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Liked It “Some of the really heavy linguistics you just have to skip, but the overall themes are fascinating.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Some of the really heavy linguistics you just have to skip, but the overall themes are fascinating.”
Joseph Roe wrote this review Wednesday, November 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Pretty good, informative and approachable. However, somewhat abstract and of limited practical use outside of academia or scientific curiosity. I constantly try to bring whatever I read into practical use in my daily life and work, from family life to social life, organizational behavior and marketing. Could make very few connections with this title. Still pretty good!”
Andres Ferraro wrote this review Friday, October 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A great book about how children acquire language and how adults use it. It starts with a Chomskyian premise, namely that there is a Universal Grammar most of us are born with, one that is general-purpose and independent of the actual language that gets mapped on to it, but goes way beyond Chomsky in a written style that laypeople can understand if they are willing to go over material that they didn't quite get the first time. I found the parts about how kids learn language(s) and how various brain disorders affect the ability to speak "normally" the most interesting, but the sections on sentence structure, a dry sounding topic indeed, are revealing and very interesting too.”
Random Factor wrote this review Wednesday, October 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Read this book for linquistics. Changes the way you look at how humans learn to communicate and how much effect we as teachers really have on the process.”
TLC wrote this review Friday, June 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Fascinating!”
Jean B wrote this review Saturday, April 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I happen to disagree with Pinker on several points concerning the human language faculty (ask me some time), but this is an entertaining and well-written introduction to some of the thorny issues confronting modern linguists.”
Dirk wrote this review Wednesday, July 9 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was (I think), the first scientific non-fiction book I read, and I still think it was one of the best. Very readable, interesting ideas, never gets repetetive.”
Louis S wrote this review Thursday, June 12 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
0 of 3 members found this review helpful“He spends 400 pages reviewing the various theories of language , and concludes: "well, its sort of like an instinct, innit?" Particularly damning is his embrace of Joseph Greenberg's survey of supposed linguistic universals.”
Marconi wrote this review Sunday, June 1 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
