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The Twitter Machine:: Reflections on Language
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Twitter Machine:: Reflections on Language Paperback - 1991

by Neil Smith


From the publisher

This unique book provides an introductory overview of modern theoretical linguistics which manages to be both accessible and humorous without sacrificing either scholarship of insight.

In a series of magisterial vignettes Smith emphasizes the perennial necessity of appealing to linguistic theory if we are to gain any real understanding of the phenomena of language.

However profound or however trivial the questions we raise and try answer - What exactly does one have to know to count as a speaker of a language? What would it mean for a language to have no vowels? Why do little children call lorries 'lollies'? Precisely what with this sentence is wrong? - we need to recourse to a theory even to make them coherent. In particular, the author argues that we can find solutions to our puzzles, and explanations for these phenomena, if we exploit on the one hand Chomsky's theory of Generative Grammar, and on the other Sperber and Wilson's theory of Relevance.

From the rear cover

This unique book provides an introductory overview of modern theoretical linguistics which manages to be both accessible and humorous without sacrificing either scholarship of insight.

In a series of magisterial vignettes Smith emphasizes the perennial necessity of appealing to linguistic theory if we are to gain any real understanding of the phenomena of language.

However profound or however trivial the questions we raise and try answer - What exactly does one have to know to count as a speaker of a language? What would it mean for a language to have no vowels? Why do little children call lorries 'lollies'? Precisely what with this sentence is wrong? - we need to recourse to a theory even to make them coherent. In particular, the author argues that we can find solutions to our puzzles, and explanations for these phenomena, if we exploit on the one hand Chomsky's theory of Generative Grammar, and on the other Sperber and Wilson's theory of Relevance.

Details

  • Title The Twitter Machine:: Reflections on Language
  • Author Neil Smith
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition New Edition
  • Pages 284
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • Date 1991-01-08
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780631169260 / 0631169261
  • Weight 1.02 lbs (0.46 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.08 x 6.08 x 0.74 in (23.06 x 15.44 x 1.88 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Linguistics, Language and languages
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 88036799
  • Dewey Decimal Code 410

About the author

Neil Smith was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and University College London, where he received his Ph.D. in Linguistics for research which included a year's fieldwork among the Nupe in Nigeria. He did further research at MIT and UCLA while holding a Harkness Fellowship, and since 1972 has been at UCL, where he is currently Professor of Linguistics. He was chairman of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain from 1980 to 1986. He is married with two sons.
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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language

by Smith, N.V.

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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language

by Smith, N. V.

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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language

by Neil Smith

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Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine : Reflections on Language
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Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language
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The Twitter Machine : Reflections on Language
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