The Language Instinct: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of The Language Instinct, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
Language is an instinct
Pinker argues that language is a natural human instinct, like a spider's ability to spin webs.
Children everywhere learn to speak without formal teaching, which suggests the ability is built into the human brain.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
All languages share deep rules
Pinker follows Noam Chomsky in arguing that all human languages share an underlying structure, often called universal grammar.
Differences between languages are smaller than they seem. In this view, a child's mind is ready for grammar before any lesson starts.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Children create new languages
Pinker describes how children of people speaking a rough mixed pidgin turn it into a full language called a creole.
Deaf children in Nicaragua, he notes, created a new sign language in a similar way.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
Children learn astonishingly fast
Pinker describes how toddlers learn thousands of words and complex grammar in a few years.
Their mistakes, such as saying goed, show they are applying rules. Such errors are a sign of a mind finding patterns, not just copying adults.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
The brain has language areas
Pinker describes how injuries to certain parts of the brain can damage language in specific ways.
This supports the idea that language has a biological basis. Different injuries can affect speaking and understanding separately.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Thought is not only words
Pinker argues that people think in a mental language he calls mentalese, which is not the same as spoken language.
Words, in his view, express thoughts rather than create them.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Grammar rules are not snobbery
Pinker criticises people who insist on strict grammar rules that ordinary speakers break.
He argues that everyday speech follows its own complex and valid rules. In his view, such rules often come from habit or fashion more than logic.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Language evolved naturally
Pinker argues that language evolved through natural selection because it helped humans share information.
He sees it as an adaptation like the eye. Like the eye, he argues, it shows signs of being shaped for a job.
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