Books for Evolution of Language
The Dragons of Eden
by Carl Sagan
Speculations on the evolution of human intelligence.
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The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steven Pinker
This book discusses his hypothesis that language is an instinct, an evolutionary adaptation that is partly "hard-wired" into the brain and partly learned.
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Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
by Steven Pinker
“This book tries to illuminate the nature of language and mind by choosing a single phenomenon and examining it from every angel imaginable. That phenonenon is regular and irregular verbs.”
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The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
This book is the third of a trilogy—with The Language Instinct and Words and Rules—that discusses the language and mind. This book is about the meanings of words and constructions and the way that language is used in social settings—what linguists call semantics and pragmatics.
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The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
“This book is about the moral, emotional, and political colorings of the concept of human nature in modern life....It is a book for those who recognize that the sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution are permanently changing our view of ourselves and wonder whether the values we hold precious will wither, survive, or ...be enhanced.”
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How the Mind Works
by Steven Pinker
This book provides big picture of how the mind works—as a organ of computation designed by natural selection to solve the problems of our ancestors in their foraging way of life.
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