The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." -- New York Times Book Review

The classic work on the development of human language by the world's leading expert on language and the mind

In The Language Instinct, 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.

Peter de Florez Professor of Psychology at MIT is Steven Pinker. The National Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological Society have recognized his work on visual cognition and linguistic psychology. Pinker has also won numerous accolades for his work at MIT and for his books How the Mind Works (which was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and The Language Instinct. He is a member of the use panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and an elected fellow of numerous scientific societies. He is also an associate editor of Cognition. He has contributed to the New York Times, Time, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Slate, and Technology Review, among other publications.