Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language (Science Masters Series)

Rating:
Summary: Very informative
Review: If you read Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct" already you will probably enjoy reading this book. I think this book is somewhat harder to read, though, because of its topic. This book mainly deals with regular and irregular verbs. Yikes! Irregular verbs are a nightmare for students - especially if they are learning a foreign language. Believe me, my native language is German and I really hated having to learn all those weird combinations like "go - went - gone". Where does that come from? I have to admit that German is not much better - in fact, Pinker deals with the German language in a full chapter.

I always wondered why the verbs we most frequently use are so ridiculously irregular. Why not "go - goed - goed"? Wouldn't that be easier? Pinker goes (why "goes"?) through many irregular verbs and explains in full detail where the funky endings come from - it turns out that most of the endings come from old or ancient sources. This part is a little bit dull to read if you're not really thrilled by all the subtleties but it is still very nice to see why the most commonly used verbs are irregular.

PS: I fear having read though all the wrong examples Pinker gives scrod up my knowledge of irregular verbs somewhat. I will ask my friends to blame it on him. ;-)

Rating:
Summary: Difficult read, one suspects this book is much ado...
Review: One suspects that this book by Steven Pinker is worthy of a long paper, even two, but that it has been extended to book length through repetitive examples.

The central insight -- that memorized words and word parts combine with a general set of rules to form the basis of language -- is repeatedly presented by Pinker as new, innovative, insightful. Pinker is a good writer, and his phrase-making abilities do make this mildly fun to read, but given the fact that most of the audience for this book consists of non-linguistic experts, one begins to wonder how much of the self-promotion is justified.

Why does every language have a mixture of regular and irregular forms? "Each mixture arises when unique historical events -- conquest, immigration, trade, fads in speaking -- are handled by an unchanging mental tool kit, which contains a frequency and similarity-loving associative memory and a promiscuous combinatorial grammar." (page 229) This says it all -- Pinker goes on to inform us that "the human mind is a hybrid system, learning fuzzy associations and crisp rules in different subsystems". (page 279)

These insights are interesting, but I think are far more intuitive than the author would have us believe. I also suspect that the entire book could be reduced to a twenty page article and 40 pages of foot notes. The average reader slogs through the endless grammatical examples and begins to wonder why they need to read so much to learn these excellent points.

Linguistics is a discipline of which much is made from fine points. My own bias is that linguistics is at best an informative field, informing broader areas of philosophy, biology, genetics, and sociology. This book attempts to drive many points home while riding the one track, liguistics, and while it does inform, it also bores the reader. This is the sort of book that a better writer cites... and that a reader with general interests can safely skip.

Rating:
Summary: Applied linguistics
Review: This book may strike some as mind-blowing and some as dull, depending upon your familiarity and interest in the subject. I, for one, found it perfectly suited to my high interest in language and how the mind works. I recommend browsing the book at a local store to get a feel for it. As academic writing goes, this is hardly dry. Pinker writes lucidly and with great humor, using the idea of regular and irregular verbs (!) to explore diverse topics in modern science. I read it with hunger. A great soft introduction to linguistics, and to the nature of the human brain.

Rating:
Summary: Mystery of mind revealed through language
Review: This is the first Pinker's book I've read; this may or may not be the best choice. In a flush of serendipity, I started finding references to Dr. Pinker and his works elsewhere; turns out he is considered one of the pivotal figures of modern evolutionary psychology and an archenemy of New Age, feminist and other postmodern, erm, thinkers. That alone could have driven me to his works; but I stumbled upon this book by pure chance, and I am very glad I did.

"Words and rules", as its title suggests, is a less ambitious and more technical book than "The Language Instinct" or "How the Mind Works". It is likely to produce less controversy. It is less than friendly for readers without background in linguistics. There are very few far-reaching conjectures - most of the stories Pinker recounts are solid, scientifically verified data.

However, the consequences which follow are disturbing and unusual. The seemingly trivial question of regular and irregular words in languages, and English irregular verbs in particular, has major repercussions for this other question Dr. Pinker had tackled earlier - how the mind works.

To try to sum it up: in language acquisition and language use, humans employ two systems: memory and structure, lexicon and grammar, words and rules. They are interdependent, but distinctly separate. Their separation in human minds is illustrated by numerous examples from children's speech mistakes, speech impediments in people with various brain injuries, and neurological data, obtained by more or less direct observation of brain activity. All languages depend heavily on words; you cannot use even Esperanto unless you have mastered its basic vocabulary. As for rules, their participation in speech differs from language to language, but there is no language which does not use rules at all. People resort to rules whenever there is a failure of access to memory. For example, if you encounter a nonsense verb - "to squink" - you are much more likely to form its past tense as "squinked", not "squank", because you do not have any "squank" in your memory bank, and the regular "-ed" suffix jumps into play immediately. Pinker convincingly shows in one of the most amazing chapters of his book, that regularity does not necessarily mean statistical prevalence; true, there are many more regular verbs in English than irregulars; but in German, for example, the default plural of nouns is formed by the *least* frequent suffix, which just happens to be regular and therefore resides in the "rules" domain rather than in "words".

No specific language is innate; no serious scholar would dispute it. Whether there are any linguistic universalia, is, as far as I understand, still debatable. Pinker's approach is, however, one step higher; it deals with the language instinct, with the innate ability to implement communication through language - and the tools which organize it into a system. It is probably more complex than the dualism of words and rules; but as a first approximation, as a working model it seems to be the step in the right - and necessary - direction.

Why necessary? Because, as Pinker argues, now is the first time in history when we can start bridging the gap between humanities and science. Because the academic research in history, languages and literature can finally justify itself by coming closer to its ultimate, though probably misunderstood in the past, goal - to know how the mind works. That is what humanities are about; that is where they can join efforts with science to come closer to that goal.

For me that was the central message of the book (spelled - or spelt? - out by the author in the final chapter). Jokes, cartoons and extracts from the writings of "language mavens" are never out of place, always to the point; and the jocular plurals of "harmonicae, fives and dra" left me breathless with laughter. This is a scholarly book, not light reading; and if you treat it as such, you'd see it for the marvellous achievement it is.

Rating:
Summary: Language is Fun? Language is Fun!
Review: Whoever would think that an entire book could be written on the subject of verbs: regular and irregular. But Pinker does a dynamic job of making language sing. He recognizes the liquidity of language, its morphing and morphosis of rules, and its complete fascination. This is the third Pinker book I have read - and can't wait for the next one. I jumped into this one expecting repetition from his other books, but he continues to surprise us with completely new slants about language, completely new examples. Only his expertise and broad sense of humor remain familiar. I have to read slowly so I can absorb all the nuances suggested. Still, I hate to lay the book down. Major entertainment and fascinating information.