Challenging and original, The Language Organ treats human language as the manifestation of a faculty of the mind, a mental organ whose nature is determined by human biology. Its functional properties should be explored just as physiology explores the functional properties of physical organs. The authors argue that linguistics invertigates cognition, taking as its object mental representations and processes rather than externally observed grammatical patterns (which constitute evidence, but are not themselves the object of study).
Such a view has untraditional consequences for the kinds of argument and analysis that can be offered in understanding the nature of language. The book surveys the nature of the language faculty in its various aspects: the systems of sounds, words, and syntax; the development of language in the child and historically; and what is know about its relation to the brain. It discusses the kinds of work that can be carried out in these areas that will contribute to an understanding of the human language organ. The book will appeal to students and researchers in linguistics, and is written to be accessible to colleagues in other disciplines dealing with language as well as to readers with an interest in general science and the nature of the human mind.
1. Studying the human language faculty
2. Language as a mental organ
3. Syntax
4. Sound patterns in language
5. Describing linguistic knowledge
6. Phonetics and the I-linguistics of speech
7. Morphology
8. Language change
9. "Growing" a language
10. The organic basis of language