Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Four chapters in the book's first section, Matters Mainly Psychological, describe empirical observations that explore how a child copes with the fact that many different name-like words can be applied to a single object.A second major section, Matters Mainly Linguistic, contains chapters on phonology, the learning of grammatical categories, the definite and indefinite articles,and the plural. A third section, Matters Mainly Philosophical, focuses entirely on the complex issues of reference and meaning. A final chapter reflects on the implications of the book for developmental psychology.John Macnamara is a world-recognized developmental psychologist and Professor of Psychology at McGill University. An MIT Press/Bradford Book.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"In a fascinating and controversial book, Macnamara explores a complex question —how children learn which words go into which grammatical categories, how they learn to name 'things you could bump into.' The author, a professor of psychology at McGill University, travels through psychological, linguistic, and philosophical domains, weaving empirical research with intelligent speculation. Along the way he criticizes the views of those who, like Piaget and Inhelder, assume that the child's mind is very different from the adult's, and that children cannot form 'true concepts' until at least the age of 7 because they haven't the logical mechanisms required....Names for Things is a hard but rewarding book." Psychology Today
"In a fascinating and controversial book, Macnamara explores a complex question—how children learn which words go into which grammatical categories, how they learn to name 'things you could bump into.' The author, a professor of psychology at McGill University, travels through psychological, linguistic, and philosophical domains, weaving empirical research with intelligent speculation. Along the way he criticizes the views of those who, like Piaget and Inhelder, assume that the child's mind is very different from the adult's, and that children cannot form 'true concepts' until at least the age of 7 because they haven't the logical mechanisms required.... Names for Things is a hard but rewarding book."Psychology Today