The Language Instinct

Xavier Savage
Nov 26, 2019
2 min read

Why should I read The language instinct

The language instinct is an unique book simply because it examines, linguistics, and the way we speak. Anyone interested in Music, especially rap may find this book of some interest or value.

Steven Pinker is an experimental psycholinguist as well as a professor of psychology at Harvard University. He is the author of six books, two of which, How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate, were Pulitzer Prize finalists.

Interesting things to ponder

Why is it that kids, can pick up on language so easily but as adults we struggle to learn languages?

Why are you able to take thoughts in your head and turn them into meaningful sentences?

The underlying structure of language doesn’t change. This is why the children on immigrants can pick up a new language and even multiple languages with out much effort, accent or grammatical errors.

An example of this can be turn a sentence from a statement in to a question:

There is a unicorn in the garden.

Becomes.

Is there a unicorn in the garden?

Children are able to understand the structure of language a lot better than there parents, and no one has to show the nuisance of making a statement a question.

Linguistic relativity is a myth. What this means is the idea of cultures, not having or having certain words affects how they perceive the world.

For example saying the Tahitians don’t get sad, because they don’t have a word for sad is false.

The language instinct makes an interesting point about our ability to understand language being a sixth sense.

When reading we need spaces between words however with speech we do not.

When talking about certain topics, its easy to guess what a persons next words may be of even help them finish sentences when, they’ve forgot words.

We all have the innate ability to learn language, but we need a play ground to immerse ourselves in it.

The more people we hear speak as children the more skilled we become linguistically.

We have regions in our brain hardwired for language.

Summary of the Language instinct

This book is a fun read, for the nerdy amongst us. It gives you a wide array of thoughts to ponder, and things to mention randomly in conversation. You’d be surprised how often I can cram a random linguistic fact into a conversation.

No its not the least bit odd.