The Stuff of Thought - Language as a Window Into Human Nature
By Steven Pinker

Inand The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker looks at how the relationship between words and thoughts can help us understand who we are.Why do so many swear words involve topics like sex, bodily functions or the divine? Why do some children's names thrive while others fall out of favour? Why do we threaten and bribe and seduce in such elaborate, often comical ways? How can a choice of metaphor damn a politician or start a war? And why do we rarely say what we actually mean?Language, as Steven Pinker shows, is at the heart of our lives, and through the way we use it - whether to inform, persuade, entertain or manipulate - we can glimpse the very essence of what makes us human.'Awesome'Daily Mail'Highly entertaining ... funny and thought-provoking'The Times'Anyone interested in language should readand The Stuff of Thoughtand ... moments of genuine revelation and some very good jokes'Mark Haddon,and Sunday Telegraphand Books of the Year'No one writes about language as clearly as Steven Pinker, and this is his best book yet'David Crystal,and Financial TimesSteven Pinkerand is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such asand The New York Times,and Timeand andand Slate, and is the author of six books, includingand The Language Instinct,and How the Mind Worksand andand The Blank Slate.