Among those tribes, language was acquired seamlessly, without specific instruction. Pinker describes language as "biological adaptation to communicate." He points to anthropological studies of tribes that had no contact with the larger world until the 1920s. It’s an exciting time to write about language because, since the mid 1970s, cognitive science (a combination of neurobiology, computer science, psychology, linguistics and philosophy) has unveiled dozens of features of language and dispelled several common misconceptions about language acquisition. Pinker begins by saying that language is the most unique features humans possess. Along with links to hundreds of studies, The Language Instinct contains multiple examples within the text that demonstrate the nuances and mysteries of language. The book’s themes include language acquisition, the possibility that language is an inborn trait, and that language is a result of mankind's evolution from hunter-gathers. Pinker remains a leader in the field of cognitive psychology.
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994), by famed Harvard psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, posits that humans learn language primarily through an instinct, guided by human instruction, that develops naturally as infants are brought up in their respective communities.
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