Language and mind
by Noam Chomsky · first published 1968
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5HN commenters
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This is the long-awaited third edition of Chomsky's outstanding collection of essays on language and mind. The first six chapters, originally published in the 1960s, made a groundbreaking contribution to linguistic theory. This new edition complements them with an additional chapter and a new preface, bringing Chomsky's influential approach into the twenty-first century. Chapters 1-6 present Chomsky's early work on the nature and acquisition of language as a genetically endowed, biological system (Universal Grammar), through the rules and principles of which we acquire an internalized knowledg
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this is a great list. I would add Hofstadter's Analogy as the fuel and fire of thinking and Chomsky's New horizons in the study of language and mind. they show that language structures are fundamental to consciousness.
on “Ask HN: Any recommended books on developing mental models?” ↗The best books I would recommend are; — The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos — The Book of Why by Judea Pearl — What Computers Still Can't Do by Hubert L. Dreyfus — Society of Mind & The Emotion Machine by Marvin Minsky — The Feeling Of What Happens by Antonio Damasio — Language & Mind by Noam Chomsky — A great mooc is also, the "Learning From Data" Telecourse from Caltech https://work.c
on “Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on in 2024 -ideally not crowded already?” ↗Some of the latter work. He had a book called New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, which is fairly accesible and also covers some historical work, including the necessary underpinning of "where did language come from". His work itself isn't as interested in the way languages evolve.…
on “Has Chomsky been blown out of the water? [pdf]” ↗…anything about historical or social facts. And I am going to say nothing about these elements in language acquisition. The reason is that I think they are relatively unimportant. -- Chomsky, N. (1998), Language and Mind: Current Thoughts and Ancient Problems
on “Chomsky's ‘Galilean’ science of language (paywalled)” ↗…and combine mathematical approaches within a sort of closed domain rather than propose radically new ones - but it’s not helpful for an everyday understanding of creativity. IMO :) In his words, from Language and Mind: "Roughly, where we deal with cognitive structures, either in a mature state of knowledge and belief or in the initial state, we face problems, but not mysteries. When we ask how humans make use of…
on “Terence Tao on O1” ↗