Genealogy Books - The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.)

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Just plain fun.
Comment: I give this book five stars not because its reasoning is impeccable, or its writing everywhere
beautiful, or its theme always engaging and irresistible. In none of these dimensions is it
flawless. But I would nonetheless recommend it without reservation to all readers, so I feel I must
give it five stars.

This book is great because of its fascinating subject, and the
myriad of relevant ideas and examples it reveals. The book is more of in interesting discussion on a
topic than an orderly defense of a thesis. But so many of the examples are utterly fascinating that,
were there no attempt to patch them together into a single narrative, this book would still be
intriguing and enjoyable. To give you a sense of why I love this book I must mention a few of these
here.

Pinker discusses:

>how children, in a single generation, can
transform a pidgin (an awkward combination of two languages created by the mingling of two
populations with different native languages) into a creole (a composite language that is no longer
awkward but instead melds the parent languages into a new one with all of the richness and
complexity of any other natural language). He further describes how deaf children creolized
artificially constructed sign languages into a natural language with all of the features and depth
of expression that extant languages have.

>in depth, the concept that language defines
the boundaries of thought and expression.

>how varieties of brain injuries and genetic
mutations can alter very specific language abilities while leaving other general cognitive
functioning unharmed.

>efforts to teach other animals language.

>how
languages change over time and what rules the changes preserve and what aspects of language are up
for grabs.

I will force myself to stop. As I flip through the pages of the book I find
countless other examples and frequently get caught up in them all over again and have to tear myself
away.

Now, I must warn you, that if you are not interested in theories of linguistics
and cognition and computer science then there are, here and there, some more nuts and bolts
discussions of how language works that you will find to be a bit dry. They're really not bad, and if
you ARE interested in the above they're actually quite fascinating. But if you find your interest
waning as you encounter these rougher patches, never fear, they are a relatively minor component of
the book, and there are many more vigorous discussions yet to come.

If you are
interested in language, how it works, how we learn it, and how it affects us, then you will love
this book. I find Pinker's arguments in favor of the view that language is innate in humans to be
compelling, and I think that most people would find the suggestion to be pretty intuitive. But don't
let your feelings about the outcome of this argument obscure the many simpler pleasures available to
the reader who innocently enjoys the many vistas afforded by this excellent tour of the world of
linguistics.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Doesn't teach you how to learn languages.
Comment: I thought this was going to be a book about HOW to learn a language. I'm giving this four stars,
b/c it's not really the author's fault that I picked the wrong book for my purpose. It's written
well and explained well, but I really don't need someone to spend a whole lot of pages explaining to
me that we instinctively learn. BUT I understand that there are people who do want to read a whole
lot of pages explaining this theory, so...four stars it is. In case you didn't get that, it's NOT a
book that teaches you how to learn a language.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Brief Review of The Language Instinct
Comment: Pinker's The Blank Slate is one of my all time favorite books. The Language Instinct is good enough
for me to buy a copy after reading one from the Library, but it is a tougher read, especially the
first third or so. The difficulty stems from it being more technical than The Blank Slate. A book
that deals in large part with linguistics has to use some of the conventions of the discipline. In
addition to establishing the basic premise, that language learning has a large genetic component, I
liked Pinker's concept that words per se do not control our thoughts. Thinking and the expression
of thinking are not the same thing. Another thing I found helpful is the degree of complexity and
difficulty for computers to understand both the words used in speech and the comprehension of the
indtended thoughts.

As usual, Pinker's writing style is marvelous, and frequently
funny.

Customer Rating:

Summary: B.F. Skinner
Comment: His ideas are condemned like all valid science that exposes truth we will not accept. Hopefully
time will give B.F. Skinner the credit he deserves. The most important scientist ever!!! Read his
book. It is accurate.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Utterly fascinating
Comment: When I was a freshman in college I used my roommate's computer all the time. She frequently had this
book open on her desk as part of her study of HumBio (Human Biology). At some point I picked it up
to take a look...and I didn't put it down until I was finished. An outstanding, utterly readable and
deeply compelling look at the structures of the brain, the mind they inform and the human culture
they produce. Highly recommended for all humans.

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