The Ling Space
We’re really excited to have gotten to interview Steven Pinker recently! Dr. Pinker is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard, and a best-selling author whose books, including The Language Instinct, the Stuff of Thought, and the Sense of Style, help to broaden knowledge about linguistics, language, and cognitive psychology.
We got to ask him about a lot of great topics, including:
– the role of social media in promoting science
– the unifying themes under all of his work
– the ongoing resistance to the idea that language is innate
– the role of emoticons and emoji in discourse
– the videos he watches on YouTube
– three questions from our followers on machine learning, advice for starting out in research, and social media’s influence on language
And much more! We even have an extra video this week, posted Thursday, that has a book recommendation and news about Dr. Pinker’s next book.
Hope you all enjoy it!
Some related videos:
How will language change in the future?: https://youtu.be/5hibYoYwGko
How do computers understand our speech?: https://youtu.be/FI9IJteS-5Y
How do we interpret sentences?: https://youtu.be/2A-FDN7-gyo
Find us on all the social media worlds:
Tumblr: http://thelingspace.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLingSpace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelingspace/
And at our website, http://www.thelingspace.com/ !
You can also find our store at the website, http://www.thelingspace.com/store/
We also have forums to discuss this episode, and linguistics more generally.
Sources:
Steven Pinker’s bookshelf ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV-wgmLi1rE
Pinker with Kanye West: https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/656344464001118208
Books mentioned:
The Language Instinct: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061336461
The Blank Slate: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780142003343
The Stuff of Thought: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143114246
The Sense of Style: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780670025855
The Better Angels of Our Nature: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143122012
Clear and Simple as the Truth: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780691147437
Style: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780857191878
Looking forward to next week!
Source
Amazing .
Your voice is a lot deeper in this interview. Do you deliberately change your voice in your usual videos?
I could tell you were nervous but I'd be nervous too sitting next to Steven Pinker! Great stuff
I enjoyed this very much. Great questions! The Language Instinct was my gateway drug to linguistics too!!
I was really surprised to see this pop up in my subscription box. I've learned a lot by watching many of his talks on youtube, and here you have provided me with even more video to learn from. Steven Pinker always has something interesting to say about language, and I think it's amazing that you got him on here! Thanks for the video
That was really good 😀 thxx for picking my question 🙂
This is delightful! Steven Pinker's book the Language Instinct is what I first got me interested in psychology. So neat that you got to interview him. Great questions!
I heard of Steven Pinker when I was in graduate studies.
The bookshelf commercial is still on Youtube =P
I like that you have the mic on the table that isn't plugged in 😛
I loved this! Moti, you are so cute.
"books have a shelf life" LOL
Wonderful interview! Great job! 🙂
I love his point about academese sometimes being to cover up that someone has nothing really to say. The single phrase that helped me decide not to get my phd in English lit was in an essay about commercials–they said that commercials offered viewers "a paratactic seriality of illimitable choice." Why?
btw, you should ask him to tweet about the interview–getting his audience to see your show would be fabulous marketing!
thanks for the interview..
This is a wonderful interview! Great questions, great answer, even the perfect length (imo). I don't always have time for these huge 1-2 hours discussions, but dislike the shallow experience of a 3 minute clip.
Pleasant to watch/listen. Thank you.
omg why does he look at the camera a lot
He is brilliant!?
Oh no, what I have seen cannot be unseen. I have watched the "steven pinker bookshelf" video. Now I will forever think that cubes make Steven Pinker calmer.