Variation and Universals in Biolinguistics (North Holland Linguistics Series) (North Holland Linguistics Series - Linguistic Variations)

Jenkins has succeeded in putting together a terrific volume. Some of the most creative minds in the fields tackle questions of utmost importance in biolinguistics. The clarity with which these essays are written and the insights expressed in them are sure to provide solid foundations for research in linguistics and related fields for years to come. A truly outstanding collection! Cedric Boeckx, Harvard University, USAThis book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach." A wide range of areas are. Read more... Content: Antisymmetry and Japanese / Richard Kayne -- Toward a theory of language growth / Charles Yang -- Phase transitions in language evolution / Partha Niyogi -- Genetic differences and language affinities / Isabelle Dupanloup -- Beyond narrow syntax / Sergey Avrutin -- Evidence for and implications of a domain-specific grammatical deficit / Heather K.J. van der Lely -- The representation of grammatical knowledge in the brain / Alfonso Caramazza and Kevin Shapiro -- Variation in Broca's region : preliminary cross-methodological comparisons / Yosef Grodzinsky -- Language emergence in a language-ready brain : acquisition / Judy Kegl -- Lenneberg's dream : learning, normal language development and specific language impairment / Ken Wexler -- Exploring the phenotype of specific language impairment : a look at grammatical variability / Larry Leonard -- The investigation of genetic dysphasia / Myrna Gopnik -- Unification in biolinguistics / Lyle Jenkins -- The immune syntax : the evolution of the language virus / Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and Juan Uriagereka -- Language and mind : current thoughts on ancient problems / Noam Chomsky. Abstract: Jenkins has succeeded in putting together a terrific volume. Some of the most creative minds in the fields tackle questions of utmost importance in biolinguistics. The clarity with which these essays are written and the insights expressed in them are sure to provide solid foundations for research in linguistics and related fields for years to come. A truly outstanding collection! Cedric Boeckx, Harvard University, USAThis book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach." A wide range of areas are Annotation Jenkins has succeeded in putting together a terrific volume. Some of the most creative minds in the fields tackle questions of utmost importance in biolinguistics. The clarity with which these essays are written and the insights expressed in them are sure to provide solid foundations for research in linguistics and related fields for years to come. A truly outstanding collection! Cedric Boeckx, Harvard University, USA This book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach." A wide range of areas are investigated and reviewed by specialists: the micro-parametric theory of syntax, models of language acquisition and historical change, dynamical systems in language, genetics of populations, pragmatics of discourse, language neurology, genetic disorders of language, sign language, and evolution of language. It focuses on the interplay between variation and the universal properties of language. Detailed surveys or case studies are provided from the areas of syntactic variation, genetic variation, neurological variation and historical variation, among others, and of the universal principles and theoretical models that underlie the variation. Finally, it considers - in addition to the detailed empirical studies - philosophical, foundational and methodological issues in the study of the biology of language and its place within the natural sciences; e.g., innateness, modularity, language design and unification in biolinguistics, as well as critiques of the approach "This book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach." A wide range of areas are investigated and reviewed by specialists: the micro-parametric theory of syntax, models of language acquisition and historical change, dynamical systems in language, genetics of populations, pragmatics of discourse, language neurology, genetic disorders of language, sign language, and evolution of language. It focuses on the interplay between variation and the universal properties of language. Detailed surveys or case studies are provided from the areas of syntactic variation, genetic variation, neurological variation and historical variation, among others, and of the universal principles and theoretical models that underlie the variation."--BOOK JACKET Offers an overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the "biolinguistic approach." This book focuses on the interplay between variation and the universal properties of language. It provides case studies from the areas of syntactic variation, genetic variation, neurological variation and historical variation. In this paper, I would like to focus on certain aspects of the antisymmetry hypothesis of Kayne (1994) and to a certain extent on their implications for Japanese.