ENGLISH

As Time Goes By: Tense and Universal Grammar

By Norbert Hornstein

Book information

Publisher
MIT Press
Year
1993
ISBN
9780262581295, 9780585367293, 0262581299
Google Books ID
sIqcwHjIypgC
Open Library ID
OL10238205M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
777 kB (795798 bytes)
Pages
245\245
Scanned
no
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

How do humans acquire, at a very early age and from fragmentary and haphazard data, the complex patterns of their native language? This is the logical problem of language acquisition, and it is the question that directs the search for an innate universal grammar. As Time Goes By extends the search by proposing a theory of natural-language tense that will be responsive to the problem of language acquisition.The clearly written discussion proceeds step-by-step from simple observations and principles to far-reaching conclusions involving complex data carefully selected and persuasively presented. Throughout, Hornstein focuses on the logical problem of language acquisition, highlighting the importance of explanatory adequacy and the role of syntactic representations in determining intricate properties of semantic interpretation.Norbert Hornstein, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, is the author of Logic as Grammar: An Approach to Meaning in Natural Languages.

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