Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Top positive review

complex but continuously rewarding and structured a certain way on purpose

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018

This is highly technical and reads for the most part like a college text book. I admire and enjoy Pinker for his knowledge. I am not a fan of his humor leading to a less enjoyable reading experience than expected. This book is for people seriously interested in linguistics to the extent of it being nerdy. What i mean by this is not negative it just was not broken down to a simpler level and that is what i was expecting. I was hoping to get a Daniel Dennet type of read. I do see the significance of the way humans group together words and the fluctuation of syntax can tell a lot about a people and their culture. I found it funny that Americans have certain slang aspects of their linguistic flow that indicates a type of laziness not detected in other areas.
Pinker is a great linguist but if you watch his lectures on u tube he is not the most entertaining speaker and this flows over into his books.
I do highly recommend this --you have to be in the same mindset that you are when studying a college text. I would take notes constantly.
People like the neuroscientist Sam Harris and friend of Pinker make their works very accessible to the public so as to not make the work seem like a medical journal. Here Pinker reads like one step up from the blandness of a medical journal. This is mainly just because i subjectively think he is not funny so my mind ejects this entertainment element that was intended to please and make it not so heavy.

6 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

Sandra B. G.

Not what I thought it was

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2012

I am not done reading this book, but I thought this would keep my attention. I was wrong, at least for the first part of the book. It goes way too much into detals about how children learn verbs and that subject was not very interesting to me. Perhaps if I was a teacher, speech pathologist or may be an MD - I may be more interested in that one topic. I had to put the book down since this chapter was extremely long (I'm guessing 60 pages or more) and it seems to go on and on forever about a topic that is so dry. Once I'm done reading the other books I'm reading, I'll go back to this and pick up on another chapter. I may update my review later if it grabs me by my tailfeathers.

2 people found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

342 global ratings | 160 global reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

complex but continuously rewarding and structured a certain way on purpose

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

John M. Ford

Beneath the Language

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2011

Verified Purchase

Stephen Pinker continues his career-long mission to teach the reading public about language. His focus is neither the mechanics of grammar nor the neurological structures that make language possible. Instead he describes mental processes that immediately support language such as metaphor, features that distinguish related sets of words, and the sketchily incomplete mental models we build as we interpret each other's words.

To convince us that small distinctions in language can make a real-world difference, Pinker opens with an insurance claim from the September 11, 2001 destruction of the two World Trade Center towers. The insurer had an upper limit on what they would pay for any single "event" that damaged the buildings. Was the damage caused by the single event of a terrorist attack, as claimed by the insurer? Or was it caused by the separate events of two airplane crashes, as counter-claimed by the buildings' owners? There was no clear answer in the careful legal language of the insurance contract.

There are two ways to read Pinker's book. The first is to read the whole thing, from introduction to closing paragraph. He describes the mental models we build while understanding and reasoning with language. Metaphor helps us use our concrete experience, such as the up/down distinction created by gravity, to inform more abstract dimensions such as better/worse. Pinker also explores the social dimensions that allow us to negotiate relationships while seeming to simply convey information. Having outlined the basics, Pinker turns to more entertaining aspects of language to sharpen our understanding. There is a far-ranging discussion of profanity which describes the "correct" way to swear and explains why some words are taboo. The discussion of the social dimension of naming ranges from generational fads to why some newly coined terms catch on and become part of the language. The long path through the book is satisfying and enjoyable.

The second approach is for the time-constrained or selective reader. In the final chapter, the author provides "...a word's-eye view of human nature, one that emerges from the phenomena of the [preceding] chapters..." This overview outlines the aspects of sensation, cognition, and social relations that shape and are shaped by language. One can read this section of the chapter in a few minutes and note which aspects are unexpected or intriguing. This subset is a guide to the most beneficial sections of the book. Not the full treatment, but still a good read.

This book is recommended for those readers looking for a better understanding of the relationship between language and thought.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph

Worthwhile, but could have been shorter

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2009

Verified Purchase

There were things I liked about "The Stuff of Thought" and things I didn't. I would have preferred the book to be shorter. I certainly could take away many profound observations. However, I don't think Pinker had to go into so many examples, although I am sure many readers will like that. Anyway, here are some important things which I will remember from the book.

