BROADCASTS.com

The English language is often treated as delicate and precious, and disagreements about what is \u201cproper English\u201d go back as far as the 18th century. Then as now, style manuals and grammar books placed innumerable restrictions on what is and isn\u2019t \u201ccorrect,\u201d as "Language Mavens" continue to delight in pointing out the unforgivable errors of others. To bring some fresh perspective to this remarkably heated topic (and to let some of us who are less than perfect, grammatically speaking, off the hook),\xa0Point of Inquirywelcomes Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, author the new book\xa0The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person\u2019s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.\xa0\n\xa0\nPinker\u2019s previous works include such award-winning books as\xa0The Language Instinct,\xa0How the Mind Works,\xa0The Blank Slate,\xa0The Stuff of Thought, and\xa0The Better Angels of Our Nature. He\u2019s been honored by such institutions as the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and the American Psychological Association, as well as having been named named Humanist of the Year and one of\xa0Time\xa0magazine\u2019s \u201cThe 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.\u201d\xa0\n\xa0\nAnd most appropriate to this episode, he is currently the chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage dictionary.