Watch Your Language Blog

Steven Pinker and the Parasitic Gaps

All of us here at Living Language are fascinated by languages, but not all of us are linguists. Most of us came here with a genuine love for the study of languages, and for teaching them to others. We do have two linguists in our midst, though, so the words "universal grammar" or "parasitic gaps" sometimes seep into our office conversation, and whenever that happens, I feel like a fish out of water. I decided long ago that I'd need to become at least an armchair linguist if I wanted to keep up.

One of the other editors mentioned that the Steven Pinker book The Language Instinct would be a great introduction to the field of linguistics (which, for all intents and purposes, is still a relatively young and volatile field of study). I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and while I have yet to tackle Chomsky, it's given me a better sense of what the field of linguistics is up against, and how far they've come. I kind of think of Pinker as Virgil to my Dante as I try to navigate the underworld of syntax and semantics that lies beneath the language we know and the language we choose to learn.

Pinker has a new book out addressing the relationship between culture and language, and Slate Magazine takes an in-depth look.

He carefully picks language apart to reveal the conceptual scaffolds and preoccupations that underlie it, including pervasive beliefs about the workings of time, space, and motion, as well as the human body. Once the struts are exposed, Pinker confronts us with a surprising conclusion: Though they shape our language, these mental scaffolds have little to do with how the world really works.

(SUZANNE)


October 19, 2007