{"product_id":"a-users-guide-to-thought-and-meaning-9780198736455","title":"A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning","description":"Hailed as a masterpiece (\u003cem\u003eNature\u003c\/em\u003e) and as the most important book in the sciences of language to have appeared in many years (Steven Pinker), Ray Jackendoff's \u003cem\u003eFoundations of Language\u003c\/em\u003e was widely acclaimed as a landmark work of scholarship that radically overturned our understanding of how\u003cbr\u003elanguage, the brain, and perception intermesh. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cem\u003eA User's Guide to Thought and Meaning\u003c\/em\u003e is Jackendoff's most important book since his groundbreaking \u003cem\u003eFoundations of Language\u003c\/em\u003e. Written with an informality that belies the originality of its insights, it presents a radical new account of the relation between language, meaning, rationality, \u003cbr\u003eperception, consciousness, and thought, and, extraordinarily, does this in terms a non-specialist will grasp with ease. Jackendoff starts out by looking at languages and what the meanings of words and sentences actually do. Finding meanings to be more adaptive and complicated than they're commonly\u003cbr\u003egiven credit for, he is led to some basic questions: how do we perceive and act in the world? How do we talk about it? And how can the collection of neurons in the brain give rise to conscious experience? He shows that the organization of language, thought, and perception does not look much like the\u003cbr\u003eway we experience things, and that only a small part of what the brain does is conscious. He concludes that thought and meaning must be almost completely unconscious. What we experience as rational conscious thought--which we prize as setting us apart from the animals--in fact rides on a foundation\u003cbr\u003eof unconscious intuition. Rationality amounts to intuition enhanced by language. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ray Jackendoff's profound and arresting account will appeal to everyone interested in the workings of the mind, in how language links to the world, and in what understanding these means for the way we experience our lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Acclaim for Foundations of Language: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A book that deserves to be read and reread by anyone seriously interested in the state of the art of research on language.\u003cbr\u003e --\u003cem\u003eAmerican Scientist\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A dazzling combination of theory-building and factual integration. The result is a compelling new view of language and its place in the natural world.\u003cbr\u003e --Steven Pinker, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Language of Instinct\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWords and Rules\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A masterpiece. . . . The book deserves to be the reference point for all future theorizing about the language faculty and its interconnections.\u003cbr\u003e --Frederick J. Newmeyer, past president of the Linguistic Society of America \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This book has the potential to reorient linguistics more decisively than any book since \u003cem\u003eSyntactic Structures\u003c\/em\u003e shook the discipline almost half a century ago.\u003cbr\u003e --Robbins Burling, \u003cem\u003eLanguage in Society\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ray Jackendoff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198736455\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRay Jackendoff\u003c\/strong\u003e is Seth Merrin Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. His books include \u003cem\u003eFoundations of Language, Language, Consciousness, Culture: Essays on Mental Structure\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eMeaning and the Lexicon: The Parallel Architecture, 1975-2010\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39932103950451,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_c14954e4-9eb2-4c46-a1d4-21b8e84dc162.jpg?v=1647789984","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/a-users-guide-to-thought-and-meaning-9780198736455","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}