The Stuff of Thought : Language as a Window into Human Nature
3.91 (10,500 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback English
By (author) Steven Pinker


Categories: Sociolinguistics Psycholinguistics Psychology Social, Group Or Collective Psychology


Description
In The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker looks at how the relationship between words and thoughts can help us understand who we are.

Why do so many swear words involve topics like sex, bodily functions or the divine? Why do some childrens names thrive while others fall out of favour? Why do we threaten and bribe and seduce in such elaborate, often comical ways? How can a choice of metaphor damn a politician or start a war? And why do we rarely say what we actually mean?

Language, as Steven Pinker shows, is at the heart of our lives, and through the way we use it - whether to inform, persuade, entertain or manipulate - we can glimpse the very essence of what makes us human.

Awesome
Daily Mail

Highly entertaining ... funny and thought-provoking
The Times

Anyone interested in language should read The Stuff of Thought ... moments of genuine revelation and some very good jokes
Mark Haddon, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

No one writes about language as clearly as Steven Pinker, and this is his best book yet
David Crystal, Financial Times

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as The New York Times, Time and Slate, and is the author of six books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate.


Product details

Format Paperback | 512 pages
Dimensions 129 x 198 x 22mm | 353g
Publication date 05 Jun 2008
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
Language English
Illustrations note Illustrations
ISBN10 0141015470
ISBN13 9780141015477
Bestsellers rank 68,408