The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

by Steven Pinker

The idea that thought is the same thing as language is an example of what can be called a conventional absurdity: a statement that goes against all common sense but that everyone believes because they dimly recall having heard it somewhere and because it is so pregnant with implications.

language “makes infinite use of finite media.”

whom is used consistently only by careful writers and pretentious speakers.)

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvsn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn “x” (t gts Ittl hrdr f y dn’t vn kn whr th vwls r).

The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age is the price we pay for the vigor of youth.