1. We can learn a lot about people from the way they put together words. Pinker shows many examples.

2. What is an event? 9-11 was an event, however there were also many events which went into effecting it.

3. Words take on new meanings to reflect on how the world works.

4. Learning a language is really a remarkable process. Pinker discredits linguistic determination, that is the brain learning language to generate thinking. He asserts that thoughts effect language. Meanings are stored, not the exact combination of words which reflect them. Personally, I think both can work in parallel, when learning a language, but Pinker makes a good argument.

5. Metaphors are very important. They are an essential part of thought. "To think is to grasp a metaphor". He shows the use of metaphor in Leviticus, which makes one think even more that biblical scripture, at least the Torah, should not necessarily be taken literally, more like a living document which encourages deeper thinking especially as times change.

6. The chapter on profanity is certainly interesting. The amygdala, in the brain, is important in storing memories with emotion. Bilingual people react more to taboo words in their first language, rather than their second. Aphasia, loss of articulate language, victims retain the ability to swear. This shows more memories of thought formulas rather than rule combinations. Such swearing in Tourettes's Syndrome is called copolalia.

7. The basal ganglia in the brain, when weakened, taboo thoughts are more easily released. There is a "Rage Circuit" which runs from the amygdala to the hypothalmus - limbic circuitry.

8. Implicative language, like with sarcasm and politeness, versus direct. Hierarchical and "culture of honor" societies use politeness more.

9. Pinker brings up UN Resolution 242, about the Israeli - Palestinian situation, showing how the wording was intentionally made ambiguous, so each side could more likely agree to it. Best to get some agreement, so at least there is somewhere from which to proceed in negotiations. There again, words reflect thoughts, to often encourage further thinking.

So, the book is certainly worthwhile, despite its perhaps unnecessary length.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Russell A. Rohde MD

"Delightful Brilliance"

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2011

Verified Purchase

"The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature", Steven Pinker, Viking, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-0-670-06327-7, HC 440/500. Notes 17 pgs., Ref. 22 pgs., Index 15 pgs., 9 ¼" x 6 1/4". Inveiglements: a rare cartoon

An academic Professor of Psychology at Harvard Univ., with 6 major published works on language and the mind, this book, "The Stuff of Thought" (TSOT) is truly brilliant, stimulating and learned, - a book of 9 Chapters covers the A to Z of language is no easy read, indeed, it is an especially pleasurable reading experience and an exhilarating journey that one wishes had not ended! His prose, insightful arguments, analyses, and delightful expositions reveals to us facets of the human language we'd never considered and, - all so nicely catalogued, much as in the fashion of Carolus Linnaeus in naming seashells or diverse flora or fauna

This is one of those "must read" books best enjoyed like a splendid after-dinner wine, though some readers might object to excessive dissonance while `studying' Chapter 7: "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television", but equally perceptive, subtle and informative are some rules and regulations outlined in the chapter "Games People Play". Incredulous as it may sound, this treatise starts out as a query into how children learn to communicate and speak meaningful phrases. After reading TSOT, one might conclude it is not possible to learn all these language nuances. However, so much of it is subconsciously assimilated that we really know and learn a lot we never knowingly studied; yet, we are amazed at the paucity of our faux pas; but that is what friends are for.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lisa Brandt

Still a Good Read in Spite of its Flaws

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2008

Verified Purchase

I confess to being an unabashed fan of Steven Pinker's books on language (I am a multilingual life-long student of linguistics with time to read and study in retirement), which is why I bought this book.

I agree it has some serious flaws that have been mentioned in negative reviews, such as political and social beliefs intruding where they do not really belong. (Well, he's a psychologist, not a linguist, so I don't expect anything different.)

Still, the book is quite fascinating and contains some very compelling analysis. In particular, I find his dissection of political (or perhaps better, politically correct) speech of various groups to be well worth reading.

But what is most fascinating to me is the analysis of what I think of as "subconscious grammar." My personal favorite example of what Pinker is explaining here is when my Russian-born cleaning lady scares my cat with the vacuum and says "He is scary." (I answer, "No, the vacuum is scary, Tashi is scared.") What is there in our brains that figures out that "scary" is what emanates from elsewhere, but "scared" is what we feel?

