The Language Game
How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World
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Narrated by:
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Peter Noble
About this listen
Forget the language instinct - this is the story of how we make up language as we go.
Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity - and one that remains poorly understood. In The Language Game, cognitive scientists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater show us where generations of scientists seeking the rules of language got it wrong. Language isn’t about hardwired grammars but about near-total freedom, something like a game of charades, with the only requirement being a desire to understand and be understood. From this new vantage point, Christiansen and Chater find compelling solutions to major mysteries like the origins of languages and how language learning is possible, and to long-running debates such as whether having two words for “blue” changes what we see. In the end, they show that the only real constraint on communication is our imagination.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater (P)2022 Basic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"This book turned everything I thought I knew about language upside down. It's persuasive, full of fascinating details, and an absolute delight to read." (Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up)
"The Language Game is a highly original, convincing story of how humans developed their greatest invention, language. It builds on years of impressive research by Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater and shows language science at its very best. A delight to read, it deserves careful study by anyone interested in the nature, function, and origins of human communication." (Daniel Everett, author of Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes)
"A joyful romp across species and cultures through the ways language is invented and reinvented, peppered with insightful stories you will feel compelled to tell anyone in earshot." (Barbara Tversky, author of Mind in Motion)
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Over a storied career, Daniel C. Dennett has engaged questions about science and the workings of the mind. His answers have combined rigorous argument with strong empirical grounding. And a lot of fun. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking offers seventy-seven of Dennett’s most successful “imagination-extenders and focus-holders” meant to guide you through some of life’s most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, mind, and free will.
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Loved it, but some philosophy background needed.
- By LongerILiveLessIKnow on 11-14-13
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The Bilingual Brain
- And What It Tells Us About the Science of Language
- By: Albert Costa, John W. Schwieter - translator
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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How do two languages coexist in the same brain? Why is it possible to forget a language? What are the advantages and challenges of being bilingual? Over half of the world's population is bilingual, and yet this fascinating, complex ability is understood by few. In The Bilingual Brain, leading expert Albert Costa explores the science of language through a wide range of cutting-edge studies and examples from South Korea to Spain and Canada.
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Brains make language and language makes brains
- By Andy P. on 08-25-20
By: Albert Costa, and others
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Your Brain Is a Time Machine
- The Neuroscience and Physics of Time
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, brain researcher and best-selling author Dean Buonomano draws on evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy to present his influential theory of how we tell and perceive time. The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological flow and enables "mental time travel" - simulations of future and past events.
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Great book on an underrated subject
- By Neuron on 05-09-17
By: Dean Buonomano
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Undeniable
- How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed
- By: Douglas Axe
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the "design intuition" - the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can be accomplished only by someone who has that knowledge.
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Seductively Challenge what are consider facts
- By Rafael Vila on 10-08-16
By: Douglas Axe
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Babel No More
- The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners
- By: Michael Erard
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages...or seventy? In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages; Emil Krebs, a pugnacious German diplomat, who spoke sixty-eight languages; and Lomb Kat, a Hungarian who taught herself Russian by reading Russian romance novels.
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Heavy on anecdote, light on science
- By S. Yates on 07-15-16
By: Michael Erard
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The Intelligent Web
- Search, Smart Algorithms, and Big Data
- By: Gautam Shroff
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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As we use the Web for social networking, shopping, and news, we leave a personal trail. These days, linger over a Web page selling lamps, and they will turn up at the advertising margins as you move around the Internet, reminding you, tempting you to make that purchase. Search engines such as Google can now look deep into the data on the Web to pull out instances of the words you are looking for. And there are pages that collect and assess information to give you a snapshot of changing political opinion.
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Great book for learning about Deep learning
- By Darkpassenger on 04-16-15
By: Gautam Shroff
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The Master Algorithm
- How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
- By: Pedro Domingos
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the aegis of machine learning in our data-driven machine age, computers are programming themselves and learning about - and solving - an extraordinary range of problems, from the mundane to the most daunting. Today it is machine learning programs that enable Amazon and Netflix to predict what users will like, Apple to power Siri's ability to understand voices, and Google to pilot cars.
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Great book, irritating narration
- By N. G. PEPIN on 09-24-15
By: Pedro Domingos
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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Freedom Evolves
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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Seeing Voices
- A Journey Into the World of the Deaf
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks - introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect - a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well.
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A Rich Experience
- By Douglas on 11-27-12
By: Oliver Sacks
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Leonardo's Brain
- Understanding da Vinci's Creative Genius
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author Leonard Shlain explores the life, art, and mind of Leonardo da Vinci, seeking to explain his singularity by looking at his achievements in art, science, psychology, and military strategy (yes), and then employing state of the art left-right brain scientific research to explain his universal genius. Shlain shows that no other person in human history has excelled in so many different areas as Da Vinci and he peels back the layers to explore the how and the why.
