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The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages
The new edition of a pioneering book that examines research at the intersection of contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences.

In The Boundaries of Babel, Andrea Moro describes an encounter between two cultures: contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences. As a leading theoretical linguist in the generative tradition and also a neuroscientist, Moro is uniquely equipped to tell this story.

Moro examines what he calls the “hidden” revolution in contemporary science: the discovery that the number of possible grammars is not infinite and that their number is biologically limited. This will require us to rethink not just the fundamentals of linguistics and neurosciences but also our view of the human mind. Moro searches for neurobiological correlates of “the boundaries of Babel”—the constraints on the apparent chaotic variation in human languages—by using an original experimental design based on artificial languages exploiting neuroimaging techniques.

This second edition includes a new chapter in which Moro extends the exploration of the boundaries of Babel in search of the source of order with which all human languages are endowed. Reflecting on the emerging methodology that obtains physiological data from awake brain surgery, Moro shifts from considering where the neurophysiological processes underlying linguistic competence take place—that is, where neurons are activated—to considering the neuronal code involved in these processes—that is, what neurons communicate to each other. This edition also features a substantive new foreword by Noam Chomsky synthesizing the major issues theoretical syntax will face in the near future.

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The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages
The new edition of a pioneering book that examines research at the intersection of contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences.

In The Boundaries of Babel, Andrea Moro describes an encounter between two cultures: contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences. As a leading theoretical linguist in the generative tradition and also a neuroscientist, Moro is uniquely equipped to tell this story.

Moro examines what he calls the “hidden” revolution in contemporary science: the discovery that the number of possible grammars is not infinite and that their number is biologically limited. This will require us to rethink not just the fundamentals of linguistics and neurosciences but also our view of the human mind. Moro searches for neurobiological correlates of “the boundaries of Babel”—the constraints on the apparent chaotic variation in human languages—by using an original experimental design based on artificial languages exploiting neuroimaging techniques.

This second edition includes a new chapter in which Moro extends the exploration of the boundaries of Babel in search of the source of order with which all human languages are endowed. Reflecting on the emerging methodology that obtains physiological data from awake brain surgery, Moro shifts from considering where the neurophysiological processes underlying linguistic competence take place—that is, where neurons are activated—to considering the neuronal code involved in these processes—that is, what neurons communicate to each other. This edition also features a substantive new foreword by Noam Chomsky synthesizing the major issues theoretical syntax will face in the near future.

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The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages
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The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

The Boundaries of Babel, second edition: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

Overview

The new edition of a pioneering book that examines research at the intersection of contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences.

In The Boundaries of Babel, Andrea Moro describes an encounter between two cultures: contemporary theoretical linguistics and the cognitive neurosciences. As a leading theoretical linguist in the generative tradition and also a neuroscientist, Moro is uniquely equipped to tell this story.

Moro examines what he calls the “hidden” revolution in contemporary science: the discovery that the number of possible grammars is not infinite and that their number is biologically limited. This will require us to rethink not just the fundamentals of linguistics and neurosciences but also our view of the human mind. Moro searches for neurobiological correlates of “the boundaries of Babel”—the constraints on the apparent chaotic variation in human languages—by using an original experimental design based on artificial languages exploiting neuroimaging techniques.

This second edition includes a new chapter in which Moro extends the exploration of the boundaries of Babel in search of the source of order with which all human languages are endowed. Reflecting on the emerging methodology that obtains physiological data from awake brain surgery, Moro shifts from considering where the neurophysiological processes underlying linguistic competence take place—that is, where neurons are activated—to considering the neuronal code involved in these processes—that is, what neurons communicate to each other. This edition also features a substantive new foreword by Noam Chomsky synthesizing the major issues theoretical syntax will face in the near future.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262329682
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 11/20/2015
Series: Current Studies in Linguistics , #46
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 328
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Andrea Moro is Professor of General Linguistics at the Institute for Advanced Study (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy. He is the author of Dynamic Antisymmetry, Impossible Languages, and The Boundaries of Babel (all published by the MIT Press), and other books, including The Raising of Predicates and I Speak, Therefore I Am.

