As the title suggests, Pinker's The Language Instinct supports the theory that language is innate and that humans have a common "universal grammar". This is a major theme of his book. Another is the correction of common misconceptions about language and the refutation of popular "factoids" with no basis in reality. (A whole chapter is devoted to refuting the arguments of language "mavens", pedants who worry more about normative grammatical rules than clear writing or the realities of human language.) ButThe Language Instinct is actually a fairly comprehensive introduction to linguistics.Pinker begins with a quick survey of the most obvious evidence for the innateness of language — the growth of creoles from pidgins, the existence of sign languages, the even distribution of
