UPDATES 2021
I have reduced my travel plans, as well as my social media presence in order to concentrate on two major projects that see my…
A discussion of “Understanding Recursion and Looking for Self-Embedding in Pirahã”
A discussion of Understanding Recursion and Looking for Self-Embedding in Pirahã, by Raiane Oliveira Salles, Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/26480/26480.PDF In the…
Talk the Talk Podcast
An interview in which I discuss serious problems with the very concept of Universal Grammar. Listen Now: (more…)
Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolfe? Apparently everyone.
Gibberish meets Wolfe: Recursion is Just a State of Mind Tom Wolfe’s new book, The Kingdom of Speech, continues to be the object of…
How Language Began
My newest book, after Dark Matter of the Mind, is called How Language Began: the Story of Humanity’s Greatest Invention (due out in Spring…
The Kingdom of Speech/Tom Wolfe
In August 2016, author Tom Wolfe published a book , The Kingdom of Speech, in which he discusses the work of four major figures…
Blessid
I have been listed as a producer on Blessid, a local indie film. It is a suspense drama about a pregnant woman who forms…
Overview of my new book
Pending publication with University of Chicago press, here is the overview of my new book, Dark Matter of the Mind. “Is it in our nature to…
What would it take to show that something is an instinct?
I believe that there is evidence for instincts and innate capacities in all creatures. But I believe that the evidence presented is often weak.…
Homesigns: Excerpt from Dark Matter of the Mind
So far, we have seen nothing in grammar, gestures, or other aspects of language that would lead us to believe that anything needs to…
Out of Africa
We are all out of Africa. But does this hold true of Homo sapiens or only our earlier ancestors, such as Homo erectus? In…
Chomskyan vs. Greenbergian Universals
Now that my latest book, Dark Matter of the Mind: A Culturally Articulated Conception of the Unconscious, has been sent to the publisher, I…
