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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... sound judgment ... better than most college courses on language and the mind — and a great deal more digestible . " -Boston Globe Book Review " A book to inspire . ” -Perspectives of the Orton Dyslexia Society " A dazzling new book ...
... sound . A delicious read . " -Leila Gleitman , University of Pennsylvania ; President , Linguistic Society of America " A mightily ambitious book .... With an unusual and attractive blend of patience and wit , Pinker is extremely good ...
... sounds of words , not taken from the language of the colonizers . Bickerton notes that if the grammar of a creole is largely the product of the minds of children , unadulterated by complex language input from their parents , it should ...
... sound came — I couldn't speak . . . . I was aston- ished , horrified . I couldn't believe that this was happening to ... sounds were not clearly articulated ; each syllable was uttered harshly , explosively , in a throaty voice ...
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 |