In this classic, the world's leading expert on language and mind explains everything you've ever wanted to know about language in an accessible way: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain processes it, and how it has evolved. With a skillful use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our extensive knowledge about language into a captivating narrative: language is a human instinct wired into our brains through evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistic Society of America. This edition includes an update on advancements in linguistics since the first publication of The Language Instinct.