I've been reading this book for about a thousand years (only a slight exaggeration). Back in college, my roommate took one linguistics course. I didn't even take the class, but she would tell me about some of the cool things she learned. I've always been interested in words and how things work, so when I saw this book recommended on an internet forum, I was intrigued. I picked up a copy from Half Price Books (which is one of my favorite places) and started to read.
This book was not, at least for me, a quick read. It is interesting and informative and witty, but also sometimes very technical and science-y. Along with eye opening examples and studies, the book gets into pages of sentence diagramming (giving me unfortunate flashbacks to fifth grade English class), as well as delving into sections of the brain (though now I know a bit about Broca's area and Wernicke's aphasia). That being said, it's taken me over a year to finish this book. I've read a chapter here and there for so long that it was very refreshing to finally reach the last sentence.
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| Who knew the brain is so colorful? |
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker, is everything you never realized you wanted to know about language: "how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved". Blending psychology and linguistics, this book shows that "language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution".
Recommendation: If you have an interest in language, go for it. (The book does get a bit technical, so it may take some will power to finish.)
*note: this book was published 20 years ago, so there is new information about a lot of things discussed.
*Spoilers after the break*
There is a bunch of stuff in this book I found interesting, but I think the part I was most excited about was the evolution of language covered in Chapter 2. It's tough to track the origins of language, but it is possible to trace modern complex languages to earlier ones. One example given occurred in Hawaii. Sugar plantations boomed and outside labor was needed, so workers were brought in from around the world (China, Japan, Portugal, Puerto Rico...) When a group of people come together with no shared language, a new one can emerge, made up of pieces of the other languages. This is called a pidgin. This allows the people to communicate, but is not very refined.
The cool part is when the pidgin speakers have children, who learn that as their first language. Instead of just being a haphazard mishmash of phrases, the children instinctively conform the pidgin to grammar rules, thus changing it into a creole language.
In another example, Pinker covers sign language in Nicaragua.
In 1979, a new government reformed the education system a the first school for the deaf was created. This allowed formerly isolated deaf students to interact with each other. Although the teachers tried to teach the students to speak and read lips, the students invented their own sign language at lunch and during breaks, by combing the signs and gestures they used at home.
These first students used their sign language, which was basically a pidgin. The following groups of students, however, took that existing sign language and learned it as a first language. Their signing was more compact and fluid. It had grammar and syntax, and was so different that it was considered a new language.
These examples, as well as others throughout the book, seem to show a grammar instinct that children use to find and understand the rules of language.
Sister, I found this book to be very informative and interesting to read. At times it was tough to get through, but I think it was worth the read. If nothing else, I'm glad that this book challenge has given me the motivation to finish books that I may have never completed otherwise.
Cheers and Happy Reading,
Brandy
p.s. A few days ago I was watching a rerun of Brain Games, a cool show on Nat Geo.
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| This show that will definitely make you talk to the TV screen (like a grown-up version of Blue's Clues). |
The episode was about language and it covered a few of the things which are also in The Language Instinct. I thought it was a neat coincidence. Check out the episode for a glimpse of the type of thing you may learn in this book.
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