From Molecule to Metaphor: A Neural Theory of Language

Description

In From Molecule to Metaphor, Jerome Feldman proposes a theory of language and thought that treats language not as an abstract symbol system but as a human biological ability that can be studied as a function of the brain, as vision and motor control are studied. This theory, he writes, is a "bridging theory" that works from extensive knowledge at two ends of a causal chain to explicate the links between. Although the cognitive sciences are revealing much about how our brains produce language and thought, we do not yet know exactly how words are understood or have any methodology for finding out. Feldman develops his theory in computer simulations—formal models that suggest ways that language and thought may be realized in the brain. Combining key findings and theories from biology, computer science, linguistics, and psychology, Feldman synthesizes a theory by exhibiting programs that demonstrate the required behavior while remaining consistent with the findings from all disciplines. After presenting the essential results on language, learning, neural computation, the biology of neurons and neural circuits, and the mind/brain, Feldman introduces specific demonstrations and formal models of such topics as how children learn their first words, words for abstract and metaphorical concepts, understanding stories, and grammar (including "hot-button" issues surrounding the innateness of human grammar). With this accessible, comprehensive book Feldman offers readers who want to understand how our brains create thought and language a theory of language that is intuitively plausible and also consistent with existing scientific data at all levels.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  From Molecule to Metaphor: A Neural Theory of Language

  • 2008-01-25
  • 379 pages
  • Paperback
  • MIT Press

Similar books

• 

  The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought

  By Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.

  These essays explore the significance of metaphor in language, thought, culture and artistic expression.

• 

  Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory

  By Zoltan Kovecses

  Offers an extended, improved version of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), updating it in the context of current linguistic theory.

• 

  Philosophy In The Flesh

  By George Lakoff

  Fauconnier , G. , and E. Sweetser , eds . Spaces , Worlds , and Grammar . Chicago : University of Chicago Press . ... Grounded Spaces : Deictic - Self Anaphors in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson . Language and Literature 6 : 1 , 7-28 .

• 

  Every Molecule Tells a Story

  By Simon Cotton

  (ethene) C. Callow, Power from the Sea, London, Victor Gollancz, 1973. (natural gas) J. Darley, High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis, Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004. K. S. Deffeyes, Hubbert's Peak, ...

• 

  From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics

  By Beate Hampe

  mate motion, including walk, march, stroll, amble, pace, saunter, limp, skip, jog, run, and sprint, to name just a few. Are there image schemas associated with these ýmannerü verbs? While the schemas used in spatial relations ...

• 

  Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing

  By Hinrich Schütze, Christopher Manning

  In R. Casey and B. Croft (eds.), Second Annual Symposium on Document Analysis and Information ... Stolcke, A., E. Shriberg, R. Bates, N. Coccaro, D. Jurafsky, R. Martin, M. Meteer, K. Ries, P. Taylor, and C. Van Ess-Dykema. 1998.

• 

  Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth-century Biology

  By Evelyn Fox Keller

  Refiguring Life begins with the history of genetics and embryology, showing how discipline-based metaphors have directed scientists' search for evidence.

• 

  Whose Freedom?: The Battle over America's Most Important Idea

  By George Lakoff

  But in Whose Freedom?, George Lakoff, an adviser to the Democratic party, shows that in fact the right has effected a devastatingly coherent and ideological redefinition of freedom.

• 

  Metaphor: A Practical Introduction

  By Zoltan Kovecses

  This second edition includes two new chapters--on 'metaphors in discourse' and 'metaphor and emotion' --along with new exercises, responses to criticism and recent developments in the field, and revised student exercises, tables, and ...

• 

  Making Truth: Metaphor in Science

  By Theodore L. Brown

  A new perspective on how scientists reason about the world, design and interpret experiments and communicate with one another and with the larger society outside science.