19 February 2010
Yesterday’s Beyond Words blog features five “must see” talks on language from past TED conferences.
The first is a talk by Wade Davis on language death. Unfortunately, this is a “must skip” talk. Davis fills his talk to bursting with polysyllabic, postmodernist babble, which when decrypted is actually quite ludicrous. It’s a shame, because it’s an important topic.
Erin McKean’s talk on lexicography, on the other hand, is absolutely wonderful. If you don’t watch any of the others, this is the one to see.
Steven Pinker gives a nice primer on the relationship between grammar and cognition.
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh talks about bonobos and language acquisition and the importance of culture, rather than biology, on language use.
Finally, James Geary gives a nice presentation on metaphor.
(Hat tip to the Lousy Linguist)
