The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind
1994 • 506 pages
Ratings16
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings16
Average rating4.1
From the Preface...
I have never met a person who is not interested in language. I wrote this book to try to satisfy that curiosity. Language is beginning to submit to that uniquely satisfying kind of understanding that we call science, but the news has been kept a secret.
For the language lover, I hope to show that there is a world of elegance and richness in quotidian speech that far outshines the local curiosities of etymologies, unusual words, and fine points of usage.
For the reader of popular science, I hope to explain what is behind the recent discoveries (or, in many cases, nondiscoveries) reported in the press: universal deep structures, brainy babies, grammar genes, artifically intelligent computers, neural networks, signing chimps, talking Neanderthals, idiot savants, feral children, paradoxical brain damage, identical twins separated at birth, color pictures of the thinking brain, and the search for the mother of all languages. I also hope to answer many natural questions about languages, like why there are so many of them, why they are so hard for adults to learn, and why no one seems to know the plural of Walkman.
Reviews with the most likes.
I finally made it through this! I did not always find it easy going, and I know I did not understand everything, while there are other points I might disagree with if I felt more qualified – but overall I learned a lot and I'm glad I did. I was struck especially by the reasoning behind why learning a language is only possible in early childhood (it takes up a lot of energy and since in most of evolution humans only needed to learn one language, it was more evolutionarily favorable to divert those forces once it has been learned); and why our left brain controls the right side of our body (a 180 degree twist of the head at some point in evolution, during the change from crawling creatures whose spine is on the ground and in “front” to walking creatures with the spine in back and soft parts in front.)
I really like how Steven Pinker writes, even if the topic of the book is really technical he knows how to make it easy to understand and keeps you interested because of all the facts he gives.
After reading this book you won't ever think about language in the same way, you'll notice that there is no correct language and it is an ever-evolving living subject, the so called mistakes are sometimes a logically better approach to language and that is why most kids repeat them. This book also gives a clear insight on how the human brain is structured because language is a central part of our everyday lives.
