Don’t be like me. Don’t bring Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of
Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature on your beach
vacation—you’re just going to abandon it in favor of a trashy
magazine. Do, however, read it when you’re nestled on your couch on a
cold rainy day, ’cause it’s a fascinating read that takes time and
effort to savor. As Pinker says, “We are verbivores, a species that
lives on words, and the meaning and use of language are bound to be
among the major things we ponder, share, and dispute.” (Just not while
on vacation.)
Pinker’s discourse details how thoughts affect language and what we
reveal about our inner world through our everyday use of words. It’s
heady stuff—we’re talking textbook-heavy. The book lays the
foundation of its more interesting points with 100-plus pages of
“content-locative” and semantic whatnot, but it’s definitely written
for the casual grammar nerd (what’s up homies!). It should be noted
that Pinker is a Harvard professor and has been a two-time finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize, so the word-wonkage is undoubtedly strong.
The Stuff of Thought‘s best moments are in the explanations
of why people swear and use indirect language. The use of polite
indirect questions, like “Would you mind passing me the butter?” saves
face in a civilized society. By not using bossy language to order
around the butter-keeper, the asker isn’t perceived as a domineering
git. Pinker dissects why we innately use a simpering question, rather
than just blurting out a command, and the result is fascinating
explanation of how we think and why we do what we do.
On the other end of the polite spectrum, Pinker explores the joys of
profanity. “Taboo speech is part of a larger phenomenon known as word
magic… [People] treat the name for an entity as part of its essence,
so that the mere act of uttering a name is seen as a way to impinge on
its referent. Incantations, spells, prayers, and curses are ways that
people try to affect the world through words, and taboos and euphemisms
are ways that people try not to affect it.” While you might have
to wrap your brain around tenses, Extreme Nativism, and polysemy before
you can figure out why you’re constantly swearing like a drunken
sailor, it’s abso-fucking-lutely worth it.