Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born w…

Steven Pinker
216 citations
Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.
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I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties. ✨ Steven Pinker (2009). How the Mind Works, p.534, W. W. Norton & Com … ▶
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Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

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