The Language Instinct

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The Language Instinct: The new science of language and mind.

The Folio Society, 2008, London.

The Language Instinct is a 1994 book by Steven Pinker, written for a general audience. Pinker argues that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. He deals sympathetically with Noam Chomsky's claim that all human language shows evidence of a universal grammar, but dissents from Chomsky's skepticism that evolutionary theory can explain the human language instinct./.../

(Paragraph, page 2)

"Language is so tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possiblwe to imagine life without it. Chances are that if you find two or more people together anywhere on earth, they will soon be exchanging words. When there is no one to talk with, people tlak to themselves, to their dogs, even to their plants. In our social relations, he race is not to the swift but ro the verbal - the spellbinding orator, the silver-tongued seducer, the persuasive child who wins the battle of wills agains a brawnier parent. Aphasia, the loss of language following brain injury, is devastating, and in severe cases family members may feel that the whole person is lost for ever."