Language Unlimited
The Science Behind Our Most Creative Power

|| 3.0 stars || This is a book that attempts to explain why language exists the way it does and why humans are the only species (on Earth) capable of a high-functioning language. Its explanation comes in the form of a Universal Grammar, which is described as an innate hierarchical linguistic structur......more

All and all a strong defence of an innate Universal Grammar & the recursive Merge rule. Still, there will not be that much new for people with an academic background in linguistics. The book is an introduction for a more or less general audience with a firm theoretical interest, and the Merge rule N......more

David Adger makes an extensive, thou accesible review on what we know about language and how we've come to know it. From the ancient idea of a natural original language, to Chomsky's notion of "merge". This book toaught me how we understand language. How can we make sense of a sentense despite never......more

David presents the two main existing theories as to how humans learn languages. The first one states that children learn languages simply by exposure, abstracting the details away the more they hear. However, Adger provides some compelling arguments to an alternative theory: that our brains are spec......more

3.5, this was the textbook for a non majors linguistics class I took in 2020 which naturally I never read at the time lol. It’s definitely very introductory which makes sense for a non majors class and does a good job explaining things for people who have never learned this before, but personally I......more