The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Pinker, Steven

ISBN 10: 0143142585 ISBN 13: 9780143142584

Publisher: Penguin Audio, 2007

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize finalist author of The Blank Slate presents an accessible study of the relationship between language and human nature, explaining how everything from swearing and innuendo to prepositions and baby names reveal facts about key human concepts, emotions, and relationships. Simultaneous.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Pinker is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers.

Reviews

Unless you have a reasonably good background in linguistics, you'll find this excellent book much easier to read than to listen to. Olsher is not to blame; he reads clearly and at a (slightly rapid) conversational speed. Pinker aims for the educated lay reader, using wit and popular metaphor to clarify his meanings and bring abstruse linguistic concepts to life. But his sentences are dense; you need to reread them and think them through. And the jargon, though clearly defined, requires time and thought to absorb: Though hypernyms are not really examples of polysemy the way metonyms are, their use in emotionally tinged speech is another illustration of how choice among words can make a psychological difference. Such sentences are followed by clarifying illustrations, but they require cogitation—work that is well rewarded by a deeper and more complex understanding of language as a window into the mind. The chapter on the semantics of swearing is particularly fun and enlightening. In every culture swear words concern gods, diseases, excretions and sex, and Pinker tells us why. A person with some knowledge of linguistic theory will enjoy this audio enormously; a person without it will be enriched and delighted by the book, but have great difficulties with the audio version.
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THE STUFF OF THOUGHT is a wonderful book, but you might not want to listen to it in public without headphones. Its not the delivery. Dean Olsher does a great job narrating. Experimental psychologist (Harvard) Steven Pinker blends philosophical speculation with personal anecdotes as he analyzes the role of language in thought. Olsher matches these wide-ranging needs. He is confident and moderately paced when introducing new concepts and seems as tickled as Pinker when recounting linguistic silliness. However, at one point Pinker analyzes the nature of obscenity. This is completely on topic--Pinker examines the roots of obscenity and shares what neurobiology has to say on the matter--but it may take some explaining if anyone should overhear the requisite cursing. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143142585
• ISBN 13: 9780143142584
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English