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Words and Rules
The Ingredients Of Language
Description
An "excellent work of popular science" (New Republic) by a New York Times-bestselling author that unites history and science to reveal how the mind does language
In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon — regular and irregular verbs — and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the history of Western philosophy.
Through it all, Pinker presents a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. The idea extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind.
This is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world's leading cognitive scientists.
In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon — regular and irregular verbs — and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the history of Western philosophy.
Through it all, Pinker presents a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. The idea extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind.
This is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world's leading cognitive scientists.
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Praise
"[An] excellent work of popular science."
—Thomas Nagel, New Republic
"the book provides a scholarly, persuasive, enjoyable, and eminently readable account of important language phenomena."
—Nature
"Compelling and revelatory."
—Guardian
"An intellectual joyride."
—Globe and Mail
"Not only does Pinker breathe life into the topic, he makes the reading breathtakingly exciting."
—Montreal Gazette
"A fascinating voyage of discovery."
—Sunday Telegraph
"MIT linguist Pinker builds on his previous successes (How the Mind Works; The Language Instinct) with another book explaining how we learn and deploy word, phrase and utterance... The result, with its crisp prose and neat analogies, makes required reading for anyone interested in cognition and language."
—Publishers Weekly