The Language Instinct

This book argues that human language is a biological faculty, an instinct that develops in children without formal teaching. Pinker describes mental grammar, how infants extract words and rules from speech, and why apparent language differences sit on a shared design. He treats slang, signed languages, and aphasia as evidence, and discusses whether the faculty evolved by natural selection. Chomsky's idea of universal grammar is recast in psychological terms. The work is a popular science argument about mind and speech, not a language-teaching manual and not a history of English.

Quarter-bound in green cloth with design printed paper sides. Green slipcase.