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The Language Instinct
- How the Mind Creates Language
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
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The Language Instinct
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How the Mind Works
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?
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4 out of 5 stars
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great, but slow at times
- By ben kuzmich on 2018-07-07
Written by: Steven Pinker
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
- Why Violence Has Declined
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 36 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 166
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Better read than listened to
- By Mike Reiter on 2018-01-02
Written by: Steven Pinker
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On Language
- Chomsky's Classic Works 'Language and Responsibility' and 'Reflections on Language'
- Written by: Noam Chomsky, Mitsou Ronat
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Described by the New York Times as "arguably the most important intellectual alive," Noam Chomsky is known throughout the world for his highly influential writings on language and politics. Featuring two of Chomsky's most popular and enduring books in one omnibus volume, On Language contains some of the noted linguist and political critic's most informal and accessible work to date, making it an ideal introduction to his thought.
Written by: Noam Chomsky, and others
-
The Stuff of Thought
- Language as a Window into Human Nature
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Dean Olsher
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 12
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 9
In The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter.
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1 out of 5 stars
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It’s not in Steven Pinkers written words
- By Lory Nixon on 2019-05-05
Written by: Steven Pinker
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The Sense of Style
- The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
In The Sense of Style, the best-selling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the 21st century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Grammar for days
- By Julie on 2018-08-21
Written by: Steven Pinker
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Rationality
- What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dull and Underwhelming .
- By Kindle Customer on 2021-10-21
Written by: Steven Pinker
-
How the Mind Works
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
great, but slow at times
- By ben kuzmich on 2018-07-07
Written by: Steven Pinker
-
The Better Angels of Our Nature
- Why Violence Has Declined
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 36 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 166
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Better read than listened to
- By Mike Reiter on 2018-01-02
Written by: Steven Pinker
-
On Language
- Chomsky's Classic Works 'Language and Responsibility' and 'Reflections on Language'
- Written by: Noam Chomsky, Mitsou Ronat
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Described by the New York Times as "arguably the most important intellectual alive," Noam Chomsky is known throughout the world for his highly influential writings on language and politics. Featuring two of Chomsky's most popular and enduring books in one omnibus volume, On Language contains some of the noted linguist and political critic's most informal and accessible work to date, making it an ideal introduction to his thought.
Written by: Noam Chomsky, and others
-
The Stuff of Thought
- Language as a Window into Human Nature
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Dean Olsher
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 12
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 9
In The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
It’s not in Steven Pinkers written words
- By Lory Nixon on 2019-05-05
Written by: Steven Pinker
-
The Sense of Style
- The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
In The Sense of Style, the best-selling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the 21st century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Grammar for days
- By Julie on 2018-08-21
Written by: Steven Pinker
-
Rationality
- What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dull and Underwhelming .
- By Kindle Customer on 2021-10-21
Written by: Steven Pinker
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The Blank Slate
- The Modern Denial of Human Nature
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 124
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Story5 out of 5 stars 122
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating study of human cognition
- By Stéphane on 2018-10-27
Written by: Steven Pinker
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The Science of Storytelling
- Written by: Will Storr
- Narrated by: James Clamp
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 32
How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Confusing at first, but brings it together
- By Monica B on 2023-01-08
Written by: Will Storr
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Think with Pinker
- How to Be a Better Critical Thinker
- Written by: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Steven Pinker, Various, Tim Harford, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Highlights
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him. With the aid of his critical thinking toolkit, he hopes to help us make smarter choices, become more rational, gain a greater understanding of the confused world we live in—and maybe even become better citizens. In this fascinating series, produced in partnership with the Open University, he examines the different ways the human brain can be tripped up, from understanding probability to the difference between correlation and causation.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing list of topics and depth
- By Anton Vikoch on 2022-12-29
Written by: Steven Pinker
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Your Brain Is a Time Machine
- The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
- Written by: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4 out of 5 stars 18
In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, brain researcher and best-selling author Dean Buonomano draws on evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy to present his influential theory of how we tell and perceive time. The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological flow and enables "mental time travel" - simulations of future and past events.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Ok
- By Mark on 2021-07-25
Written by: Dean Buonomano
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I Am a Strange Loop
- Written by: Douglas R. Hofstadter
- Narrated by: Greg Baglia
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4 out of 5 stars 28
One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks where the self comes from - and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop" - a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I". The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting subject, but arguments long.
