{"product_id":"the-ascent-of-babel-an-exploration-of-language-mind-and-understanding-paperback-2","title":"The Ascent of Babel: An Exploration of Language, Mind, and Understanding - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGerry T. M. Altmann\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAndrea Enzinger\u003c\/b\u003e (Illustrator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe brain holds some 10 billion neurons, an truly amazing number. But taken one at a time, there is nothing amazing about a nerve cell. If you stimulate one, it will stimulate other neurons to which it is connected. And that is \u003cem\u003eall\u003c\/em\u003e that a neuron does. And yet arising from this great mass of\u003cbr\u003esimple cells is every one of our mental faculties, including perhaps the most marvelous of all, our use of language. How do neurons take tiny vibrations on the ear drum and somehow capture meanings about the world? How does the brain understand written words and how does it form a reply? In \u003cem\u003eThe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eAscent of Babel\u003c\/em\u003e, psycholinguist Gerry Altmann offers a state-of-the-art look at what we now know about the miracle of language.\u003cbr\u003e Here is a wide ranging, engaging tour of how we use language. Altmann begins even before we are born, revealing that the fetus in the last trimester is already listening to the language of its parents and that, within days of birth, it can distinguish its parents' language from other\u003cbr\u003elanguages. He discusses the incredible progress the child makes in language recognition (expanding from 100 words at age one to some 60,000 words by adulthood) and he looks at the neural activity involved in language perception, revealing for instance that the pattern of neural activity evoked by a\u003cbr\u003esentence like \"the bald man ate a big fish\" is probably quite similar to that evoked by actually seeing a bald man eat a big fish. There is an illuminating section on spoken language, highlighting some of the differences between various tongues (English has some 12,000 syllables, for example, while\u003cbr\u003eJapanese uses fewer than 120, which explains why Japanese words tend to have many syllables). Altmann shows how errors we make when speaking--such as malapropisms and spoonerisms (garbled utterances such as \"The lord is a shoving leopard\")--can tell us much about how we plan and execute a spoken\u003cbr\u003esentence, and he explores what happens when the brain misfunctions, as it does in aphasia, dyslexia, and other forms of language deficit, such as Pure Word Deafness (where patients can read, write, and speak normally, but can't understand words spoken to them). Finally, in one of the most intriguing\u003cbr\u003esections of the book, the author provides a fascinating account of recent experiments in artificial neural networks, describing how scientists simulate neuronal activity on a computer, and explaining why their results seem to provide an alternative to the theories of Noam Chomsky about innate\u003cbr\u003estructures in the brain.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Ascent of Babel\u003c\/em\u003e is a journey of discovery, illuminating how, through the workings of the brain, we use language to reach out and touch each other's minds. Up to date, authoritative, and engagingly written, it will be must reading for everyone curious about the mysteries of language or of\u003cbr\u003ethe mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGerry T.M. Altmann\u003c\/strong\u003e is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.67 x 9.19 x 6.15 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 06, 1999\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42035323240528,"sku":"9780198523772","price":159.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/9540\/0016\/files\/T3NKb1JyTXJHZGhwSVpEYUFrdkRrUT09_b3a2995d-25dc-4436-be71-462230b8bcc4.webp?v=1771838095","url":"https:\/\/palm-malen-gift-shop-pmrc.myshopify.com\/products\/the-ascent-of-babel-an-exploration-of-language-mind-and-understanding-paperback-2","provider":"Palm Malen Gift Shop -PMRC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}