Steven Pinker talk on language habits.

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought

This is a talk by Steven Pinker on 'What our language habits reveal'.

In this talk, Pinker explains and points out what some of our language habits reveal. It quite literally is what the title suggests. How the way we speak may suggest what we are influenced by and how useful language really is.

Notes and interesting pieces I have drawn from the talk:

1: The Communication Model:

Sender-Message-Receiver

2) All spoken and written language is entirely dependent on social, historical and cultural context.

3) Slang and jargon all differ with historical change, dialect divergence and language formation.

4) Change in language:

    'Descriptivism and prescriptivism'

Prescriptivism is when standard English is the only way to write and speak, and it is the only correct way, prescriptivism is what makes the statement, "texting and social media is killing our English language".

5) Language is used as a window into the human nature.

It emerges from human minds interacting with one another.

It is visible in unstoppable change in language.