The Tongues of Man; and, Speech

by John Rupert Firth

The Tongues of Man and Speech are easily readable and written in a clear and expository style, befitting their intention as introductory, popular works. They contain an exposition on the nature of speech and language in terms which are still useful and relevant. These two volumes give an introduction to linguistics in general and also supply the key to Firth's linguistics in particular and, by extension, to much of current British linguistics as a whole.

Genres: Linguistics

223 pages, Hardcover

First published February 2, 1987

Reviews

[Jan Havlis]

for a linguist, an exceptional and interesting time-travel to the linguistics of thirties in 20cc. john firth was in many cases a unique author - the very first professor of linguistics in UK, man who advocated study of speech as the most important aspect of language in contrast to the majority studying written language, man introducing concept of phonaesthesia in contrast to classic phonaesthetics, man foreseeing the importance of cognitive study of languages rather than formalistic and structuralistic one. to me, a quite fine reading.