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Liked It “One of my favorite books on language... I keep picking it up and re-reading it. A look at how languages evolve, with amazing examples from all around the world.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“One of my favorite books on language... I keep picking it up and re-reading it. A look at how languages evolve, with amazing examples from all around the world.”
Jeff S wrote this review Wednesday, August 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“John McWhorter will dazzle you with insights into what language is and what it is not. Many of our assumptions are just wrong. Language is verbal behavior that tends to change over time. We may feel compelled to follow the rules made up by grammarians, but deep down language is arbitrary; most languages are festooned with grammatical frills that are unnecessary to basic communication. So-called primitive languages are often more elaborate and complicated than languages spoken by what McWhorter calls "tall building" cultures. Also languages that live next to each other tend to pick up each other's traits.
Miles F wrote this review Wednesday, July 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Language tends to have surprisingly little to do with culture and more to do with accidents and the erosion of words in the native speaker's mouth. Much of what I thought I knew about language turns out to be wrong.”
“I thought this book was great! It provides an entertaining guide through some of linguistics most interesting terrotories (no CFGs here!). I am particularly interested in how languages change and this book provided many examples of that process. The only negative was that sometimes there were too many examples --- which can detract from getting the general picture.”
narikui wrote this review Thursday, August 2 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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