The Emergence of Meaning

An investigation into the underlying logic of human languages which looks at how children acquire English and Mandarin.

Stephen Crain (Author)

9780521858090, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 August 2012

306 pages, 29 b/w illus.
23.7 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.63 kg

'New and deep ideas are a rarity in the study of language acquisition, and Stephen Crain's The Emergence of Meaning has plenty of both. This is likely to be considered one of the most important books in language acquisition in years.' Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct and The Stuff of Thought

Over the past forty years, scientists have developed models of human reasoning based on the principle that human languages and classical logic involve fundamentally different concepts and different methods of interpretation. In The Emergence of Meaning Stephen Crain challenges this view, arguing that a common logical nativism underpins human language and logical reasoning. The approach which Crain takes is twofold. Firstly, he uncovers the underlying meanings of logical expressions and logical principles that appear in typologically different languages - English and Mandarin Chinese - and he demonstrates that these meanings and principles directly correspond to the expressions and structures of classical logic. Secondly he reports the findings of new experimental studies which investigate how children acquire the logical concepts of these languages. A step-by-step introduction to logic and a comprehensive review of the literature on child language acquisition make this work accessible to those unfamiliar with either field.

1. Logic and human languages
2. Competing approaches to language and logic
3. The case for logical nativism
4. Scope parameters
5. How something can be both positive and negative
6. Two logical operators for the price of one.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Philosophy of language [CFA]