Mind

Language as a Window into Human Nature

October 7, 2012 2 Comments

Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.

[embed_video youtube=”http://youtu.be/3-son3EJTrU” vimeo=””][/embed_video]

Published On: October 7, 2012

2 Comments

  • Jerome H. Barkow says:

    This brilliant video is very effective in presenting the complexities of language to high-functioning people on the autism spectrum (e.g., people diagnosed with Asperger’s). Autism spectrum people tend to be very literal and can get impatient with ambiguity, and the video shows why ambiguity and “plausible deniability” are often useful.

  • Jerome H. Barkow says:

    This video would be very useful for high-functioning people on the autism spectrum. Such folk tend to be literal and the explanation for why we get into indirect ways of saying things helps make sense of the apparently inefficient complexities of the language of neurotypicals.

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