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183rd out of 478 books
—
84 voters
The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
Blending the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with the science of The Language Instinct, an original inquiry into the development of that most essential-and mysterious-of human creations: Language
Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolu...more
Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolu...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
May 2nd 2006
by Holt Paperbacks
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The book is an overview of how language developed and how it changes through the ages. It is easy to read even for someone who has never read any linguistics books. The author is very playful with his subject. The vocabulary is very down-to-earth because all the complexities of linguistics are broken down into pieces of information that one can easily relate to because of everyday experience with language, while the reader is still informed about the major theories and the theoreticians of lingu...more
I admit it, I love language. Despite this, I've been astonishingly slow to pick up the overall history and shape of language. I've picked bits of the history of English (Celts, Germans, French, vowel shift) but never the overall picture of how languages change. I didn't even realize that, beyond "we are lazy buggers and mangle words", that it had been codified.
Boy, was I wrong!
As I read this book, I kept pausing to relate bits of what I'd learned to my kids. The author points to two great tecton...more
Boy, was I wrong!
As I read this book, I kept pausing to relate bits of what I'd learned to my kids. The author points to two great tecton...more
By far the best tour of linguistics for the layman, as pertaining to the development of language. Many books which delve into this meaty topic provide a lot of cute examples of etymology, without a really coherent exposition of the processes that have shaped the structure of language, and how linguists uncovered them.
Professor Deutscher does a lively job of bringing the general reader's attention to the tendencies that have shaped the development of language -- erosion, emphasis, and metaphor....more
Professor Deutscher does a lively job of bringing the general reader's attention to the tendencies that have shaped the development of language -- erosion, emphasis, and metaphor....more
Dr. Deutscher has done a scholarly, thorough discussion on the roots of language, but I believe he started too late in time. I'm of the persuasion that language involves more than the spoken word. I find body language (which proponents argue communicate half of what we speak), facial expressions (think FACS, FBI, microexpressions), movement to be as telling of a person's intentions as words. Sometimes more so. Yet, he argues language was born when we could prove it was born--"...for how can anyo...more
Jul 17, 2010
Karen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
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review of another edition
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This was a delightful and fascinating book. It's very readable and entertaining and I don't think that I will ever look at language quite the same way again. I wished, quite early on in the book, that I had read it(or had it to read) twenty years ago when I was teaching English in Japan. It made a lot of issues and problems that my students were facing much clearer to me, and if nothing else I wish I'd been able to explain to my students WHY English spelling is so screwy.
The author doesn't try...more
The author doesn't try...more
2 likes · like · see review
A fantastic, funny, and insightful book drawing on a vast amount of material to answer the seemingly unanswerable question? How does language come to be and what makes it change? Not as overtly partisan as Steven Pinker (an innatist) , Deuatcher opens up more avenues for exploration, and his wit is just as sparkling.
This brilliant book uncovers the forces that shape modern languages. Their evolution is a negotiation between economy and expressiveness. For example, laziness, especially in prononciation, causes erosion and elision; the craving for order reinforces even accidental patterns; the desire to heighten expressiveness is achieved through the insertion of extra words; and the desire to extend the reach of language is achieved through the use of metapphor from concrete domains to abstract ones.
Deutsche...more
Deutsche...more
Feb 28, 2010
J.T. Oldfield
added it
From my review:
Deutscher’s book is so good because he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty (from his armchair) and really delve into language. He takes on the forming and ridding of case-endings (why build such a complicated system and then let it all slip away? What was the point?), the templates of Semitic languages (written without vowels), the economy of sound and language (dropping the “g” on a word that ends in “ing” and also going from the Greek pesk to our English word, fish), among other...more
Deutscher’s book is so good because he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty (from his armchair) and really delve into language. He takes on the forming and ridding of case-endings (why build such a complicated system and then let it all slip away? What was the point?), the templates of Semitic languages (written without vowels), the economy of sound and language (dropping the “g” on a word that ends in “ing” and also going from the Greek pesk to our English word, fish), among other...more
I've been reading a lot of books about language recently. This particular volume is a fascinating treatment of a lot of my basic questions such as: how did language start,how does it change, and why, who really decides what is correct grammar and syntax, and how does language affect the way we view the world? Is there something innate in our brains that leads us to language? After all, babies do it! Guy Deutscher addresses these and other language questions with humor and vitality. He demonstrat...more
A couple of days ago I finished reading 'The Unfolding of Language : An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention' by Guy Deutscher. Wow, it's exhausting just to say the name, imagine what it felt like to read the book. But, seriously the work is intellectually challenging and often provoked me to engage in thoughts on the ever changing state of human language. And yes, metaphors are the erodent of language (in case you were wondering). Many times I found myself reminiscing about the com...more
This is the best best best book on language change. As I reported in my blog, it freed me from the tyranny of a dead language. Deutscher shows us the formation and destruction of linguistic structures is a relentless and ongoing process, not dissimilar to other natural systems. Once you have read this marvelous and witty book you will feel empowered to coin new words and phrases and ignore silly and pointless grammatical rules (but not valid and useful ones).
