How the Mind Works (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Steven Pinker
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Evolutionary psychology
- Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology
- Subjects: Language or languages, Sex or sexuality, Psychology or psychologists, Religion, Manners or customs, Humanism, Instinct, Philanthropy or philanthropists, Mind and body
The publication of Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994) aroused considerable attention and shattered many long-cherished myths about how children master language. Pinker, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discounted parents as the chief teachers of language to young children. He points out that language acquisition, despite its complexity, is a relatively easy accomplishment for most children. It appears to follow some sort of instinctive, internalized paradigm, some...
[The entire page is 2093 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