Why is it that in German I would say "She came back to her home town" (even though I am not in her home town and never have been, but for her it is "homecoming"), but in English I am supposed to say "She went back to her home town" because she moved somewhere other than towards me?

For anyone fascinated by this sort of linguistic analysis, this book is valuable and interesting.

I also enjoyed the analysis of "slow evolution" -- the fact that we humans change our environment much faster than our brains can evolve to cope with current circumstances. He says nothing new and startling here, I think, but as always with Steven Pinker, his detailed examples and apt analogies make the subject matter come alive.

If, like me, you don't need the political stuff or the overly explicit analysis of cursing, just skim over that.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Premium Pinker

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2007

Verified Purchase

This is premium Pinker, and while he ranges across the social sciences his primary focus here is on language, where he is unparalleled. His goal is to examine the nature of language and tease out the aspects of human nature that language embodies and elucidates. Note that the very concept of `human nature' is anathema to many of the postmodernists. Have no fear, because Pinker doesn't. He relishes the opportunity to burst the bubbles of political correctness, particularly with the use of hard facts and common sense.

His task here is complex, since language is so complex, but his writing is always lucid and to the point. He takes verbs, for example, and examines the ways in which they can and cannot be used, the functions that they can and cannot serve and the forms of human reasoning which they undergird. This can be heady stuff but it reads beautifully as we watch a mind that is both rigorous and playful catch us in the act of being, quintessentially, ourselves.

He is at his best when he is pulling together the insights of linguists, evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists--something he does with ease and clarity. After he proceeds step by step and chapter by chapter he sums it all up in a concluding chapter that is a model of transparent complexity.

Although the materials are different, this book is like Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, its goal being the identification of those aspects of ratiocination that are uniquely human. The difference here is that Pinker draws specifically (and extensively) on the materials of language, draws more conclusions than Kant and does so in accessible and often amusing prose.

Pinker is one of a handful of centrally-important public intellectuals in America. Don't miss his latest (and if you've missed such important, former books as The Blank Slate--you know now what to request for Christmas).

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mina

The Stuff of Thought: Beyond the Stuffing

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

In The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker examines samples of everyday speech to validate modern theories of cognitive science. Pinker is currently a professor and experimental psychologist at Harvard University. He earned his doctorate at Harvard in 1979, then moved to MIT for a postdoctoral fellowship and has been back and forth between the two since then. He’s best known for his work on language and the mind; his early research focused on visual cognition, while his more recent work focused more on child language acquisition (with a particular emphasis on verbs). The Stuff of Thought makes excellent use of verbal acquisition data to provide insight to cognitive function. While a basic knowledge in semantic formalism would be helpful for getting more out of the book, I feel that it is a well-balanced composition of popular culture and linguistic theory. Colorful metaphors bring to light linguistic principles essential for Pinker’s arguments on human nature.
Pinker writes that through language, many complex ideas and attitudes are communicated in varying detail. These concepts shine through language, but they stem from a deeper, and at the most basic level, innate, system. Conceptual semantics, the language of thought, is important to understand because it provides evidence that our utterances are not inane, but that they have meaningful, interpretable content. He presents the question: how do children acquire language in the first place? It’s clear that they are not memorizing the information based on their affinity to regularize (ie runned is a regularized version of the irregular past tense) – which is something that is not found in the input (adult speech). They are analyzing the input to make generalizations using innate building blocks. There is much discussion on what exactly these building blocks are and their functions, all in an effort of fortifying the concept of the human mind.
The machinery innate to our minds, that is, what we are born capable of, is a topic worthy of much philosophical discussion because the answer is still unknown. Pinker takes time to introduce Fodor’s Extreme Nativism (words are the smallest building blocks, and therefore the meaning is the word itself) and Radical Pragmatics (there is very little innate knowledge – all meanings are devised from the context in which the words are uttered). He argues in favor of conceptual semantics, which suggests spatial and eventive qualities of words are innate, while qualities specific to the words are learned. He uses metaphor and the attributes of various words with similar meanings that belong in different syntaxes to support his claim. His ultimate statement on the mind is that it’s clear, through linguistic evidence, that our mind is shaped by the world, and the world by our mind. That is, our perception of reality is a product of the way we think, which is derived from the world around us.
Pinker’s style is informative and memorable. His makes great use of everyday language, like advertisements and common phrases, to communicate sophisticated linguistic theories, as when he describes the verb classes when discussing the difficulties of the acquisition of verbs. The frequent appearance of metaphors based on media and pop culture keeps the reader engaged by eliminating technical terminology and making the research accessible to a much wider audience. He initially draws on the events of 9/11 to explain the slight differentiations semantics makes, a topic well understood by the majority of Americans. I appreciate that he lets his personal style show through and really gives the reader a sense of being included in the observations and linguistic inductions that he makes. While I would not consider his analysis neuroscience based, it finds a home in cognitive science, which is valuable for understanding neuroscience on the level of higher cognitive function.
The Stuff of Thought provides an excellent introduction to the relationship between cognitive science and language, all while engaging the reader in a light-weight, cultured script. I give The Stuff of Thought five stars for its integrity to the field and appealing writing style. Anyone with an interest in cognitive science and a passion for linguistics and languages would be no less than thrilled with this book.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Another hit from Steven Pinker

