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Overview
This book emphasizes the role of semantics as a bridge between the theory of language and the theories of other cognitive capacities such as visual perception and motor control. It develops the position that the study of semantics of natural language is the study of the structure of thought, and that grammatical structure offers a much more important source of evidence for the theory of cognition than is often supposed by linguists, philosophers, psychologists, or computer scientists.
Semantics and Cognition is included in the series, Current Studies in Linguistics.
About the Author
Ray Jackendoff is Seth Merrin Professor of Philosophy and Codirector of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of many books, including Foundations of Language.
Endorsements
"All students of language and cognition will want to read Ray Jackendoff's exciting new book. Almost for the first time, we have a work that suggests plausible bridges between theories of lexical semantics and theories of perceptual and cognitive processes, presented in a way specific enough to do us good."
- Lila Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania
"Jackendoff's book is an important contribution to cognitive science. It is full of fascinating, even beautiful, hypotheses and results. The book provides systematic empirical evidence and a theoretical analysis concerning the nature of cognition. The results of this book provide major hope that there may yet be a calculus of thought."
- Kenneth Wexler, University of California