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The infinite gift : how children learn and unlearn the languages of the world / Charles Yang.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Scribner, [2006]Copyright date: ©2006Description: vii, 273 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0743237560
  • 9780743237567
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 401.93 22
LOC classification:
  • P118 .Y359 2006
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Also available on the internet.
Contents:
The Greatest Intellectual Feat -- Mission Improbable -- Silent Rehearsals -- Wuckoo -- Word Factory -- Colorless Green Ideas -- Twenty Questions -- The Superiority of the German Language -- --
Ch. 1. The greatest intellectual feat -- Ch. 2. Mission improbable -- Ch. 3. Silent rehearsals -- Ch. 4. Wuckoo -- Ch. 5. World factory -- Ch. 6. Colorless green ideas -- Ch. 7. Twenty questions -- Ch. 8. The superiority of the German language -- Epilogue : the infinite gift.
Summary: Draws on cutting-edge scientific findings to address key issues about language development, demonstrating how human beings are born with an innate ability to speak any language but customize their communication abilities to accommodate the language that they hear.Review: "Drawing on cutting-edge developments in biology, neurology, psychology, and linguistics, Charles Yang's The Infinite Gift takes us inside the astonishingly complex but largely subconscious process by which children learn to talk and to understand the spoken word." "Yang illuminates the rich mysteries of language: why French newborns already prefer the sound of French to English; why baby-talk, though often unintelligible, makes perfect linguistic sense; why babies born deaf still babble - but with their hands; why the grammars of some languages may be evolutionarily stronger than others; and why one of the brain's earliest achievements may in fact be its most complex." "Yang also puts forth a new theory. Building on Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar - the idea that every human being is born with an intuitive grasp of grammar - Yang argues that we learn our native languages in part by unlearning the grammars of all the rest."--BOOK JACKET.
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-257) and index.

The Greatest Intellectual Feat -- Mission Improbable -- Silent Rehearsals -- Wuckoo -- Word Factory -- Colorless Green Ideas -- Twenty Questions -- The Superiority of the German Language -- --

Ch. 1. The greatest intellectual feat -- Ch. 2. Mission improbable -- Ch. 3. Silent rehearsals -- Ch. 4. Wuckoo -- Ch. 5. World factory -- Ch. 6. Colorless green ideas -- Ch. 7. Twenty questions -- Ch. 8. The superiority of the German language -- Epilogue : the infinite gift.

Draws on cutting-edge scientific findings to address key issues about language development, demonstrating how human beings are born with an innate ability to speak any language but customize their communication abilities to accommodate the language that they hear.

"Drawing on cutting-edge developments in biology, neurology, psychology, and linguistics, Charles Yang's The Infinite Gift takes us inside the astonishingly complex but largely subconscious process by which children learn to talk and to understand the spoken word." "Yang illuminates the rich mysteries of language: why French newborns already prefer the sound of French to English; why baby-talk, though often unintelligible, makes perfect linguistic sense; why babies born deaf still babble - but with their hands; why the grammars of some languages may be evolutionarily stronger than others; and why one of the brain's earliest achievements may in fact be its most complex." "Yang also puts forth a new theory. Building on Noam Chomsky's notion of a universal grammar - the idea that every human being is born with an intuitive grasp of grammar - Yang argues that we learn our native languages in part by unlearning the grammars of all the rest."--BOOK JACKET.

Also available on the internet.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.

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