- By Arpad Benedek on 2021-01-12
Written by: Douglas R. Hofstadter
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The Invention of Surgery
- A History of Modern Medicine: From the Renaissance to the Implant Revolution
- Written by: David Schneider MD
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4 out of 5 stars 6
Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider's in-depth biography is an encompassing history of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing implant revolution of the 20th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good until the end
- By Emily Holmes on 2022-12-17
Written by: David Schneider MD
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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language
- How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
- Written by: David W. Anthony
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, slow, monotonous narration
- By Gilbert Primeau on 2019-03-04
Written by: David W. Anthony
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- Written by: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Discussion
- By Langer MD on 2020-02-23
Written by: Richard Dawkins
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Other Minds
- The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
- Written by: Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being—how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind’s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Paulette on 2020-04-09
Written by: Peter Godfrey-Smith
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The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- Written by: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great insight into how machines learn
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-12-01
Written by: Brian Christian
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Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- Written by: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A deeply engaging look at our universe(s).
- By Allan on 2018-07-01
Written by: Max Tegmark
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The New New Thing
- A Silicon Valley Story
- Written by: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Bruce Reizen
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4 out of 5 stars 30
In the weird glow of the dying millennium, Michael Lewis sets out on a safari through Silicon Valley to find the world's most important technology entrepreneur, the man who embodies the spirit of the coming age. He finds him in Jim Clark, who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics, then Netscape - which launched the Information Age - and now Healtheon, a startup that may turn the $1 trillion healthcare industry on its head.
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5 out of 5 stars
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...
- By Anis on 2020-12-20
Written by: Michael Lewis
Publisher's Summary
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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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alexandre L'Écuyer
- 2019-06-26
Fantastic! ...but not as an audiobook.
If you're serious about reading this book, and you're certain you want to listen to it instead of read it, I highly recommend a pen, notebook, descriptive page on Markov Chains, and an iron will. I might be dumb, but this book is just plain hard to keep up with, especially when many complex ideas are vomitted at you one after another without you ever having a chance at visualizing and/or digesting them. God forbid you try to multitask with this book, or set it as your morning alarm. The chapter on the biology of speech nearly killed me.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2021-11-22
Great book
This is a fantastic book, greatly informative and insightful. Some of the explanations can be a bit long winded but it's worth it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. C.
- 2012-10-28
Absolutely Amazing and Interesting
I loved this book! The narration is great. It's all about language and linguistics. You will find out why it's easier to learn a language as a child. How the chimps never really caught on to language like we thought they would. Why it's not really true that you think differently when speaking a different language. All language started as a proto world language and two languages in Africa directly descended from that. Go ahead, you can end a sentence with a preposition. That rule is just made-up! Learn why. This book kept me enthralled form start to finish. Includes some interesting cases of medical language defects and what they tell us. Easy to listen to and understand, and it's fun!!!
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Kathy
- 2012-05-31
WHoa !!!!!!!!!!
I listened "The Better Angels of our Nature" and LOVED it so naturally I wanted to listen to more of Pinker's books. This one went right over me so fast, my head is still spinning.
Dr. Pinker is a Harvard Professor, an expert in many things, and has a talent for explaining things. This book hit the first two descriptions full blast but as far as explaining things? Well, he talked about so many grammar terms I don't think I've ever heard of let alone understood. This book is sentence diagramming on steroids.
But hey, he's a Harvard Prof and the closest I've ever been to Cambridge MA is a weekend in Boston.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Barry
- 2013-05-03
'of' is meaningless!?
This book came out in 1994 and it says a lot about how fast this field is growing that certain parts already feel a little outdated. Fortunately, there is a 2007 update at the end of the book that comments on and catches up with some of the latest developments. That was one of the best parts for me, and I didn't have a clue it would be included.
