The Prism of Grammar : How Child Language Illuminates Humanism.

Intro -- Foreword -- Preface -- Gratitude -- I - Goals and Grand Perspectives -- 1 - Setting the Stage: Animating Ideas, Ambitious Goals, and Ardent Commitments -- 2 - Grammar's Gift to Our Image of Human Nature -- II - Why Language Acquisition Is a Challenge to the Child -- 3 - First Words: Glimpses of the Mind -- 4 - First Phrases: Glimpses of Grammar -- 5 - The Absence of Absolute Reference -- 6 - The Heartbeat of Grammar: Recursion -- 7 - The Structure of Silence -- 8 - The Pantheon of Plurals: From Possible Worlds to the Ethicsof Our World -- III - Microdialects and Language Diversity -- 9 - Language Variation: Emotion Overtakes Structure -- 10 - Are We All Bilingual? -- 11 - The Riches of African-American English -- IV - Finding Philosophy and Morality in Every Sentence -- 12 - Philosophical Consequences: The Path from Mathematics to Human Dignity -- 13 - False False Belief Belief and True False Belief Belief -- 14 - The Ideas behind the Concept of ''Idea'' -- 15 - In Defense of Dignity -- Afterword -- Notes -- References -- Explorations -- Index.

Exploring the creativity of mind through children's language: how the tiniest utterances can illustrate the simple but abstract principles behind modern grammar--and reveal the innate structures of the mind.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.