Names for Things: A Study of Human Learning (Bradford Books) - Softcover

Macnamara, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262630923 ISBN 13: 9780262630924

Publisher: MIT Press, 1984

Synopsis

The book is concerned with the child's acquisition of names (by which is meant words that refer to objects - including proper names, common nouns in some uses, and pronouns in some uses).

About this title

About the Author:

John Macnamara is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science, McGill University.

Review:

I know of no other work that so simply spells out all the central issues. The book is concerned with the child's acquisition of names (by which is meant words that refer to objects - including proper names, common nouns in some uses, and pronouns in some uses). Macnamara shows that a theory of acquisition must specify what the child brings to the task, and then how he uses what is innately given. Macnamara then proceeds to lay out the problem in all its complexity, while also carving out chunks of it on which empirical progress can be made. The result is delightful, informative, and precedent-setting.―Susan Carey, MIT (Endorsement)

Macnamara promises us that a careful treatment of how children learn to use nouns will raise some of the deepest questions to be found in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and philosophy of mind, and will contribute to answers to these questions as well. In his new book, Names for Things, Macnamara keeps that promise.―Steven Pinker, Stanford University (Endorsement)

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0262630923
• ISBN 13: 9780262630924
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288