Pinker is at his best relating about the exciting research going on in neurolinguistics. He is less entertaining when he tries to argue his support for a particular ideological position. I don't have an issue with the idea that a 'language instinct' may exist, but I was never quite clear what he meant by the term 'instinct.' Regardless, as an introduction to all the key topics of interest in his field, this is a great book.
That is probably a key point. Some books are very narrowly focused and organized to support a key thesis. This is more of a survey-of-the-landscape type book. I suspect Pinker got attached to his title and decided everything had to tie back to that in some way. So the book will meander around from one fascinating topic to the next and suddenly he's harping on instincts again and telling why he believes it's true and why we should care.
Apart from that minor complaint, I found this book thoroughly enjoyable. I find modern discussions of linguistics to shed so much light on 'true' grammar and understanding the role words really play in sentence meaning (including his little discussion about whether the word 'of' actually has any meaning or merely marks other words that convey meaning). I especially enjoyed the afterward, not just because of the research updates, but because it showed the author himself had grown over the intervening 13 years and acquired a sense of humor about himself.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr. Anonymous
- 2012-11-25
Interesting but technical book. Sound is flawed.
Steven Pinker is an excellent writer and an all-around smart guy. I always learn a lot when I read anything by Steven Pinker. Having said that, though, I have to admit that parts of this book were somewhat dull (such as the detailed analysis of grammar in chapter 4), and parts were a little hard to follow. I feel like I would need to listen to the book a second time to catch all the parts I missed when my wind wandered. But, overall, I think the book is well worth reading.
The narrator himself is fine, but the recording is poor. The "s" sounds are very harsh and prominent. I think this problem is called "sibilance". I had to turn the treble way down on my car's sound system, and I still cringed whenever a word had an "s" in it.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amie
- 2013-01-11
Irritating recording distracts from the content
I'm not sure if the fault lay with the recording or the narrator, but in any case the audio is very sibilant. The slurred or hissed S's distract from the content, and sometimes have even caused me to go back and relisten to a word in order to make it out.
Nonetheless, the content is interesting.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2012-10-29
Good premise, but reads like a text book
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
I would recommend this book to a linguist, but it's way too verbose for easy reading. For each point he pulls out an arsenal of examples.
What was most disappointing about Steven Pinker’s story?
I think that it could have been half as long and twice as powerful.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 2012-06-11
Language is truly the gift of the gods.
Would you try another book from Steven Pinker and/or Arthur Morey?
Yes, he certainly puts his case together well and thoroughly.
What was most disappointing about Steven Pinker’s story?
I didn't have the intellectual ability to understand or remember some of his case.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
Yes, the narration is excellent to present this kind of study.
Did The Language Instinct inspire you to do anything?
Yes, try and beat the idea that I will never speak another language like a native. The argument Steven Pinker puts is solid, but I like the challenge to try.
Any additional comments?
I never realised how language is the key indicator to us humans being top of the pecking order or how we all seem to think what is good language, but what really is a never ending changing, developing and growing form of communication. Steven Pinker takes us from concepts to mouthing words, from grammar to history of languages. From the child to the adult and why apes don't talk. It is a good intellectual book to listen to. I enjoyed the book even though I am not at the level in my thinking to fully understand all that was presented. Nicely phrased though.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 2012-01-29
Intellectually Stimulating
Any additional comments?
This book was quite a challenge as it got quite technical at times. But I learned a lot about languages and grammar, and how the brain influences each. While I was not convinced that language is an instinct or that there is a grammar gene, there is ample evidence that there is a significant relationship between neuorlogical processes in the brain and grammar and language.
When I read other books now, I look more at structure and how authors express ideas, what makes things clear or confusing, and notice the difference between writing in different periods.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mark
- 2012-09-12
Good solid stuff
A very interesting and convincing argument to claim that the human ability to use language must have some basis in a genetic, instinctive 'grammar module' in the brain.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Catherine
- 2012-10-18
Great book. Terrible narrator
Would you listen to The Language Instinct again? Why?
Yes
Would you be willing to try another one of Arthur Morey’s performances?
No. He sounds like the automated calls from CVS telling me my prescription is ready. I sped up the replay to make it less boring.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No
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5 people found this helpful