, it charts relationships among words and other products of the brain's linguistic system to reveal the properties of that system. Going beyond earlier linguistics, it sets three plausibility requirements for valid neurocognitive theory: operations, developmental, and neurological. It must show how the linguistic system can operate for speaking and understanding, how it can be learned by children, and how it can be implemented in neural structures. Unlike theories that leave linguistics isolated from science, it builds a bridge to biology. The book is divided into 18 chapters, and includes an epilogue, appendix, notes, extensive scholarly references, and an index. (Author/KFT) A study of the relationship between language and thought, in order to guage how much of what we think we know comes just from operations of our thinking instruments. If they are faulty, how can they reach understanding about the world? Sydney M. Lamb. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.