The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
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The Language Instinct
How the Mind Creates Language

Bestseller

Author: Steven Pinker

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 18 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 12/06/2011


Synopsis

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.“Pinker writes with acid verve.” —Atlantic Monthly“An extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written.” —Noam Chomsky

About Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer finalist and the winner of many prizes for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers. He lives in Cambridge.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Manny on June 14, 2012

There's a joke in this book that linguists really like. An English woman has just got off the plane at Boston's Logan airport. She takes a cab, and starts questioning the driver about where to obtain various local delicacies. "Oh yes," she says in her posh English accent. "Could you tell me where you......more

Goodreads review by Tyas on February 25, 2009

A friend, a diplomat’s daughter, when asked how she had managed to master Dutch when she went to a school in Suriname, shrugged. “I don’t know. I remember being so confused during the first day, not understanding a single word. But not so long after that, I was able to speak in Dutch. I just spoke, I......more

Goodreads review by David on April 09, 2010

Previously, I had read Steven Pinker's "The Stuff of Thought", which is also an excellent book. I enjoyed that book, so I next read this one--and I'm glad I did. "The Language Instinct" is an absolutely fascinating book! The author presents some very convincing arguments, that the acquisition of lan......more

Goodreads review by Майя on October 07, 2021

I have great respect for Noam Chomsky's Theory of Universal Grammar, to the popularization of which Steven Pinker dedicates this work. The idea of a built-in mechanism of instinctive comprehension of language at the genetic level is a powerful incentive for those who want to study. It is sad that the......more

Goodreads review by Jimmy on March 26, 2015

In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin wrote, “Man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; while no child has an instinctive tendency to bake, brew, or write.” The experimental psychologist, Steven Pinker, took this quote as the inspiration for his book on......more