Louder Than Words

The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning

By: Benjamin K. Bergen

Narrated by: Benjamin K. Bergen

Whether it’s brusque, convincing, fraught with emotion, or dripping with innuendo, language is fundamentally a tool for conveying meaning - a uniquely human magic trick in which you vibrate your vocal cords to make your innermost thoughts pop up in someone else’s mind. You can use it to talk about all sorts of things - from your new labradoodle puppy to the expansive gardens at Versailles, from Roger Federer’s backhand to things that don’t exist at all, like flying pigs.

And when you talk, your listener fills in lots of details you didn’t mention - the curliness of the dog’s fur or the vast statuary on the grounds of the French palace. What’s the trick behind this magic? How does meaning work? In Louder than Words, cognitive scientist Benjamin Bergen draws together a decade’s worth of research in psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience to offer a new theory of how our minds make meaning. When we hear words and sentences, Bergen contends, we engage the parts of our brain that we use for perception and action, repurposing these evolutionarily older networks to create simulations in our minds. These embodied simulations, as they're called, are what makes it possible for us to become better baseball players by merely visualizing a well-executed swing; what allows us to remember which cupboard the diapers are in without looking, and what makes it so hard to talk on a cell phone while we’re driving on the highway. Meaning is more than just knowing definitions of words, as others have previously argued. In understanding language, our brains engage in a creative process of constructing rich mental worlds in which we see, hear, feel, and act. Through whimsical examples and ingenious experiments, Bergen leads us on a virtual tour of the new science of embodied cognition. A brilliant account of our human capacity to understand language, Louder than Words will profoundly change how you read, speak, and listen.

©2012 Benjamin K. Bergen (P)2013 Gildan Media LLC

A New Book for my list of Favs. Up there with Tomasello and McWhorter.

This book was informative yet creatively written. I pledged to listen to it over and over and over again, and to research all the articles mentioned on the text.

Too Technical for me

After the first 10 minutes I knew I was in over my head. I'm not a linguistics post grad looking for a new research project. I'm an average Joe looking for a little enlightenment. If you're not deep into language you may want to pass this book bye for something simpler.

Worth Reading!

Although the book needs editing it presents important reseach and is well worth the time.

funny and informative.

this book is an interesting mix of communication, neuroscience, and great humor. It adds a whole new dimension to my understanding how my mind works as well as allowing insight into what other people are doing. Though it is interesting to understand, it seems more flashy than useful at this point. I'm not sure what to do with the information, but it is comforting to have.

Fascinating - couldn't stop listening!

I learned so much about language and the brain! Such useful info! A must listen!

Fascinating, though made my head hurt occasionally

The author does his best to make a complicated topic accessible to the layperson, but there were times that I needed a break so I could process what I had learned. He not only explains what he knows about our minds, but goes over how the information was puzzled out. Definitely a repeat listen.

Performance

While this information is really interesting, the reader is speaking so hurriedly that I can't keep up with his thoughts at times! Seems he's over-caffeinated or something.

Fantastic!

Absolutely fantastic book! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to understand cognitive semantics and neurolinguistics.

Great Performance!

This book is top-notch, and by that, I mean the author uses a great deal of evidence to back up his thesis. Roughly speaking, the thesis is that cognition is "embodied" rather than merely computational. Those familiar with George Lakoff's work will find themselves on similar ground here, with the added benefit of more concrete evidence.

Benjamin K. Bergen's performance was also par excellence; especially so because, in my experience most authors are poor narrators.

Science, story, narration

Benjamin is an excellent writer. He is an amazing narrator. Which makes it hard to believe that he is a serious scientist. I love the serious attention to scientific documentation of the amazing brain behavior associated with knowledge. He is meticulous in building a case for knowledge representation in the brain. At the same time his objective presentation allows the listener to draw his or her own conclusions. This book is a thorough treatment of the subject to date. I am inspired and intensely curious to learn more as more research is added to the body work on the subject.

I believe that any researcher or coder interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning should read this book, perhaps several times. The subtlety of representing concrete and abstract knowledge with the imperfect organ we call a brain can only serve to improve the science of machine learning. This, and successive work on the literal representation of knowledge will undoubtedly be key in the development of breakthrough computer thinking - meaning thinking computers.

I'd like to read more. I'd like to know the difference between speaking and listening across similar and diverse individuals. Another aspect I'd like to see explored is how much work it is to understand new and familiar concepts. Given brain plasticity, we don't all use the same brain parts for the same tasks. How does this affect knowledge representation? Please, Mr Bergen, write another book. You have my attention.