| | The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar |  | Author: Mark Baker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1689464
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
ISBN: 019860632X
Dewey Decimal Number: 400
EAN: 9780198606321
ASIN: 019860632X
Publication Date: April 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Too many trees obscure the wood July 27, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
oh boy... I think the guy has some really good ideas in there somewhere but this book is not for the novice or the faint-hearted. In fact, the initiated (I've an MA) may find this off-putting. The vast majority of the main section of this book is interminably dull: a catalogue of linguisti minutae which, though put together form something incredibly profound, find my view of the wood obscured by trees.
Basically, he takes a theory which isn't that new, namely that the world's languages are in fact related and share many more characteristics than (he assumes) was previously thought. But Chomsky posited this many moons ago and to drag us through endless comparisons of Welsh and Japanese is a) neither going to be comprehensive enough to convince the skeptical in a book of this genre or size nor b) going to grab the interest of those who already know the field relatively well.
My other criticism is that while he has the audacity to acknowledge that language as a cognitive-cultural product is actually having something of a revival among those in the know, he simply moves on. If he really wants to stick his head in the sand, he should have simply ignored this point. Rather, by mentioning this and not commenting, he risks showing that generative linguistics not only has little to offer the real world of language as a communicative, relational tool but that generative linguists are doing nothing to rid itself of this image. Perhaps the ivory tower gives a commanding view similar to that of Babel.
And for those who are into languages but not linguistics: be warned, this may turn you off!
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