Steven Pinker
Paperback | Pages: 448 pages Rating: 4.03 | 17638 Users | 894 Reviews
Particularize Containing Books The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
| Title | : | The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language |
| Author | : | Steven Pinker |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 448 pages |
| Published | : | November 7th 2000 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published January 1st 1994) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Science. Humanities. Linguistics. Psychology. Language. Philosophy. Biology. Neuroscience |
Commentary As Books The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind.In this classic, 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.
Details Books Supposing The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
| Original Title: | The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language |
| ISBN: | 0060958332 (ISBN13: 9780060958336) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | William James Book Award (1994) |
Rating Containing Books The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
Ratings: 4.03 From 17638 Users | 894 ReviewsCriticism Containing Books The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
Pinker is a fabulous author and has an interesting story to tell with this one. His premise is that much of what we consider to be learned in our early years as children,through practice with language, is actually pre hardwired in our brains as in an almost universal understanding of syntax that can get laid out in a number of different languages in a number of different ways. That the ways humans have developed to think of the world is inherent in our understanding of this language. I don'tInteresting for its discussion of language and language acquisition. But: too many people take Pinker's word as gospel, when in fact his theories are quite controversial. This book also bears a lot of responsibility for the rise of pop EvPsych. Evolutionary psychology is a field that has a few worthwhile observations mixed with an awful lot of BS used to justify all sorts of learned behavior. So, read this book with a very large grain of salt.
Steven Pinker and I should be natural enemies. He's a representative of what I consider to be the smarmy, science-precludes-all-else school of hung-up modernist reductionists, while I fly the flag of what he considers to be the wishy-washy, Nietzsche-damaged academic Left. And yet it's difficult for me not to have some respect for his project.When he's not making potshots at relativism(s), he is generally quite lucid and charming, and throughout writes with a clear, approachable logic. By
When it comes to something I don't know much about, I'm pretty easily swayed by other people's arguments. Like, I finished this book feeling it was pretty intelligent and interesting, and then I read some criticisms and reviews and heck, I don't know what to think. Still, I did find it interesting, and while the book looks deceptively slim for how long it took me to get through it, Pinker expresses his arguments clearly, with examples and sourcing, etc. His basic argument is that we're hardwired
This book is an excellent introduction into linguistics and language-related scientific fields (such as psycholinguistics, evolutionary linguistics, learning theory, etc), for someone like me who has been fascinated by the subject for a long time, but only had the chance to dabble a toe or two into one sub-area or another.It corrects many popular misconceptions about language and language learning, from the point of view of the author, based on the latest scientific concensus (at the time the
Very interesting. Too long and technical for me. Most of the stuff I didn't care about. Not a criticism of the book but just a mismatch of interest.Middle was boring. Writing was good. Sharp style. Insults fools and posers. Funny. Charming. The perfect example is the beginning of chapter 11 pg 340. This is the way to argue. Funny, ridiculing, forceful and gets the message across.His metaphors are really good. Aspire to this.Language is built into the mind. It evolved by natural selection. It is
I really-really like my readings about languages (English and my native Russian), never bored with them, and this particular book was a treat. Ill read other books of Steven Pinker for sure.
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