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In tackling a learnability paradox that has challenged scholars
for more than a decade—how children acquire predicate-argument
structures in their language—Steven Pinker synthesizes a vast
literature in the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics, and
outlines explicit theories of the mental representation, the learning,
and the development of verb meaning and verb syntax. He describes
a new theory that has some surprising implications for the relation
between language and thought.
"The author's arguments are never less than impressive, and
sometimes irresistible, such is the force and panache with which
they are deployed."
—Paul Fletcher, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Learnability and Cognition is theoretically a big advance,
beautifully reasoned, and a gold mine of information."
—Lila Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania
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