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tyndareos's review against another edition
1.0
The Book seems to be a highly overrated, there are so many repetitions in this book it could be half its size containing the same amount of information, it's full of bias and logical fallacies. While Pinker presents a lot of concepts on the topic of language and its origins, his theories are speculative, and most of his arguments are not backed by scientific evidence. His views on language, its origins and the way it works are debated and not the case as he presents them, which can be confusion and misunderstanding. The book also lacks on perspective of language, the claims he made does not represent of all the different languages and cultures around the world. It's written in an unnecessarily complex and unstructured style, which makes it to a jumbled mess. I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone looking for a clear understanding of the topic, and would point to Chomsky instead.
slichto3's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely informative. Makes a topic that can, at times, be perceived as dry utterly fascinating.
leoi's review against another edition
i really liked it so idk. maybe it needs to be my primary book - i think that way i'll get through it
buntingsir's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
mg_in_md_'s review against another edition
3.0
To be rated/reviewed
The author is clearly an expert who is passionate about his field of study and was easily able to transfer that passion to the page. However, it still read a bit like a scientific/academic treatise, which made me end up skimming certain parts -- especially when I felt like he was repeating points he'd already clearly proven. Nevertheless, I did find this an interesting read and enjoyed being reminded of the linguistics courses I took in college. I suspect that I would not have skimmed as much if I'd read it closer to my college days and could've seen it sparking lively discussions with other students and my professors.
If you have a casual interest in linguistics or language acquisition, you may find this a bit dry despite the author's efforts to make the material lively. Regardless of your background in the topic or interest level prior to reading it, this will challenge you to think about language differently and will likely teach you something new.
The author is clearly an expert who is passionate about his field of study and was easily able to transfer that passion to the page. However, it still read a bit like a scientific/academic treatise, which made me end up skimming certain parts -- especially when I felt like he was repeating points he'd already clearly proven. Nevertheless, I did find this an interesting read and enjoyed being reminded of the linguistics courses I took in college. I suspect that I would not have skimmed as much if I'd read it closer to my college days and could've seen it sparking lively discussions with other students and my professors.
If you have a casual interest in linguistics or language acquisition, you may find this a bit dry despite the author's efforts to make the material lively. Regardless of your background in the topic or interest level prior to reading it, this will challenge you to think about language differently and will likely teach you something new.
shirlee2024's review against another edition
3.0
I confess that I didn't read every word. Some parts where more interesting to me than others. It reminded me of my reading for grad school but simplified.
roe_'s review against another edition
Obviously outdated in quite a few ways by now, and still can't say I fully agree with all of Pinker's conclusions but there's some vaguely fun trivia in here