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As distracted as Da Vinci
- By D. McCracken on 05-12-15
By: Leonard Shlain
What listeners say about The Language Game
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dubi
- 10-18-23
More Like Jeopardy Than Charades
In the arena where biologists, geneticists, linguists, and other interested scientists have been trying to explain the origins and intricacies of human language, Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater upend the Scrabble board, throw over all the cards in What's My Line, shoot the moon in Hearts, telling us that language is like a game of charades, no explanation possible or even necessary, total improvisation.
In fact it's less than a game of charades because there are no rules at all, including the only rule of charades, which is no vocalizing -- of course language is all about vocalizing. I posit that this book is more like a game of Jeopardy -- rather than looking for answers, it only raises more questions. Indeed, the book is less of an explanation of language than it is a series of debunkings of other explanations of language.
I have developed such an interest in linguistics via Audible, having listened to numerous titles by John McWhorter, Anne Curzan, Mark Forsyth, and others, that I now wish I studied it in college and pursued it as a career. This is the first of perhaps a dozen or so books on the subject that just left me totally out in the cold, learning nothing new on the subject.
I'm also left suspicious of the authors because of a serious omission:
I learned about myelin when my daughter's soccer coach had us all read a book about skill development. Myelin is the substance in our nervous system that insulates neural pathways that encode specific skills, from motor skills (myelin may well be the root of what we call muscle memory) to cognitive skills, to all skills really, including language acquisition.
Myelin is not mentioned once in this book (AFAIR, and I was listening for it), and I cannot fathom how that is possible in the context of this subject matter. With all the discussion in this book about genetic evolution and how it cannot explain the development of language, the authors seemed to have overlooked a critical point in failing to consider the evolution of myelin as a key stepping stone to language development (not to mention all other skill development).
But what do I know, I'm no expert, just a schmoe casting stones based on my limited reading as a dilletante.
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- Jorge Padron
- 12-22-22
Worth t the time and money.
I’m not a scientist but love learning about science related topics. Especially human biology and evolution. This book is worth the read!
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- Jimmyjoejangles
- 02-16-23
Wonderful!
Really enjoyed this book! Informative and interesting. Language is a very fascinating subject.
Will look for more from this author!
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- E.A. Braggs
- 06-13-23
Well Written
I like the voice of the reader and the well written book especially due to the more complex material discussed.
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- Bobby Ellinthorpe
- 03-20-22
Trenchant. Timely. Terrific.
This is a terrific book very much worth the read on the read on an important and worthwhile topic
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3 people found this helpful
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- Tom
- 07-24-23
More an argument than an explanation.
I may have misinterpreted the description of this work. I have always been fascinated by the origins and evolution of language and I thought the authors would get into the nuts and bolts of the evolutionary process that resulted in the words we use to communicate.
While they touch on this subject glancingly while demonstrating their linguistic skills, the bulk of the book is consumed by demonstrating how their theory improves on any biological or genetic basis for this evolution.
This wasn’t what I was interested in so I will return the book. The performance was fine.The subject matter was not what I thought it would be. Three stars.***
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bruce R
- 03-12-22
Good
The Good : New view of linguistics using culture, charades and chunking. Novel approach that appears to have merit.
The Not So Good : Too long. Could be 4-5 hours instead of nine. Provides examples when none are needed. Then explains the unneeded examples.
Presents observations and inferences as fact.
Not much on abstract language of philosophy, math, law and related language which is detached from the physical world
Conclusion : Worth a listen, interesting perspectives
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30 people found this helpful
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- Robert E. Lyness
- 12-15-22
Learned a lot about language. Excellent narrator
Very good read with an excellent narrator. Would have given it a 5, but was annoyed by some redundant parts explaining several times that human language is not genetic, and by some of the ‘inside baseball’ parts of academic disagreement. Minor complaints though.
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- Philip Savva
- 04-08-22
Language is Mind, Swashbuckling Bards !!
Journey of the Mind by Ogi Ogas & Sai Gaddam offers a compelling theory in line with the newest science. That Mind is words or Language. This book could substitute the word Mind for Language and it would make a powerful argument that Language is Mind, not brain but that the manifestations of words, cleanly represent Mind.
GREEK REASON gives us Mind.
The newest evolution of thought has brought agreement in many disciplines that the developing mind, Dan Siegle MeWe, Within and Between cannot exist without words. Vice versa seems apropos.
As in this book, no audio info stands reasonably opposing Mind as Language. Even these Authors presenting tectonic shifts in perspective have not seen where their mentalizing leads.
Other books are in this new dimensions of viewing our Human Group. Spontaneous human action creates societies that work, are in our Social DNA Blueprint as Spontaneous human action has given us language, trade, culture & more and more...
OMG. LOL. Great Great book by superstar Authors !!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Aighmi*
- 01-12-23
Word Nerds Unite!
This was fascinating! At first, everything seemed very intuitive, but as they went on it went deeper. Great fun!
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