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
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... problem - solver and engineer . But a race of Robinson Crusoes would not give an extraterrestrial observer all that much to remark on . What is truly arresting about our kind is better captured in the story of the Tower of Babel , in ...
... problem of any historical science : no one recorded the crucial events at the time they happened . Although historical linguists can trace modern complex languages back to earlier ones , this just pushes the problem back a step ; we ...
... problem thought up by a generally brainy species . If language is an instinct , it should have an identifiable seat in the brain , and perhaps even a special set of genes that help wire it into place . Disrupt these genes or neurons ...
... problems were not in controlling his vocal muscles . He could blow out a candle and clear his throat , and he was as linguistically hobbled when he wrote as when he spoke . Most of his handicaps centered around grammar itself . He ...
... problem the mind has to solve . For the other problems , the brain can limp along at less than its full capacity ; for language , all systems have to be one hundred percent . To clinch the case , we need to find the opposite ...
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 |