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Language, Cognition, and Human Nature

by Steven Pinker

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A three-decade collection on how language connects to the mind

$26.27 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A three-decade collection on how language connects to the mind

Gathering thirteen scholarly articles alongside a new introduction, this volume maps Steven Pinker’s work across language and cognition. The selections address how children acquire language, how people represent images and recognize shapes, how verbs carry meaning, and how the mind might be computationally organized. They also extend outward to social relationships, human evolution, nature–nurture questions, and the indirect meanings carried by innuendo and euphemism. Several pieces are framed as arguments with other prominent scholars, making the collection a record of active debates as well as a survey of recurring questions in cognitive science. Its article-based structure offers sustained, theory-focused treatments rather than a single continuous argument.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers seeking scholarly essays on language and cognitive science
  • Students of linguistics, psychology, or human development
  • Those interested in debates over language evolution and human nature

Themes

Language acquisitionCognition and perceptionMeaning and verbsLanguage evolutionNature and nurture

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Book overview

Language, Cognition, and Human Nature collects together for the first time much of Steven Pinker's most influential scholarly work on language and cognition. Pinker's seminal research explores the workings of language and its connections to cognition, perception, social relationships, child development, human evolution, and theories of human nature.

This eclectic collection spans Pinker's thirty-year career, exploring his favorite themes in greater depth and scientific detail. It includes thirteen of Pinker's classic articles, ranging over topics such as language development in children, mental imagery, the recognition of shapes, the computational architecture of the mind, the meaning and uses of verbs, the evolution of language and cognition, the nature-nurture debate, and the logic of innuendo and euphemism. Each outlines a major theory or takes up an argument with another prominent scholar, such as Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, or Richard Dawkins. Featuring a new introduction by Pinker that discusses his books and scholarly work, this collection reflects essential contributions to cognitive science by one of our leading thinkers and public intellectuals.
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