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The Stuff of Thought summary

Name: The Stuff of Thought
Rating: 4.1 (59 reviews)
Author: Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Language as a Window into Human Nature

4.1 (59 ratings)

21 mins

Table of Contents

The Stuff of Thought
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What’s in it for me? Step into the stuff of thoughts.

Learning languages is a key part of our lives. As infants and children, we all crawled around, pointed at stuff and, at some point, started saying words out loud to describe the things that made up our surroundings.

For most of us, language comes so naturally that, unless we are linguists or language nerds, we take its workings for granted. But, as you’ll see in these blinks, not only is language an incredibly complex phenomenon, it can also shed light on human thought and behavior.

Over the course of the following blinks, you’ll learn about how humans perceive and act in the world through a close examination of human language. From babies’ ability to learn grammatical rules to the historical development of swear words, you’ll see why our words provide a fascinating window into our nature.

You’ll also discover

why seeing the 9/11 attack as two events instead of one is a distinction worth $3.5 billion;
how Bill Clinton used the ambiguity of the present tense to escape trouble; and
how the character of Eliza Doolittle scandalized audiences in 1913.

Even the most tragic events can spur linguistic debates, and words have more practical importance than we think.

Everybody remembers September 11, 2001, the day two hijacked planes collided with the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. On that day, the two planes crashed in quick succession, the first hitting the north tower at 08:46 a.m. and the second hitting the south tower at 09:03 a.m.

But what does that have to do with language or linguistics?

Well, even highly traumatic events can launch debates about the precise meaning of words. For instance, while it may seem obscure, in the aftermath of this tragedy, a debate ensued about whether the 9/11 attacks on New York constituted a single event or two separate ones.

Here’s how the two sides saw it:

The commonly held understanding of the World Trade Center attack as a single event – a coordinated terrorist attack that provoked a series of military and political responses. But it can also be viewed as two separate instances: one attack on the north tower and a second on the south.

Seeing footage of the first tower engulfed in flames while the second remains intact drives home just how separate the two attacks were, at least for 20 or so minutes.

While such distinctions might seem insignificant, they’re actually more important than people might believe. After all, words, and the details around them, have a great deal of practical importance in daily life.

And this is particularly the case when it comes to law. Returning to the example of 9/11, the debate between seeing it as a single event or two separate ones held $3.5 billion in the balance; the leaseholder of the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein, was insured for a maximum of $3.5 billion per destructive event. Therefore, if the attack was considered two separate events, he would have received compensation for both.

So, exploring language and its intricacies isn’t just some intellectual game. It can have real-world consequences, and in the following blinks, we’ll explore how, using some less tragic examples.

Babies don’t learn how to speak through imitation, but must instead master the abstract structures of language.

Have you ever wondered why babies cry so often? Well, one theory is that they’re struggling to figure out verbal communication, which is no easy task. In fact, while people often assume that babies and children learn language through simple imitation, that’s not exactly the case.

It’s true that following the example of others helps infants learn simple words, but it would never be enough for them to learn complex grammar. For instance, you can correctly say “she ate scrambled eggs with bacon” or “she ate scrambled eggs and bacon.” But hearing this wouldn’t teach a child to ask a question in the form “what did she eat the scrambled eggs with?” rather than “what did she eat the scrambled eggs and?”

Some people believe that words are elemental and innate, but a closer look shows that they are complex and learned.

Are you one of those odd people who likes dictionaries? Do you enjoy reading through definitions and learning new words?

If so, you might feel uneasy about the twentieth-century linguistic theory of extreme nativism, which states that all words are elemental concepts and definitions can never properly describe them. A major proponent of this idea is the philosopher and cognitive scientist Jerry Fodor.

Simple linguistic devices can be used to many ends, creating ambiguity and getting people into trouble.

Philosophers throughout history have understood how elusive time is; no sooner have you carried out an action or had a thought than it’s in the past, while the future remains forever out of reach. Naturally, this creates issues for language, which, despite describing time with as much accuracy as possible, inevitably relies on imperfect linguistic constructions to do so.

As a result, even something as seemingly simple as the present tense can be used in any number of ways depending on the grammatical constructions with which it’s combined. In fact, there are at least two different ways that the present tense is used in common parlance.

A clever use of language can produce inconsistencies in human behavior.

In 2003, when the United States attacked Iraq, some described it as an invasion while others called it a liberation. These variations in word choice were of no small consequence, since the way the action was framed changed people’s opinion of it.

This is just one example of how language can deeply affect people’s views by framing issues in a different light. In fact, experiments have even shown that people can be easily manipulated through language.

Names tend to carry a lot of meaning about a person, but they actually point to something much more basic.

When you say your mother’s name out loud, it likely conjures up all the complexity of her personality and biography, a particular temperament, profession and the opinions you associate with her. But is it her name that’s actually pointing to those things?

Well, people certainly ascribe a great deal of meaning to names. Famous people are even listed in dictionaries, as if their biographies were the definitions of their names. Just take Paul McCartney. When people say his name, they’re not only referring to a British human born in 1942; they’re also thinking about a musician, specifically the musician who played in the band The Beatles and wrote famous songs alongside John Lennon.

Words are dynamic, which means their social acceptability varies over time.

It’s no secret that some words have the power to upset people who perceive them as insulting or dirty. But having a historical perspective means taking a more pragmatic approach to swear words. In fact, some words that were considered acceptable in the past are seen as impolite today.

For instance, in a fifteenth-century textbook, in a section on the female anatomy, the bladder is described as being attached to the cunt. Or consider the historian Geoffrey Hughes, who specializes in tracing the evolution of certain words. His studies have turned up all manner of dirty-sounding words like pissabed, shitecrow and windfucker. However, in previous epochs, these words referred to perfectly innocent things: a dandelion, a heron and a windhover bird, respectively.

Politeness is about speaking indirectly and the effects of such speech change as they become common.

People are generally averse to rejection and it turns out that one of the best ways to avoid it is simply never to ask for anything. But of course, doing so isn’t always practical – sometimes you just need something from another person. Luckily, in these cases, you can resort to politeness.

It’s a commonly used word, but when looked at more closely, politeness refers to a form of indirect speech that couches requests in an apology. For instance, when being polite, many people avoid direct requests; rather, they convey what they desire only indirectly or by implication.

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What is The Stuff of Thought about?

The Stuff Of Thought (2007) offers an in-depth look at language and, more specifically, what it can tell us about human nature and the complexities of the human mind. These blinks touch on everything from our ability to unconsciously detect subtle grammatical patterns to the linguistic rules surrounding politeness.

Best quote from The Stuff of Thought

In trying to crack a puzzle in how children infer the syntax of their mother tongue, we were forced to reconceptualize what they had to learn.

—Steven Pinker

Who should read The Stuff of Thought?

Readers interested in the complexity of language
Psychologists and language therapists
Students of linguistics and literature

About the Author

Steven Pinker is a linguist, psychologist and professor at Harvard University. He’s also the author of a number of popular books, including How The Mind Works, and The Better Angels Of Our Nature.

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