Steven Pinker on BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week'

“We are verbivores, a species that lives on words” declares the Harvard academic STEVEN PINKER. In his new book, The Stuff of Thought, he argues that language is a window into the human mind and can give a “word’s eye view” of how we think about the world. He also unpicks our love affair with metaphor and ponders new words. For example, why do we talk about “re-booting” our computers when the process has nothing to do with giving our PCs a good kicking? The Stuff of Thought is published by Allen Lane.

Monday, 8th October 2007

BBC Radio 4 Listen again