Learnability and Cognition

More about the book

Before Steven Pinker became known for his bestsellers on language and human nature, he authored several influential technical monographs on language acquisition. His 1989 work, which integrates two significant topics—how children learn their mother tongue and how the mind categorizes fundamental concepts like space, time, causality, agency, and goals—has become a classic in cognitive science. Children exhibit remarkable subtlety in language use; for instance, phrases like "pour water into the glass" sound natural, while "pour the glass with water" does not. This raises the question of how children make these distinctions without consistent correction or merely mimicking their parents. Pinker addresses this paradox through a theory on how children grasp the meanings and applications of verbs, delving into its implications for language, thought, and their interrelation. In a new preface, he reflects on how the ideas explored in this work inspired his later bestseller, which examines language as a lens into human nature. He emphasizes that these technical discussions offer valuable insights into not only language acquisition but also literary metaphor, scientific understanding, political discourse, and societal views on sexuality and obscenity.