Impossible Languages

<b>An investigation into the possibility of impossible languages searching for the indelible fingerprint of human language.</b> <p/>Can there be such a thing as an impossible human language? A biologist could describe an impossible animal as one that goes against the physical laws of nature (entropy for example or gravity). Are there any such laws that constrain languages? In this book Andrea Moro--a distinguished linguist and neuroscientist--investigates the possibility of impossible languages searching as he does so for the indelible fingerprint of human language. <p/>Moro shows how the very notion of impossible languages has helped shape research on the ultimate aim of linguistics: to define the class of possible human languages. He takes us beyond the boundaries of Babel to the set of properties that despite appearances all languages share and explores the sources of that order drawing on scientific experiments he himself helped design. Moro compares syntax to the reverse side of a tapestry revealing a hidden and apparently intricate structure. He describes the brain as a sieve considers the reality of (linguistic) trees and listens for the sound of thought by recording electrical activity in the brain. Words and sentences he tells us are like symphonies and constellations: they have no content of their own; they exist because we listen to them and look at them. We are part of the data.