Table Of ContentAUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
THE BLANK SLATE
STEVEN
PINKER
S T U FF OF
LANGUAGE AS A WINDOW
INTO HUMAN NATURE
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In this feast of a book, Steven Pinker explains how the mind works
in a completely new style—by examining the way we use words.
Every time we swear, we reveal something about human emotions.
When we use innuendo to convey a bribe, a threat, or a sexual
come-on (rather than just blurting it out), we disclose something
about human relationships. Our use of prepositions and tenses
taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and our
nouns and verbs tap into mental models of matter and causation.
Even babies' names, as they change from decade to decade, have
important things to say about our relations to our children and to
society. By looking closely at our everyday speech—our conversa
tions, our jokes, our legal disputes—Pinker paints a vivid picture
of the thoughts and emotions that populate our mental lives.
He argues that human thoughts—from political positions and
religious beliefs to advertising gimmicks and comic strips—are
built around certain core ideas like space, force, dominance, kin
ship, and contamination. Look around, and you'll realize that the
metaphors we use every day reach back to these primal concepts.
Pinker asks how we develop these categories as children, how we
apply them to the world around us. and what happens when we
apply them in inappropriate ways.
Pinker takes on scientific questions—such as how language
affects thought, and which of our concepts are innate—as well
as questions from the headlines and everyday life. Why does the
government care so much about dirty words? How do lobbyists
bribe politicians? How do romantic comedies get such mileage
out of the ambiguities of dating? Why do so many courtroom dra
mas hinge on disagreements about who really caused a person's
death? Why have the last two American presidents gotten into
trouble through the semantic niceties of their words? And why is
bulk e-mail called spam?
(continued on back flap)
(continued from front flap)
The Stuff of Thought marries the two topics of Pinker's earlier
bestsellers: language (The Language Instinct, Words and Rules)
and human nature {How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate). It
presents entirely new material, written in the style that made
those books famous: using lucid explanations of deep and power
ful ideas, presented with irreverent wit, elegant style, and a deft
use of examples from popular culture and everyday life.
STEVEN PINKER
is the Johnstone Family
Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. In 2004, Time
named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the
world. The winner of many prizes for his research and teaching
on language and cognition, he writes for such publications as The
New York Times, Time, and The New Republic and is the author
of six previous books, including The Language Instinct, How the
Mind Works, Words and Rules, and The Blank Slate. He lives in
Boston and Truro, Massachusetts.
"Bjhj A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
LJa^f 375 Hudson Street. New York. N.Y. 10014
VIKING www.penguin.com I Printed in U.S.A.
PRAISE FOR BOOKS BY STEVEN PINKER
THE BLANK SLATE
"A stylish piece of work ... Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him."
—Richard Dawkins, The Times Literary Supplement
"Brilliant in several dimensions. It is enjoyable, informative, clear, humane and sensible."
—Simon Blackburn, New Scientist
"Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read ... also highly persuasive."
—Michael Lemonick, Time
WORD AND RULES: THE INGREDIENTS OF LANGUAGE
"A gem." —Mark Aronoff, The New York Times
"An intellectual joyride." —Jack Chambers, The Globe and Mail
"A treat." —Jan Freeman, The Boston Globe
TT
< ^ =o
HOW THE MIND WORKS
"Witty, lucid, and ultimately enthralling." —Robert McCrum, The Observer
"Big, brash, and a lot of fun." —Madeleine Nash, Time
"Hugely entertaining ... always sparkling and provoking." —Jim Holt, The Wall Street Journal
THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT
"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." —Michael Coe, The New York Times
"Dr. Pinker writes with acid verve This is an exciting book, certain to produce argument."
— The Atlantic Monthly
"A cracking book ... marvelous... wonderful to read." —Tim Radford, The Guardian
S T U FF of T H O U G HT
ALSO BY STEVEN PINKER
Language Learnability and Language Development
Learnability and Cognition
The Language Instinct
How the Mind Works
Words and Rules
The Blank Slate
EDITED BY STEVEN PINKER
Visual Cognition
Connections and Symbols (with Jacques Mehler)
Lexical and Conceptual Semantics (with Beth Levin)
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004
S T E V EN P I N K ER
The
S T U FF
of
T H O U G HT
Language as a Window
into Human Nature
VIKING
VIKING
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First published in 2007 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
1 3 5 79 10 8 6 42
Copyright © Steven Pinker, 2007
All rights reserved
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts
from the following copyrighted works:
"This Be the Verse" from Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1988, 2003 by the Estate of
Philip Larkin. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC and Faber and Faber Ltd.
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do by Judith Rich Harris
(Free Press). Copyright © 1998 by Judith Rich Harris. Reprinted with permission.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Pinker, Steven, 1954-
The stuff of thought : language as a window into human nature / Steven Pinker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-670-06327-7
1. Language and languages—Philosophy. 2. Thought and thinking. I. Title.
P107.P548 2007
401—dc22 2007026601
Printed in the United States of America
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