If you have any interest in linguistics whatsoever, pick up this book. Bonus points if you like to be entertained and can appreciate some corny humor. There's something in here for novices, but also plenty for those of us who devoured our SHOTEL (Structure and History of the English Language") course in college. The ebb and flow of the material's density is perfect. And unlike so much non-fiction out there, every tangent was actually going somewhere; I never felt like I was grabbing at thin air....more
This book is one of the most exciting books I've read in a long time. I almost couldn't wait for an explanation on how something as complex as the verb endings in some languages could arise naturally. The fact that I knew nothing about it beforehand contributed to keeping the suspense, of course, but the book is written for laymen, so I think most people who actually read this book will feel the same. It was so satisfying to finally understand how the verb endings and other complex structures (l...more
How does language change? If laziness on the part of the speakers overcomes that on the part of the listeners, "going to" is going to erode to "gonna" and "want to" - to "wanna". When two words become stuck like this, one becomes a clitic or a case ending; if French had been first investigated by the linguists in the 21st century, they would have noticed that the verb "to love", among others, conjugates for person: "I love" is "mwa jem", "you love" is "twa tem", "he loves" is "lwi ilem" and "she...more
Due mainly to the nature of the material, this book took more effort to read than The Unfolding of Language. Deutscher is very good at making complicated topics accessible, but that doesn't mean they stop being complicated. (Sometimes he seems to be trying too hard to make things accessible, spending pages "demonstrating" things that his readers couldn't possibly not know, like the fact that different languages have different sentence structures or that languages change over time. But I suppose...more
Not quite as coherent as I might have wished (language is a messy topic, I guess!) but Deutcher provides a wide range of examples of how language has & continues to evolve. Using the oldest known versions of language & running through the current day, he focuses on the cycle of simplification & aggregation, not only in grammar, but in pronunciation as well.
He does assume some prior knowledge of linguistics (and is a bit Brit-centric at times, using "snog" as a sample verb), but by p...more
He does assume some prior knowledge of linguistics (and is a bit Brit-centric at times, using "snog" as a sample verb), but by p...more
Sidestepping the Chomskian vs. Whorfian question of WHY it is that we can learn language, Guy Deutscher guides the reader through the current ideas of how some early human grunts became the proliferation of language we can see in the world today. It's a beautiful journey, and takes one through some pretty special landscapes like the agglutinative word structures of German and Turkish to the nonconcatenative morphology of languages like Arabic and Hebrew. And yes, you will know what those terms m...more
Fascinating description of how language developed organically along mankind's evolutionary journey and became our greatest invention.
"This marvelous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot directly experience our thoughts, all that we imagine and all the various stirrings of our soul"
"This marvelous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions which, whilst having in themselves no likeness to what is in our mind, allow us to disclose to others its whole secret, and to make known to those who cannot directly experience our thoughts, all that we imagine and all the various stirrings of our soul"
Relatively enjoyable read about the gradual changes in languages over the past few thousand years. Deutscher makes a point of showing how seemingly disparate idiosyncrasies within and among languages are often systematically based, and that the ever present cries about the decline of language are unfounded, for it is that much-maligned erosion that helps create the wonderful complex beauty of language. The book can be somewhat technical in parts, but never so much to lose a non-linguist reader.
