The Crucible of Language

Vyvyan Evans is Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University, where he has served as Head of the School of Linguistics and English Language, and Deputy Head of the College of Arts and Humanities.

• Part I. The Ineffability of Meaning: 1. Introduction: unweaving a mystery; 2. The alchemist, the crucible, and the ineffability of meaning; Part II. Meaning in Mind: 3. Patterns in language, patterns in the mind; 4. Time is our fruit fly; 5. Concepts body forth; 6. The concept-making engine (or how to build a baby); 7. The act of creation; Part III. Meaning in Language: 8. Webs of words; 9. Meaning in the mix; 10. The cooperative species; 11. The crucible of language; Epilogue: the golden triangle.

'Evans has reclaimed language from the dry dissection of grammatical structure and returned it to the public as a topic to think deeply about.' Alun Anderson, New Scientist