Details
Synopsis
In this accessible scientific work, a cognitive scientist and best-selling author of THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT and HOW THE MIND WORKS investigates human language evolution through the ages and tells how the developing mind processes, learns, and modifies language.
| Size | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 9.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
"There are 348 pages in Steven Pinker's new book and they are nearly all about the past tenses of Verbs....Yet it is neither tedious nor pedantic. Pinker has rightly been called the only linguist who can write readable prose, and if there is anybody who can make irregular verbs gripping it is he. His purpose is to take verbs as a case history of how language is contained in the brain and explore it in depth....The result is a fascinating voyage of discovery."
Ridley
"At the end, even cursory readers will have a better idea of the patchwork quilt that is language, and some of the principles which underlie its patterns. They will also have a good idea of how a thorough researcher approaches a task. Like a hungry dog, Pinker chews just about every possible piece of meat off this academic bone, and licks it clean."
Aitchison
"[T]he hype is justified; this is a very good book....It seems initially implausible that meditating on the past tense of "sing" could enable one to derive generalizations about how our mental categories "reflect the lawfulness of the world," but Pinker has done it. Hats off."
Smith
"Despite the book's ambitious subtitle, almost all the ingredients of language are missing from it....All Pinker (and the connectionists) are doing is turning over the rocks at the base of the intellectual landslide caused by the Chomskian revolution. The testing-ground for the debate extends not only far beyond irregular verbs but even beyond language."
Yang
"Within its limitations, as an account of recent results in linguistics Pinker's book is useful. Its big weakness is that it doesn't go far enough or deep enough."
New York Review of Books - John R. Searle (03/14/2002)
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