The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar (review)

In this book, Mark Baker takes the theory of parameters of languages to a new height. He visualizes a day when linguists should be able to produce a complete list of parameters that define all human languages, and that would ultimately define the periodic table of languages just as Dmitry Mendeleyev produced a periodic table of the elements that define all physical substances. Parameters can then be thought of as atoms of linguistic diversity. The idea of parameters was first introduced by Noam Chomsky; he claimed that all languages are combinations of a finite number of basic parameters and regulating principles which he called the universal grammar. Earlier, the foundation was laid by the typological approach to the study of languages by Joseph Greenberg and also Johanna Nichols. B extends these concepts, explores the logic of parameters in a wide variety of languages, and proposes a hierarchy of parameters that interact with each other in complex ways. Why parameters should exist at all seems more of a mystery than a puzzle, a distinction made in the field of philosophy and cognitive science by Chomsky, Colin McGinn, and Steven Pinker.

The book has seven chapters and a preface. Ch. 1, ‘The code talker paradox’ (1–18), begins with the narrative of one of the great stories of World War II, which highlights the similarities and differences between languages. In Ch. 2, ‘The discovery of atoms’ (19–50), B shows that the concept of parameters can solve the problem of the code talker paradox. In this chapter, he draws a broad parallel between chemistry and linguistics. Ch. 3, ‘Samples versus recipes’ (51–84), distinguishes between I-language and E-language, a distinction made by Chomsky. B then discusses the various approaches to the parameter theory. In Ch. 4, ‘Baking a polysynthetic language’ (85–121), B extensively discusses the properties of a polysynthetic language like Mohawk. I-Mohawk differs from I-English in one relatively small way, but the difference is strategically placed to have a huge effect. This parameter is called the ‘polysynthesis parameter’. Ch. 5, ‘Alloys and compounds’ (123–56), highlights the fact that languages can differ in more than one parameter. When this happens, those parameters interact in ways that establish the basic properties of these ‘alloys’ and ‘compound’ languages, just as in chemistry. In Ch. 6, ‘Toward a periodic table of languages’ (157–97), B extensively studies the characteristics of a periodic table in chemistry and imagines a periodic table of languages. He proposes the following parametric hierarchy: ‘Parameter X ranks higher than parameter Y if and only if Y produces a difference in one type of language defined by X, but not in the other’ (163). Ch. 7, ‘Why parameters’ (199–234), speculates as to why parameters exist at all. Three relatives of the parameter—free will, intentionality, and a priori knowledge—are identified, all of which are on the list of the great mysteries of philosophy and cognitive science.