Language, Thought, and Logic (Rethinking Theory)

John M. Ellis's Against Deconstruction was hailed as the definitive critique of that complex movement. Now in Language, Thought, and Logic, Ellis surmounts the impasses and confusion in theory of language to develop a new and strikingly original view. Ellis argues that categorization, not syntax, is the most fundamental aspect and process of language and that neither anything else in language nor, indeed, its purposes can be properly understood until the nature of categorization has been grasped. In the same spirit, he analyzes the notion of grammar and the place of language in human thought.

Powerful, rigorous, and innovative, Language, Thought, and Logic makes an important contribution to the understanding of contemporary linguistics.

John M. Ellis is professor of German Literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is the author of eight bokos, including Against Deconstruction, One Fairy-Story Too Many: The Brothers Grimm and Their Tales, and The Theory of Literary Criticism: A Logical Analysis.