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AuthorPinker, Steven, 1954-TitleThe stuff of thought : language as a window into human nature / Steven Pinker.PublishedNew York : Viking, 2007.FormatBook
Descriptionix, 499 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

LinkPublisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0743/2007026601-d.html
Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0743/2007026601-b.html
NotesIncludes bibliographical references and index.
ContentsWords and worlds -- Down the rabbit hole -- Fifty thousand innate concepts (and other radical theories of language and thought) -- Cleaving the air -- The metaphor metaphor -- What’s in a name? -- The seven words you can’t say on television -- Games people play -- Escaping the cave.
AbstractPsychologist Pinker explains how the mind works in a completely new way--by examining how we use words. Every time we swear, we reveal something about human emotions. When we use an innuendo to convey a bribe, threat, or sexual come-on (rather than just blurting it out), we disclose something about human relationships. Our use of prepositions and tenses tap into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and our nouns and verbs tap into mental models of matter and causation. Even the names we give our babies, as they change from decade to decade, have important things to day about our relations to our children and to society. Pinker takes on both scientific questions--such as whether language affects thought, and which of our concepts are innate--and questions from the headlines and everyday life.--From publisher description.
ISBN97806700632770670063274SubjectLanguage and languages -- Philosophy.
Thought and thinking.

<a href=?pst>p</a>St. Petersburg/Gibbs~1Circulation~2P107~2.P548 2007 p All itemsCover Image