The Linguist

@CIOL_Linguists WINTER 2023 The Linguist 29 SECTION HEADER REVIEWS The Human Mind Through the Lens of Language Nirmalangshu Mukherji Recent years have seen increasing attempts to map language activity and its functions onto the living architecture of the brain: melding the linguistic and the neurological. On trend, if something of an outlier, this book categorises the human mind as generative and species-specific: an innate ability to develop systems of knowledge and ways to communicate them which is uniquely human. Following an extensive review of Descartes' dualism, human and animal cognition, and Chomsky's nativist approach to language acquisition and development, the author covers human evolution. At some point (200,000-300,000 years ago), after an expansion in brain size, there was either a gradual change or an abrupt one which led to the creation of a working language-facility. This evolutionary endowment or "generative mind" provides the basis for arithmetic and music in addition to language. All three are "a kindred class" using a limited number of notation-value Bloomsbury Academic 2022, 280 pp; Hardback ISBN 978-1350062689 £85 pairings to great and largely unlimited effect. Arithmetic does this through "a propositional semantic"; music through "a powerful computational system". Along the way, Pinker's beliefs on Mentalese (Language of Thought) are reviewed, which is to say, our minds at a sub-linguistic level contain ideas, images, sounds and other sensations that prompt linguistic thought and speech. Thus far, so good. However, The Human Mind Through the Lens of Language: Generative explorations is densely written, jargon-heavy and, at times, impenetrable. A number of changes could have improved it. Firstly, the lack of explicit discussion of the brain, as opposed to 'mind', keeps the author's approach too 'top-down' and firmly in the realm of philosophy of language. Secondly, there is a rash of vocabulary which defies comprehension and requires full(er) explanation. One sentence deserves special mention: "[It] appears that MERGE is a special case of Merge since MERGE contains Merge in the form of {a,b}, in the new workspace…" Thirdly, a summary at the end of each chapter might have helped to make the argumentation clearer. For those wishing for a better understanding of matters covered by this book (human evolution and language, and cognition and language processing), I would recommend The Dawn of Language (Johansson, 2021) and Language and the Brain (Brennan, 2022) respectively. Graham Elliott MCIL Across 1 Culturally prohibited, from Polynesian. (4) 3 Flowing out, especially treated sewage water. (8) 9 A language of India, not North America. (7) 10 Aka Modern Standard Arabic. (5) 11 Language group of the Arctic and Subarctic. (5) 12 Language family spoken by millions in North Africa. (6) 14 Take into the body. (6) 16 The first language of Borat? (6) 19 An official language of Nigeria. (6) 21 The Wallsend Metro station has signage in this language. (5) 24 It may be shish or doner. (5) 25 Mental pictures. (7) 26 Such as the band in a Sherlock Holmes adventure. (8) 27 Zayn Malik (ex One Direction) has featured this language in his songs. (4) Down 1 Creole language of Papua New Guinea. (3,5) 2 Family of c.600 languages in the southern half of Africa. (5) 4 This dish went up in flames. (6) 5 Long-term prison inmate. (5) 6 Basque in Basque. (7) 7 Language with honorifics kha used by a woman and khrap used by a man. (4) 8 French city, where an edict was signed in 1598. (6) 13 Shukriya expresses this in 27 across. (5,3) 15 Khuda Haafiz expresses this in 27 across. (7) 17 Not sinking. (6) 18 Language of the rabbits in Watership Down. (6) 20 Second most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish. (5) 22 Third person plural possessive adjective. (5) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Crossword no.35 Solution, page 34

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