The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.) Reprint Edition

by Steven Pinker (Author)

220 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0061336461

ISBN-10: 0061336467

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The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind.

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.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

About the Author

One of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World Today," Steven Pinker is the author of seven books, including How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate—both Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners of the William James Book Award. He is an award-winning researcher and teacher, and a frequent contributor to Time and the New York Times.

Series: P.S.
Paperback: 576 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition (September 4, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061336467
ISBN-13: 978-0061336461
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 220 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > Textbooks > Communication & Journalism > Communications
- #9 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Semantics
- #13 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Linguistics

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Eduardo Vila

book's good, but STAY AWAY FROM KINDLE EDITION!

May 31, 2011

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is not a review of the book itself, just a warning for anyone thinking of getting the Kindle edition.

The people who published this for Kindle should be ashamed of themselves for selling this product with a straight face.

As Kindle books are often scanned from printed versions, I'v grown accustomed to seeing the occasional mis-scanned word, as they are usually sparse and don't distract from the content.

This book, however, contains hundreds of mis-scans. I'm talking about a few every page (some pages might contain up to 10 errors). And these are errors that routinely distract from the content of the book, as the errors will sometime spell a different word altogether, giving a sentence a completely different meaning that you will only realize is nonsensical after reading an entire paragraph.

Plus, 2 times out of ten, the combination of letters "th" will be scanned as "di". As you must realize, die difficulty of reading dirough paragraphs full of diese errors, in die kindle version of diis book, dioroughly distracts from the enjoyment of die material.

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Amanda Reckonwith

A Great Book, but a Flawed E-book Version

April 26, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a review of the 2010 Kindle edition of the book published by HarperCollins e-books. Without a doubt Pinker has written a five-star book that is both eye-opening and enjoyable. Out of appreciation to the author, I deducted only one star for errors in the Kindle edition. Since Pinker's book was originally published back in 1994, and by a different publisher, it seems conceivable that HarperCollins did not have a digital text and had to resort to scanning with OCR or some kind of not completely successful conversion process. How else to explain errors like those below? (Not a complete list, but what I thought to highlight as I read through.)

• that had seemed passé concern with topics (“that had seemed passé; concern with topics”)
• opiuminduced “(opium-induced”)
• painti (not i on the end, but subscript 1)
• S -> then S (apparently this should be “S -> if S then S”)
• mittengrabben. 1st (“mittengrabben. Ist” [letter i, not number 1])
• put xin the (“put x in the”)
• @@@ (no telling what this should be, but previously it appears as “m” with an acute accent)
• big nourish things (“big nounish things”)
• Astem (surely Pinker wrote “A-stem” or subscripted “stem”)
• Astemaffix (as above)
• fell to thinking, and chunk. (“fell to thinking, and thunk.”)
• out-Sally-Bided Sally Ride (“out-Sally-Rided Sally Ride”)
• VP -> VNP(PP) (“VP -> V NP (PP)”)
• Steven Tinker’s (even the author’s name is not immune)
• King Ethelbuld (“King Ethelbald”)
• a sad and urgent more. (“a sad and urgent note.”)
• A1 Galaburda (“Al Galaburda” [letter L, not number 1])
• and would not into nothing (“and would rot into nothing”)
• something in he world (“something in the world”)
• analyze the verb to broadcasts (“analyze the verb to broadcast as”)
• No one would say give In break (“No one would say give I a break” [with the words after "say" in italics])
• person off gender (“person of gender”)
• trout is a kind offish and (“trout is a kind of fish and”)
• about twelves times as large (“about twelve times as large”)

In a book with many playful and unusual examples of language, one can’t tell, since the e-book can’t be trusted, whether expressions like “isa” or “American Slurvian” are what Pinker intended, or simply more examples of poor editing. On the positive side, the publisher has evidently cleaned up the Kindle version to some extent, judging from the details in someone else’s 2011 review. Given Amazon’s ability to reach into my Kindle and swap files, I am hoping to find a corrected version of Pinker’s book there soon.

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Roger Sweeny

The 2007 Revision

May 1, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Well, not exactly a revision. There is a new “P.S.” section at the end: a little autobiography, how the book was written, some Frequently Asked Questions, Suggested Reading, lots of new references, and “some reflections on the contents of each chapter in the light of developments since 1994.”

The latter is pretty slight. If the typeface were the same size as the text, it would probably cover 15 pages. I can think of three reasons for the shortness:

1. Pinker thinks he was right about most everything in 1994 and doesn’t feel the need to change much.

2. He has updated and elaborated numerous things in two later language books, Words and Rules: The Ingredients Of Language and The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, to which he liberally refers. He notes that the last chapter “Mind Design” begat How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. It is obvious that his most recent, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, had beginnings in chapter 12, “The Language Mavens.”

3. He is a very busy man and did not want to take the time necessary for a thorough update.

I suspect all three are partially true. I was disappointed by how often I asked, "Has no recent research been done on ______ or is Pinker just not writing about it?" Which I suppose is a compliment about how interesting Pinker makes language research. Still, the P.S. definitely adds value. It is worth getting this edition.

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Republica Peruanu

A seminal text on human language

May 4, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Steven Pinker, formerly of MIT but finally moved to Harvard's psychology department where he is more appreciated, is perhaps within a select group addressing supper-complex language issues. The past 20 years have witnessed more scientific knowledge about our speech then in previous 13,000 years, leaving with more and bet trot question than ever but almost no answers, a true feature go scientific advancement. The more we know how limited are knowledge, the greater our understanding grows, Pinker is great example of knowledgeable scientist who has increasing fewer answers.

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Stargazer

I didn't realize it was going to be a bit ...

I didn't realize it was going to be a bit of an academic read. The points he makes are interesting, but I found it a bit too intensive for a light read.

Published 1 month ago

Erik Steffl

Great insight into our minds

Read it!

Published 1 month ago

Brandon M.

Not a bad deal

Arrived pretty quickly with that fresh book smell for a pretty low price

Published 2 months ago

Mark H.

Brilliant book

I read The Language Instinct in 2003 or thereabouts. I continue to count it as among the best, most illuminating books I've ever read. Buy it, read it -- it's simply brilliant.

Published 2 months ago

geoyce

I will not feel pain to study tedious grammar. Any one who write in English is ...

This book is rather famous and I have read it through. If I have the instinct for language studying, I will not feel pain to study tedious grammar.Read more

Published 3 months ago

AndyF

Five Stars

Great Buy

Published 4 months ago

Donald P. Jane

An Interesting Treaties on Natural Language

A thoroughly descriptive and detailed work. It is lengthy, over 20 hrs, but was never boring or too technical to follow with enough interest to continue to the end.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Love this book and it is such a nice purchase experience! Thank you！

Published 5 months ago

Amazon Customer

Great but very difficult.

So good, but dense to the limit. The author swings between easy enjoyable writing and deep mud not worth trudging through.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Jeff Roberts

Excellent

Excellent book and clear discussion.

Published 6 months ago

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