The Language Instinct

by Steven Pinker

Book Reviews

  • One of my favourite opening lines in literature is Steven Pinker's opening to "The Language Instinct": "As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders of the natural world."Link to Tweet

About Book

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.