So far, this is the general book on the history of language that I like the most. I haven't read every chapter, but it seems consistent, has great examples, and even the details on Semitic languages make sense to me. I decided not to use it in my freshman seminar (I'm going for Bryson's Mother Tongue instead, because a book focused on English will be more accessible for them) but I would love to use this one in a higher level course some day, maybe a seminar on language and evolution.
Wow. This book is really good and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in linguistics. It sets forth a theory of language evolution (from prehistoric grunt to modern day slang) that uses concrete examples to show how changes and developments come about. What's more is that the authors connects ancient changes in language to current observable trends and shows the reader how the same forces that, say, created modern English are working to change modern English today. Wow.
The author's knowle...more
The author's knowle...more
I didn't know I cared about linguistics until I read this book. The plain and simple synopsis is that it gets into the nitty-gritty about where languages developed and why, with emphasis on certain language families more than others. But if you're into comparisons of how closely related German and English are or need to know the answer to the burning question of how Hindi and French could have possibly come from the same ancient language, you'll probably like this.
I found this a very good explanation of the development of language from pre-history to the present, showing in some detail how the various languages mutated and how they are still mutating.
It was easy to read and follow and used various devices to stay interesting and lively.
It is a fascinating story. Many pedantic people who get their Linda Trusses in a twist should read it. It won't stop bad English grating with them but it will explain why each generation takes ownership of it and changes it...more
It was easy to read and follow and used various devices to stay interesting and lively.
It is a fascinating story. Many pedantic people who get their Linda Trusses in a twist should read it. It won't stop bad English grating with them but it will explain why each generation takes ownership of it and changes it...more
My husband caught me laughing several times while reading this book (and later asked me how it was possible for non-fiction to be so entertaining). For those who want to know the stories behind the device (ie language) we use today to manipulate, make promises, bind two people together or send nations to war, then this is for you. Linguistic jargon is kept to a minimum and practically all linguistic phenomena is explained in metaphors we can all relate to.
1 like · like · see review
This is one amazing and fascinating book on the evolution of language. I was expecting the book to be little sophisticated and hard to follow for a layman like me. But the author has made it lively and engaging all through, that I read most of it in one sitting. Recommend to anybody interested in language and its nuances.
This book is excellent. It strikes the right balance between accessibility and scholarly content. Linguists used to say that any discussion of the origins or early development of language was futile and an invitation to quackery. Apparently progress has been made. If Akkadian root structure and left-handed languages toot your horn, get this book.
Fascinating. Read this, everyone who hasn't yet decided what to be when you grow up. You probably never gave linguistics much thought, but Guy Deutscher makes it sound like an endlessly absorbing puzzle; around every corner is a new revelation about humanity's collective quirks, failings and genius.
Spectacular look at how language developed and dispersed around the world. Dissolves the Tower of Babel myth and shows how language evolved and is still evolving. The destruction by parsing and construction by descriptiveness are central. Shows how different languages are related down to word roots.
'The Unfolding of Language' investigates the forces, both ordered and chaotic, that shape the evolution of language. Drawing on a wealth of linguistics research, Deutscher provides a convincing exposition of the reasons for constant change (economy, expressiveness and analogy) and the many processes at play in the cycle — or perhaps spiral — of language formation, evolution and erosion ("erosion checks the excesses of expressiveness, just as expressiveness repairs the excesses of erosion").
Deut...more
Deut...more
This is a really interesting book about the evolution of language. It starts with the assumption that a very simple language exists (Deutscher calls it "Me Tarzan") and details the mechanisms by which it may have changed over tens of thousands of years to the modern languages we speak. Along the way, he addresses the major concerns of linguists over the last couple of centuries - notably the idea that languages seem to be de-evolving from a complex and sophisticated original. I won't spoil the e...more
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There is more than one author with this name
Guy Deutscher is the author of Through the Language Glass and The Unfolding of Language. Formerly a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge and of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Languages in the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he is an honorary Research Fellow at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures in the University of Manc...more
More about Guy Deutscher...
Guy Deutscher is the author of Through the Language Glass and The Unfolding of Language. Formerly a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge and of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Languages in the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he is an honorary Research Fellow at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures in the University of Manc...more
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Mar 10, 2012 06:47am