Night Class: Steven Pinker and the semantics of fun

In the English language, a house “burns up” as it physically burns down; a person “fills in” a form, even though it’s actually being filled out; and the time of day described as “after dark” actually comes after it’s already been light out. These tantalizing English conundrums have tormented us for years—or, at least they’ve tormented experimental psychologist Steven Pinker, who appears Sunday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater as part of UW-Madison’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Pinker was dubbed one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2004, and he delves into the nooks and crannies of human thought and language, teasing the two apart and dumbing down the relationships, that dullards like us may understand. Pinker goes down the semantics rabbit hole to discuss the “physics of language,” and how it affects the way we think. For instance: If someone shoots Pinker in the leg, but the doctors later botch the surgery and he dies, who killed Pinker? Or, on a simpler level, if Sally opens a window and the breeze blows open a door across the room, did Sally open the door? Of course not. But did she cause it to open? Certainly. Knotty stuff, and if nothing else, it allows us to pass the buck for just about anything through the magic of linguistics. Thanks, Pinker!

Pinker’s touring behind his new book The Stuff Of Thought, and has taught at both Harvard and MIT. So if you have enough time to worry about how language inconsistencies are born, and their effect on  your life, Pinker may grant you enlightenment. However, if you do have that much time to spend on such thoughts, you probably don’t have much “life” for them to affect. Or something.

Check him out here on The Colbert Report: