Ray Jackendoff.
Foundations of Language: brain, meaning, grammar, evolution.
OUP. 2002
Foundations of Language puts linguistics back at the centre
of the search to understand human conciousness.
Ray Jackendoff begins by surveying the developments in linguistics
over the years since Noam Chomsky’s Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.
He goes on to propose a radical re-conception of how the brain processes language.
This opens up vivid new perspectives on every major aspect of language and communication,
including grammar, vocabulary, learning, the origins of human language,
and how language relates to the real world.
Foundations of Language makes important connections
with other disciplines which have been isolated from linguistics for many years.
It sets a new agenda for close cooperation between the study of language,
mind, the brain, behaviour, and evolution.