In this latest addition to the Science Masters series, Pinker
revisits the territory he covered in his bestseller The Language
Instinct, using the ingredients of language and the way humans make
use of them to provide insights into how the mind works. As ever,
he writes beautifully and has a refreshingly extreme support for
the idea of language as a living thing, where words change their
meaning as time passes and rules are there to be broken. But the
content of the book, although beautifully presented, is
surprisingly repetitive for such a slim volume, and will seem even
more familiar to anyone who has read his earlier book. For all his
academic background, the best way to enjoy Pinker's latest is in
the same way we enjoy Bill Bryson writing about language - for the
oddities of phrasing, described in entertaining, anecdotal style.
Why the correct plural of sabretooth is sabretooths, not
sabreteeth, for example, and several delightful transcriptions of
children's use of language, including: Child: My teacher holded the
baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say your teacher
held the baby rabbits? Child: Yes. Adult: What did you say she did?
Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. And in one
of the most Byronesque passages, Pinker reveals why a gently lobbed
catch in baseball is called a can of corn. If that's the sort of
thing that appeals to you, buy this. Pinker uses the ingredients of
languages and the way humans make use of them to provide insights
into how the mind works. As ever, he writes beautifully and carries
the reader along with the sweep of his prose. (Kirkus UK)
One of the world's science superstars presents a brilliantly
illuminating, entertaining and cutting-edge account of how language
actually works. How does language work? How do children learn their
mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Chaucer's
English almost incomprehensible? Steven Pinker explains the
profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple
single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That
phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs -
connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and
humanities: the history of languages; the illuminating errors of
children as they begin to speak; the sources of the major themes in
the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in
identifying genes and imaging the living brain. Pinker makes sense
of all of this with the help of a single, powerful idea: that
language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a
mental grammar of creative rules.
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