The Atoms Of Language : The Mind's Hidden Rules Of Grammar

Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality-and thus the mutual intelligibility-of human thought. We are now on the verge of answering this question. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough, both within linguistics, which will thereby become a full-fledged science for the first time, and in our understanding of the human mind. The Navajo Code Talkers Are One Of The Great Stories Of World War Ii. Because The Japanese Forces Were Intercepting And Deciphering American Communications, They Knew Their Enemy's Battle Plans And Were Able To Slow The Allied Advance Across The Pacific. But The Code Talkers Brought With Them A Cipher The Japanese Couldn't Crack. They Simply Translated Orders And Reports From English Into Navajo For Radio Transmission, And Back Into English At The Other End. This Method Did More Than Provide Secure Communication. In A Situation Where Every Second Counted, The Code Talkers Could Translate Much More Quickly Than Any Expert In Standard Codes. With This Episode, Linguist Mark Baker Sets Off On A Fascinating Exploration Of One Of The Great Mysteries Of Language: Are All Languages Fundamentally The Same, Or Are They Fundamentally Different? If They're All The Same, Why Was Navajo So Baffling To The Japanese Cryptographers? If They're All Different, Why Were The Code Talkers Able To Translate Back And Forth So Easily - And Why Are Small Children Able To Learn Whatever Language They Grow Up Hearing? From Zapotec To Welsh, From French To The Unique Carib Tongue Called Hixkaryana, Baker Surveys The Incredible Diversity Of The World's Languages To Show How Linguists Are Closing In On A Key Question: What Is The True Nature Of Language Differences?--jacket. The Code Talker Paradox -- The Discovery Of Atoms -- Samples Versus Recipes -- Baking A Polysynthetic Language -- Alloys And Compounds -- Toward A Periodic Table Of Languages -- Why Parameters? Mark C. Baker. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [253]-262) And Index. "The Navajo Code Talkers are one of the great stories of World War II. Because the Japanese forces were intercepting and deciphering American communications, they knew their enemy's battle plans and were able to slow the Allied advance across the Pacific. But the Code Talkers brought with them a cipher the Japanese couldn't crack. They simply translated orders and reports from English into Navajo for radio transmission, and back into English at the other end. This method did more than provide secure communication. In a situation where every second counted, the Code Talkers could translate much more quickly than any expert in standard codes.". "With this episode, linguist Mark Baker sets off on a fascinating exploration of one of the great mysteries of language: are all languages fundamentally the same, or are they fundamentally different? If they're all the same, why was Navajo so baffling to the Japanese cryptographers? If they're all different, why were the Code Talkers able to translate back and forth so easily - and why are small children able to learn whatever language they grow up hearing? From Zapotec to Welsh, from French to the unique Carib tongue called Hixkaryana, Baker surveys the incredible diversity of the world's languages to show how linguists are closing in on a key question: what is the true nature of language differences?"--BOOK JACKET. Annotation Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality--and thus mutual intelligibility--of human thought. We are now on the verge of solving this problem. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough both within linguistics, which will herewith finally become a full-fledged science, and in our understanding of the human mind Contents 8 Preface 10 1 The Code Talker Paradox 14 2 The Discoveryof Atoms 32 3 Samples Versus Recipes 64 4 Baking a Polysynthetic Language 98 5 Alloys and Compounds 136 6 Toward a Periodic Table of Languages 170 7 Why Parameters? 212 Notes 248 Glossary 258 Maps 263 References 266 Index 276 Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has long been a subject of debate. Using a 20-year-old theory, researchers have now found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences DEEP MYSTERIES OF LANGUAGE are illustrated by an incident that occurred in 1943, when the Japanese military was firmly entrenched around the Bismarck Archipelago.