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

If you like understand how our language works, this is yet another fantastic book to bring clarity to that subject. Pinker's writing is always clear and insightful.

Helpful

Kathleen M. Larkin

Interesting and Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2008

Verified Purchase

Well. This is tougher review than I assumed it would be while I anxiously awaited its arrival.

The first three chapters are an entertaining overview of the English language with special mention of the strange quirks and "hidden -- or are they?" intricacies. He starts out with a lawsuit based on words(what else?) to determine the amount of money an insurance company should pay for damages which occurred on 9/11. (Do they pay "double" because each tower was a separate incident ... or do they pay the planned single amount because 9/11 was "9/11" and it was a single event?) Mostly, he goes through the tiny differences in the words we choose and I was certainly left with an Aha! understanding about WHY I choose words differently and the often subtle undercurrents in that choice. (By the way, English doesn't have a monopoly on the "system" he outlines -- variance twixt the grammars of the world are remarkably consistent.) Though typically entertaining, these first chapters are also redundant to the point of sluggishness.

Then the books sparkles with his usual panache for the next three chapters. I found it surprising to learn how many words (and how finite THAT number is!) are spatial prepositions, and, by the way ... why do "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing? Each element of language is treated with style, fun and eye-opening examples, plus lots and lots to think about.

Chapter Seven follows. I couldn't finish it. For reasons which totally escape me, he is totally enamoured with "THE SEVEN" -- (inappropriate words for TV -- or in the presence oxygen, in my opinion). I think he contends that a part of the brain just can't wait to unleash them on the world. I do not believe that that is true. I was 18 before I encountered the F--- word and that was in a book printed exactly as I have printed it here. Didn't have a clue! I don't much appreciate his adding to my repertoire in the name of science; I finally gave up on the balance of the chapter.

The remainder is his delightful insights into the "innateness" of language in all cultures, the sneaky applications that people can devise, the continuing "evolution".

As usual he is totally professional in delivery style: his page Notes are numbered within the text, his Reference List is extensive and his Index is complete and easy to use.

It's a good book but not his finest hour. (The Blank Slate -- verrry scary -- wins that award, I think.)

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mr. Cecil Ponsaing

A bible for any creator of an artificial language

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2008

Verified Purchase

Not having read the whole book yet, but being in the process, and having been asked by Amazon to write a review; ...

... In reading the book, I am being overloaded with tons of interesting language- thought correspondences and their opposites, which one just does not think about when one just speaks a language and, indeed, when one "just" learns another one. There are so many logical extras to language, which non linguists never think about. But if you want to create a language, this book would be one that you would have to know backwards; like a conscientious christian knows his bible. Without this book it will be very hard to make your artificial language consice and better than the natural languages, and then, your artificial language, your creation, will just be another one in the long line of failed artificial languages.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

5 star		69%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

›

Customer reviews