Sampson is the best model available for considering an alternative to the views Pinker writes about. Sampson explores cognitive and social explanations for the ‘language instinct’ in a way which is scholarly, readable and beautifully balanced and persuasive.
An excellent introduction to the themes of language change and semantic drift which are the focus of the last few weeks of this module, and which you will be addressing in your Forum contributions.
Available as an ebook through Athens
A highly accessible introduction to some key semantic concepts - and in particular an excellent chapter on 'Sentence patterns' which has a clear explanation of phrase analysis and syntactic trees.
Available as an ebook through Athens