The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994)

by Steven Pinker

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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5,801	58	1,630	(3.99)	106
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… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)

Groundbreaking then, passé now (

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farrhon | Jul 3, 2023 |

This is one I read some time ago and cannot recall enough about to review. (

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mykl-s | May 23, 2023 |

beautiful explanation of a universal grammar (

)

kaikai1 | Sep 8, 2021 |

This is my Bible--what I turn to for contemplation and reflection. I have pages of notes taken on Pinker's theories and am grateful for his "translation" of Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar because I might never do it on my own.

Now I need some fiction... (

)

LibroLindsay | Jun 18, 2021 |

I will have to reread this one to write a relevant review, but I remember it as quite well-written and substantial. At the time, I was interested in AI. (

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quantum.alex | May 31, 2021 |

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Pinker, Steven	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Morey, Arthur	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

P.S.

Penguin Press Science

Perennial Classics

Is abridged in

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing by Richard Dawkins

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

American Psychological Association's William James Book Award (1994)

Royal Society Prize for Science Books (Shortlist – General – 1995)

Distinctions

New York Times Best Books of the Year (1994)

Notable Lists

100 книг non-fiction от The Prime Russian Magazine

Книжный клуб «Элементов»

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Original title

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1994

People/Characters

Roger Brown

Noam Chomsky

Charles Darwin [Charles Robert: 1809-1882]

Michael Gazzaniga

Myrna Gopnik

(show all 8 items)

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

New York Times Best Books of the Year (1994)

Royal Society Prize for Science Books Shortlist (General, 1995)

American Psychological Association's William James Book Award (1994)

100 книг non-fiction от The Prime Russian Magazine

Epigraph

Dedication

For Harry and Roslyn Pinker who gave me language

First words

Preface
I have never met a person who is not interested in language.

As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders of the natural world.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (17)

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Critical period hypothesis

English personal pronouns

Genie (feral child)

Language processing in the brain

Linguistic development of Genie

Linguistics

Moravec's paradox

Philosophy of language

Problem of mental causation

Redundancy (linguistics)

Sentence function

Tad Martin and Dixie Cooney

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana

Tinbergen's four questions

Vocabulary development

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 January 9

▾Book descriptions

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

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