The Basque Language

Forget the language instinct―this is the story of how we make up language as we go Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity―and one that remains poorly understood. In The Language Game, cognitive scientists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater show us where generations of scientists seeking the rules of language got it wrong. Language isn’t about hardwired grammars but about near-total freedom, something like a game of charades, with the only requirement being a desire to understand and be understood. From this new vantage point, Christiansen and Chater find compelling solutions to major mysteries like the origins of languages and how language learning is possible, and to long-running debates such as whether having two words for “blue” changes what we see. In the end, they show that the only real constraint on communication is our imagination.

How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Shakespearean English difficult for us and Chaucer’s English almost incomprehensible? Why d

A leading authority on bilingualism challenges the dogma surrounding child and adult language learning, the intellectual and social implications of bilingualism, bilingual education, and other issues

Just in time for the 2018 World Cup, a lively and lyrical guide to appreciating the drama of soccer Soccer is not only the world's most popular sport; it's also one of the most widely shared forms of

What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can speak and understand a language? Why can’t other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human

Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies

For many of us, classical music is something serious?something we study in school, something played by cultivated musicians at fancy gatherings. In Language of the Spirit, renowned music scholar Jan S

Disillusionment with psychology is leading more and more people to formal philosophy for clues about how to think about life. But most of us who try to grapple with concepts such as reality, truth, common sense, consciousness, and society lack the rigorous training to discuss them with any confidence. John Searle brings these notions down from their abstract heights to the terra firma of real-world understanding, so that those with no knowledge of philosophy can understand how these principles play out in our everyday lives. The author stresses that there is a real world out there to deal with, and condemns the belief that the reality of our world is dependent on our perception of it.

Scientists have long theorized that abstract, symbolic thinking evolved to help humans negotiate such classically male activities as hunting, tool making, and warfare, and eventually developed into s

Lost in an art—the art of translation. Thus, in an elegant anagram (translation = lost in an art), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and pioneering cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter hints at w

The co-discoverer of the ?split brain” theory tells how science is recasting the age-old question of nature versus nurture to create a startling new view of human behavior. Recent disc

"A sneaky--charming, consistently engrossing--introduction to linguistics." --New York Times Book Review Everyone swears. Only the rare individual can avoid ever letting slip an expletive. And yet, we

Smart as hell and funny as fuck, this book explains why we can’t stop swearing and what it tells us about our language and brains.Everyone swears. Only the rare individual can avoid ever letting slip

How can a therapist create the kind of relationship and conversation with a client that allows both to access their creativity and develop possibilities where none seemed to exist before? To answer th

"An important and alarming new book." --New York TimesThe way we teach reading is not working, and it cannot continue. We have largely abandoned phones-based reading instruction, despite research that

According to a leading cognitive scientist, we’ve been teaching reading wrong. The latest science reveals how we can do it right.

John Simpson has spent almost four decades immersed in the intricacies of human language. In The Word Detective, an intensely personal memoir and a joyful celebration of the English language, Simpson

Birstein, a former member of the Russian Academy of Science, uses his experiences as a Soviet scientist and his access to Russian language sources to publicize previously unknown information about bio

In its first two decades, much of cognitive science focused on such mental functions as memory, learning, symbolic thought, and language acquisition --the functions in which the human mind most closel

Though there is a contingent of linguists who fight the fact, our language is always changing--not only through slang, but sound, syntax, and words' meanings as well. Debunking the myth of "pure" stan

The definitive annotated translation of Marcus Aurelius's MeditationsMarcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) was the sixteenth emperor of Rome -- and by far the most powerful man in the world. Yet he was also an intensely private person, with a rich interior life and one of the wisest minds of his generation. He collected his thoughts in notebooks, gems that have come to be called his Meditations. Never intended for publication, the work has proved an inexhaustible source of wisdom and one of the most important Stoic texts of all time. In often passionate language, the entries range from one-line aphorisms to essays, from profundity to bitterness.This annotated edition offers the definitive translation of this classic and much beloved text, with copious notes from world-renowned classics expert Robin Waterfield. It illuminates one of the greatest works of popular philosophy for new readers and enriches the understanding of even the most devoted Stoic.

Whether it’s brusque, convincing, fraught with emotion, or dripping with innuendo, language is fundamentally a tool for conveying meaning—a uniquely human magic trick in which you vibrate your vocal c

From William S. Burroughs to DMX, Patti Smith to Boxcar Bertha, The Outlaw Bible of American Literature is a volcanic eruption of language in the voices of revolutionaries and hoboes, boxers and gang

Provides a history of the Yiddish language, its contributions to the story of Judaism, and its rapid growth in ultra-Orthodox movements.

We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to language. Whether we are

Many appreciate Richard P. Feynman’s contributions to twentieth-century physics, but few realize how engaged he was with the world around him—how deeply and thoughtfully he considered the religious, political, and social issues of his day. Now, a wonderful book—based on a previously unpublished, three-part public lecture he gave at the University of Washington in 1963—shows us this other side of Feynman, as he expounds on the inherent conflict between science and religion, people’s distrust of politicians, and our universal fascination with flying saucers, faith healing, and mental telepathy. Here we see Feynman in top form: nearly bursting into a Navajo war chant, then pressing for an overhaul of the English language (if you want to know why Johnny can’t read, just look at the spelling of “friend”); and, finally, ruminating on the death of his first wife from tuberculosis. This is quintessential Feynman—reflective, amusing, and ever enlightening.

A distinguished dance critic offers an enchanting introduction to the art of balletAs much as we may enjoy Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, for many of us ballet is a foreign language. It communicates thr

An eminent psychologist offers a major new theory of human cognition: movement, not language, is the foundation of thoughtWhen we try to think about how we think, we can't help but think of words. Indeed, some have called language the stuff of thought. But pictures are remembered far better than words, and describing faces, scenes, and events defies words. Anytime you take a shortcut or play chess or basketball or rearrange your furniture in your mind, you've done something remarkable: abstract thinking without words. In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, unde