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Summary: facinating book
Comment: This is fascinating book. English is not my native tongue and I was always wondering why there are
so many usage idioms in tense, verbs and propositions. Actually, they are not strange exceptions at
all. This book explains the subtle "rules" behind:
* verbs like "load", "fill" and "pour" and
why "pour the glass with water" and "fill water into the glass" sound strange.
* the
difference between tense and apsect.
* under water (rather than inside water) and after dark
(rather than light)
The book also explores many other aspects of the language and mind, which
is written in a clear and entertaining way.

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Summary: Just Plain Wrong
Comment: It is amazing to me that Steven Pinker continues to churn out books on a topic for which he is
completely off-track and that readers continue to buy into these theories.

Pinker
continues to insist that language is a reflection of the user's "nature" rather than the user being
shaped by language that is reflective of the environment in which he or she is shaped and molded.
Anyone who has raised children understands that Mr. Pinker is not so much wrong, but that he
purposely rejects theories that suggest that there is more going on than Pinker chooses to address.

The almost partisan rejection of scientific evidence that suggests that Pinker is
grossly singular in his beliefs gives the reader the impression that the author has a wider
political or social agenda rather than the desire to provide true scientific data that truly
reflects what goes on in the relationship between society, language, and the human being.

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Summary: Premium Pinker
Comment: This is premium Pinker, and while he ranges across the social sciences his primary focus here is on
language, where he is unparalleled. His goal is to examine the nature of language and tease out the
aspects of human nature that language embodies and elucidates. Note that the very concept of `human
nature' is anathema to many of the postmodernists. Have no fear, because Pinker doesn't. He
relishes the opportunity to burst the bubbles of political correctness, particularly with the use of
hard facts and common sense.

His task here is complex, since language is so complex,
but his writing is always lucid and to the point. He takes verbs, for example, and examines the
ways in which they can and cannot be used, the functions that they can and cannot serve and the
forms of human reasoning which they undergird. This can be heady stuff but it reads beautifully as
we watch a mind that is both rigorous and playful catch us in the act of being, quintessentially,
ourselves.

He is at his best when he is pulling together the insights of linguists,
evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists--something he does with ease and clarity. After he
proceeds step by step and chapter by chapter he sums it all up in a concluding chapter that is a
model of transparent complexity.

Although the materials are different, this book is
like Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, its goal being the identification of those aspects of
ratiocination that are uniquely human. The difference here is that Pinker draws specifically (and
extensively) on the materials of language, draws more conclusions than Kant and does so in
accessible and often amusing prose.

Pinker is one of a handful of centrally-important
public intellectuals in America. Don't miss his latest (and if you've missed such important, former
books as The Blank Slate--you know now what to request for Christmas).

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Summary: The Stuff of Pinker
Comment: Steven Pinker is a quite energetic fellow and an apparent sponge for quite a breadth of subjects and
people's views. This seems not to leave a great deal of room for modesty, and he has thus created
some controversy in academic circles around his thoroughness on the one hand and his penchant for
publicity on the other, somewhat as Carl Sagan used to be regarded in the academic astronomical
world. Aware of the controversy surrounding him, I had not looked as his earlier books. I then had
the opportunity to hear him speak in public about the current work, and this experience persuaded me
to have a look.

The book's central premise is that universal patterns of human thought
can be adduced from common patterns observed in many natural languages. The bulk of the book is
about the patterns, and the connection back to conclusions about the innateness of various ways of
looking at the world sometimes takes the back burner. But what is useful about the book is that he
does it in a way that is not as complex and convoluted as the previous sentence. The book is quite
heavy with endnotes and references, and at times he seems to be looking to score points in a debate
among academics that is going on in the background. I do not know enough about the field to
understand the subplots. The net effect to me was a perhaps avoidable distraction.

I
would suggest reading the last chapter (number 9) first or else after chapter 1 - it is short and
sweet and lays out what he claims to have established in the rest of the book. Chapter 2 will be
heavy going for those without prior exposure to formal grammars or current views of linguistics, but
much of the later argument is not lost by skimming if it gives the impression of endless
hair-splitting. The interesting behavioral meat comes in chapters 7 and 8, so skip ahead to them if
necessary as an alternative to abandoning the book in midcourse.

When I don't know a
great deal about the central subject or premise, I tend to calibrate the author's credibility by
what he tosses off that I do know something about. Thus, at the start of chapter 2 (page 25), he
compares what he is setting out to do in analyzing English verb constructions with the film and book
"Powers of Ten" by Charles and Ray Eames. He compares his adventure "Down the Rabbit Hole" with
theirs, and implies that he is going to take us down sixteen orders of magnitude of complexity.
Well, the Eames book covers 41 orders of magnitude (the sponge had a slight leak), and I think it
would be generous to grant that he goes as much as two orders of detail into his analysis. (Even as
much as one might be arguable.) This certainly calibrates Pinker's view of himself, but it also
leads me to wonder how many of the 690 endnotes and/or what they claim to cite have been hastily
slapped into place. This will matter greatly to academics, and for the rest of us should only be
taken as a variant of "caveat emptor".

One curious piece of understatement comes on
page 85, where he writes of an example "very much in the news" about understanding gender
differences. When former Harvard president Larry Summers made his ill-fated remarks in January
2005, it was Pinker's earlier work (or at least the endnotes therein) that he felt he was citing,
and Pinker came early and often to Summers' defense. That he addresses this here (and somewhat out
of context) with a whimper rather than a bang is a bit curious.

Overall, then, this is
an accessible book by someone who is likely to be discussed quite a ways into the future, much as
his mentor and colleague Noam Chomsky has been. It is certainly worth taking a look if you have an
interest in this general area.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good Book
Comment: A good book, but will require that you contemplate issues from time to time. Pinker's insight into
how the mind processes data and experiences is something. He examines how human thoughts are built
around core ideas and how these ideas develop from childhood on. He focuses on the way we speak
indirectly to each other, often alluding to what we mean to say. Although complex there are some
captivating parts to this book, well worth reading.

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