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The Stuff of Thought
- Author
- Steven Pinker
- Narrator
- John Chancer
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Publish Date
- 31 October 2019
- Run Time
- 21 hours 27 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
In 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.
©2008 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Critics Review
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Astonishingly readable
Daily Telegraph
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Perceptive, amusing and intelligent
Times
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No one writes about language as clearly as Steven Pinker, and this is his best book yet
Financial Times
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Immensely readable and stimulating. Pinker is a master at making complex ideas palatable
Independent
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Awesome ... Pinker writes lucidly and elegantly, and leavens the text with scores of perfectly judged anecdotes, jokes, cartoons and illustrations
Daily Mail
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Steven Pinker
- Narrator
- John Chancer
- Duration
- 21 hours 27 minutes
- Release Date
- 31 October 2019
- ISBN
- 9780141992341
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Genre
- Psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics, Sociolinguistics
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.In 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. ©2008 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio
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