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) at MIT and the author of many influential books on linguistics, including Aspects of the Theory of Syntax and The Minimalist Program, both published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

Exploring the Boundaries of Babel Noam Chomsky xi

Translators' Note for the First Edition xxv

1491: Preface to the Second Edition xxvii

Preface to the First Edition xxxi

Acknowledgments xxxiii

Prologue xxxv

1 The Hidden Texture 1

2 Language in the Brain 111

3 The Form of Grammar 177

4 Toward the Source of Order 215

Epilogue 255

References 257

Name Index 275

Subject Index 281

What People are Saying About This

Stanislas Dehaene

Andrea Moro masterfully describes the formidable challenges that linguistic structures pose to brain scientists. From Broca to Chomsky, from lesions to brain imaging, he authoritatively reviews 150 years of neurolinguistics and pedagogically guides readers through a carefully selected set of key experiments that shaped the field. A must-read for anyone interested in language and brain.

Noam Chomsky

Andrea Moro has gained a unique position in formulating and implementing constructive approaches to these difficult and demanding tasks. He is able to address them with a deep understanding of modern linguistics, a field to which he has made major contributions of his own, and mastery of the relevant technology and its potential. This book is a lucid introduction to these exciting areas, superbly informed and imaginatively presented, with intriguing implications well beyond biolinguistics: for the cognitive sciences generally as well as for philosophy of language and mind.

Howard Lasnik

"In this engaging, informative, and provocative book, a leading theoreticallinguist shows why so many of us are so excited about the
'biolinguisticrevolution.' Neuroscientists can discover some of the central ideas ofcurrent Chomskian linguistics; linguists can learn some of the core conceptsof neuroscience; and anyone interested can see how the two fields arebeginning to come together."--Howard B. Lasnik, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland

Howard B. Lasnik

In this engaging, informative, and provocative book, a leading theoretical linguist shows why so many of us are so excited about the 'biolinguistic revolution.' Neuroscientists can discover some of the central ideas of current Chomskian linguistics; linguists can learn some of the core concepts of neuroscience; and anyone interested can see how the two fields are beginning to come together.

Noam Chompsky

FROM THE FORWARD:"Andrea Moro has gained a unique position in formulating and implementing constructive approaches to … difficult and demanding tasks. He is able to address them with a deep understanding of modern linguistics, a field to which he has made a major contribution of his own, and mastery of the relevant technology and its potential. His new book is a lucid introduction to these exciting areas, superbly informed and imaginatively presented, with intriguing implications well beyond biolinguistics…. A rare achievement…." —NoamChomsky, from the foreword

From the Publisher

Andrea Moro has gained a unique position in formulating and implementing constructive approaches to... difficult and demanding tasks. He is able to address them with a deep understanding of modern linguistics, a field to which he has made a major contribution of his own, and mastery of the relevant technology and its potential. His new book is a lucid introduction to these exciting areas, superbly informed and imaginatively presented, with intriguing implications well beyond biolinguistics.... A rare achievement....

—Noam Chomsky, from the foreword

In this engaging, informative, and provocative book, a leading theoretical linguist shows why so many of us are so excited about the 'biolinguistic revolution.' Neuroscientists can discover some of the central ideas of current Chomskian linguistics; linguists can learn some of the core concepts of neuroscience; and anyone interested can see how the two fields are beginning to come together.

—Howard B. Lasnik, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland

Endorsement

In this engaging, informative, and provocative book, a leading theoretical linguist shows why so many of us are so excited about the 'biolinguistic revolution.' Neuroscientists can discover some of the central ideas of current Chomskian linguistics; linguists can learn some of the core concepts of neuroscience; and anyone interested can see how the two fields are beginning to come together.

—Howard B. Lasnik, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland

Noam Chompsky

FROM THE FORWARD:"Andrea Moro has gained a unique position in formulating and implementing constructive approaches to … difficult and demanding tasks. He is able to address them with a deep understanding of modern linguistics, a field to which he has made a major contribution of his own, and mastery of the relevant technology and its potential. His new book is a lucid introduction to these exciting areas, superbly informed and imaginatively presented,
with intriguing implications well beyond biolinguistics…. A rare achievement…." --Noam Chomsky, from the foreword

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