The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar

The Atoms of Language by Mark Baker One way of looking at this book is that it deals with what Mr. Baker calls the "Navajo Code Talker" paradox (that's basically the author's engaging way of introducing his subject): languages on this planet are very much alike (within limits, any human can learn any language) but also very different. The best example of this is the use of the "Navajo Code Talkers" during WWII: those american citizens were enrolled to translate important messages into their own language (Navajo) for communication on the battle front. The expectation was that Navajo being a hard language, Japanese code breakers would find it difficult to "decrypt" the messages. It appears the initiative was highly successful as the Japanese never managed to "break the code", showing that languages can be very different. But the fact that it is possible to translate back and forth between Navajo and English also shows that languages are not completely non-commensurable. So we have a bit of a paradox. Mr. Baker uses throughout the book a chemical analogy: there are basic ingredients in the human psyche which he calls the atoms of language. What we observe in nature are the much more complicated analogues of molecules, with many atoms put together and interacting in interesting and not always predictable ways. I'm honestly not sure the analogy is particularly compelling, but the author does not take it so far that it becomes annoying. So what are Mr. Baker's atoms? They're a bit abstract, even as far as atoms go, since they are really parameters for languages' grammars. If you've got a bit of a computer science mind, this might make some intuitive sense: if I want to produce procedurally an "object" that represents a grammar, what parameters do I need to specify to have a complete description of the grammar? If you're not into this kind of thinking the author will do quite a bit of fairly competent handholding to get you to the point where you should understand what he's saying. Now what's so interesting about all this? First of all, it appears that parameters are not set randomly. There are certain combinations of parameters that are basically non-sequitur. That's not something that would have been obvious in advance, but it's equally well something that's not particularly easy to interpret. The author actually acknowledges that we don't have the final word on this topic. In summary, this book provides a fairly pedagogical introduction to a rather advanced current research topic. I'm not entirely convinced that the atom and chemistry analogy route chose by the author was the best way to introduce the subject, but at the end of the day I must acknowledge he gets his point across.

A very clear book, I really enjoyed reading it. Now I see the grammar as something with more sense, not just as a set of rules that every language adopts just for caprice.

The Principle and Parameters approach in linguistics is one of Chomsky's most profound theoretical insights, and its elegance and depth in explaining linguistic phenomena across languages is one of the most impressive achievements in linguistics. Baker's book is the best popular introduction to the approach that I have read. It is not as fun and entertaining as Pinker, but it is certainly as understandable, and it does not "dumb down" quite as much as Pinker. The book is a quick read, and contains an impressive chapter on Mohawk. Baker takes the theoretical approaches that he introduces earlier in the book, applies it to the case of Mohawk, formulates a novel explanation, and shows how we can get a deep understanding of the structure of Mohawk from a few, easily understood and elegant principles. All in all, the book is an excellent introduction to how linguistics is done, and the models through which linguists currently think about languages and linguistic phenomena. It gives the best, most understandable explanation of central theoretical concepts such as "parameter" and "I-language" that I have seen, and gives a brief overview of "optimality theory" and other hypotheses in competition to Chomsky's version of P & P. There is much to learn from this book, but I think that only those with a genuine interest in and sympathy to generative linguistics will find this book illuminating. To appreciate the depth and insight of the Principles and Parameters approach, you need some mastery of the technicalities and constructions, and mastery of the technicalities requires patience. To understand the problems and solutions that arise, you have to be willing to sit, think, and go over words and sentences in exotic languages slowly, including their inflections, affixes, and word order. Baker provides enough so that anyone can understand them; but you will still need to spend some time on these sections. I recommend this book to educated readers with some competence in linguistics, or to those who have a genuine interest in learning about generative grammar by looking at specific exotic languages.

This is really an excellent book, though it is a bit of work for the non-professional linguist. Still, I loved the challenge and would highly recommend it, esp. if you liked "The Power of Babel," and Steven Pinkers' books. Dr. Baker's book is wll worth the effort.The title above refers to a form of the Mohawk verb "he likes."Dr. Baker explains polysynthetic languages quite well. One other excellent feature of this book is the last chapter, "Why Parameters?" At first I thought this would bea summary, a mere rehash. But it isn't. Dr. Baker leads us through the plausible mechanisms of how a language changes and it was truly the most exciting part of the book. I never thought before that mere variations in style could be the engine that drives linguistic change. Fascinating!One tiny thing Dr. Baker didn't talk about was the reason why English speakers can understand German word order. Is it because (I believe) we have vestigial understanding apparatus of German word order due to English's ancestry. I love the Germanic word order in a plaque that is in Buffalo here, "Here died McKinley."What I refered to was why can we understand "Yesterday have I your mother seen." or "She said that Tom had her the book given." It is not completely incomprehensible, almost fun!Anyway, thank you Dr. Baker!

Atoms Of Language provides an unusual scientific survey of the world's languages, examining the elements human language holds in common around the world, and the theory first proposed by linguist Noam Chomsky that languages abide by a common set of rules. Baker postulates a new 'periodic table of language' in an intriguing breakthrough blend of linguistics and science.