The Language Instinct: How The Mind Creates Language

Steven Pinker

Harper Collins, Dec 14, 2010 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 576 pages

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.

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The language instinct

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Following fast on the heels of Joel Davis's Mother Tongue ( LJ 12/93) is another provocative and skillfully written book by an MIT professor who specializes in the language development of children ...

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Contents

• An Instinct to Acquire an Art: 1
• Chatterboxes: 12
• Mentalese: 44
• How Language Works: 74
• Words Words Words: 119
• The Sounds of Silence: 153
• Talking Heads: 190
• The Tower of Babel: 231
• Baby Born TalkingDescribcs Heaven: 265
• 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

About the author

One of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World Today," Steven Pinker is the author of seven books, including How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate—both Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners of the William James Book Award. He is an award-winning researcher and teacher, and a frequent contributor to Time and the New York Times.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Language Instinct: How The Mind Creates Language
• Author: Steven Pinker
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2010
• ISBN: 0062032526, 9780062032522
• Length: 576 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Grammar & Punctuation; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects