The Language Instinct: How The Mind Creates LanguageHarper Collins, 2010 M12 14 - 576 pages "A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 16
... ability , as he lays his stall out with clarity and candor . . . . Darwin . . . would surely be impressed by the way in which Pinker sheds light on these questions .... A superb book , simply at the level of being a good read : it is ...
... ability to understand the ordinary person's linguistic hang - ups and to shake them loose with gentle ridicule . . . . Whatever its eventual impact on linguistics and psy- chology , The Language Instinct will undoubtedly be greeted as a ...
... ability that is uncontroversially present in every one of us . That ability is language . Simply by making noises with our mouths , we can reliably cause precise new combina- tions of ideas to arise in each other's minds . The ability ...
... ability to read and write , and this makes our communication even more impressive by bridging gaps of time , space , and acquaintanceship . But writing is clearly an optional accessory ; the real engine of verbal communication is the ...
... abilities has revolutionary implications for our understanding of language and its role in human affairs , and for our ... ability of the average person to construct a grammatical sentence . They also know that English is a zany , logic ...
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
44 | |
How Language Works | 74 |
Words Words Words | 119 |
The Sounds of Silence | 153 |
Talking Heads | 190 |
The Tower of Babel | 231 |
Language Organs and Grammar Genes | 302 |
The Big Bang | 340 |
The Language Mavens | 382 |
Mind Design | 419 |
Notes | 449 |
References | 469 |
Glossary | 503 |
Index | 517 |