Synthesized answer
The central thesis of this text is that language is beginning to be understood through scientific inquiry, revealing a world of elegance and richness in everyday speech [1]. The author aims to share this scientific understanding, which has largely been kept secret [1].
The book intends to explain recent discoveries related to language, such as universal deep structures, grammar genes, and the cognitive abilities of babies [1]. It also seeks to answer common questions about languages, including their diversity, the difficulty adults face in learning them, and other naturally arising inquiries [1, 2].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
Title: The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, Garikoitz Knörr de Santiago Description: From the Preface... I have never met a person who is not interested in language. I wrote this book to try to satisfy that curiosity. Language is beginning to submit to that uniquely satisfying kind of understanding that we call science, but the news has been kept a secret. For the language lover, I hope to show that there is a world of elegance and richness in quotidian speech that far outshines the local curiosities of etymologies, unusual words, and fine points of usage. For the reader of…
atural questions about languages, like why there are so many of them, why they are so hard for adults to learn, and why no one seems to know the plural of Walkman.