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Words and Rules

The Ingredients Of Language

Steven Pinker

Ages 12–18

Readers rate it 3.8 (9 on Hardcover)

385 pages · Released Jul 14, 2015

Content report card

Words and Rules parent’s guide: what’s inside

High confidence

Violence

Language

Sexual content

LGBTQ+ themes

Scary or mature

Substance use

What it offers

Positive messages

Positive role models

A note for parents

This is a scholarly exploration of linguistics and cognitive science by a respected academic, centered on how language rules and memory work. It contains no content concerns and is written for an intellectually mature audience interested in how language and the mind function. The book rewards curiosity and careful thinking about complex ideas, making it appropriate for advanced middle-grade and high school readers with interest in science and language.

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From the publisher

"If you are not already a Steven Pinker addict, this book will make you one." -- Jared Diamond In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon -- regular and irregular verbs -- and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an asto... "If you are not already a Steven Pinker addict, this book will make you one." -- Jared Diamond In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon -- regular and irregular verbs -- and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the history of Western philosophy. Through it all, Pinker presents a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. The idea extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind. This is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world's leading cognitive scientists.

Shelved under

  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Science
  • Grammar
  • Comparative and general
  • Language and languages
  • Comparative and general Grammar
  • Verb
  • Language acquisition
  • Verbe (Linguistique)
  • Arbitrarität
  • Langage et langues
  • Kognitive Linguistik

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ISBN 9780465049714 · Basic Books

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