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Can I read Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change) on EtoBox?

Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change) by Steven Pinker, Jeffrey S. Rosenschein, Susan Carey, Lila Gleitman, Elissa L. Newport is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change) about?

A classic book about language acquisition and conceptual structure, with a new preface by the author, "The Secret Life of Verbs."Before Steven Pinker wrote bestsellers on language and human nature, he wrote several technical monographs on language acquisition that have become classics in cognitive science. Learnability and Cognition, first published in 1989, brought together two big topics: how do children learn their mother tongue, and how does the mind represent basic categories of meaning such as space, time, causality, agency, and goals? The stage for this synthesis was set by the fact that when children learn a language, they come to make surprisingly subtle distinctions: pour water into the glass and fill the glass with water sound natural, but pour the glass with water and fill water into the glass sound odd. How can this happen, given that children are not reliably corrected for uttering odd sentences, and they don't just parrot back the correct ones they hear from their parents? Pinker resolves this paradox with a theory of how children acquire the meaning and uses of verbs, and explores that theory's implications for language, thought, and the relationship between them.As

Who reads Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change)?

It is typically read by self-directed learners exploring a subject in depth.

Common subject areas: history, science, philosophy, social sciences.

Author
Steven Pinker, Jeffrey S. Rosenschein, Susan Carey, Lila Gleitman, Elissa L. Newport
Publisher
MIT Press; The MIT Press
Published
2013
Language
EN
ISBN
9780262314275
Category
nonfiction
Subjects
Linguistics, Psychology, Language Learning
Updated
2026-03-24

Other editions & translations

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