How Technology Influences Language

by James Pfrehm

To be human in today’s world means that you engage in constant linguistic interactions with some form of technology, from your smart phone to your refrigerator. That’s not as new a trend as you might think.

Language has shaped — and been shaped by — some of our world’s most significant communication technologies. Our current language bears the marks of millennia of interaction between humans and our technologies, beginning with the very first primitive writing systems and moving into the age of the printing press, the telegraph, and the typewriter.

Yet, at no other point in our history have technology and language been so enmeshed. Technology uses language to “communicate” a steady stream of information to us, not to mention helping us to communicate with each other.

By studying and analysing the relationship between humans and their technology, we begin to understand what makes our unique form of communication, which we call language, unique to humans. We learn about who we are today in the 21st century and how we became these complicated, modern-day technolinguistic beings.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, Technology, History, Linguistics, Language, Historical

Audiobook

Published September 2, 2021

Reviews

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this short course for three reasons:
1)I'm interested in everything about language and linguistics
2)it's included free of charge with the membership on audible.com
3)and the main reason, I really liked another course taught by James Pfrehm's for The Great Courses ("Learning German: A Journey through Language and Culture") .

The main premise of this set of 8 half hour lectures is that the human language is the most important technology ever acquired by humankind, and our language is both influenced by technology and influences it in return. After setting out this premise, Professor Pfrehm proceeds to proving it. Along the way, he shares plenty of interesting information about language and technology. I especially liked the stories about the birth of printers, telegraph and typing machines.

So why just three stars? In one of the first lectures Professor Pfrehm himself says "sorry for cheesy metaphors" (quoting from memory). Well, there were plenty of cheesy moments in "How Technologies Influences Language", and I personally found them rather annoying, especially in a course that is already so short. I don't see cheesy utterances as adorable perks or indispensable tools for making me stay with the course, even if this is more a podcast than a course. If anything, I perceive this cheesiness as contributing to dumb down already rather unsophisticated content. I love when lecturers have sense of humor and display it with abandon, but for me ending each lecture with "Ciao for now" or accompanying your statements with "Scout's honor!" doesn't count as sense of humor or a powerful rhetorical device.

[Ashlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars because this book alerted me to the fact that there is a book residing in the Library of Congress called Emoji-Dick, a complete translation of the quintessential American novel Moby Dick from English into exclusively emoji. What a time to be alive, folks 🐋

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Theme of the day: not-books (or not-audiobooks). Another listen from the car. I didn't like this one. Felt like a college survey class (the chapters were called lectures) for 4 hours with an unfunny-but-deadset-on-being-the-funny-professor professor. The 'book' went from deep discussion of grammar, real grammar, swear to God, to a watered down history of the relationship between technology and language. In concept, criticisms aside, it seems up my alley. Hell, the author even posits correctly that to study the relationship between technology and language is to also study ourselves as mediators/users of both. Unfortunately, meaningful insights and discoveries were few and far between, reserved for random tidbits, fun facts, oddities, etc. Just go read linguistics (or linguistic anthropology) instead.

[Cristiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insufferable lecturer who has no academic knowledge of a very interesting subject, although he takes himself extremely seriously and presents the little he knows, personal anecdotes and factoids, as science. It's like listening to Mr Know-it-all with an inflated ego talking to a remedial class who is supposed to be in awe of him. The occasional sexism (why should an early human tool maker be a man and a "dad"?) and the lecturer's voice and his poor delivery don't help either. The worst Audible Original I've come across so far.

[Abhi Gupte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, a disappointing course - nothing much that was new to learn, given that I'd already listened to John McWhorter's comprehensive linguistics courses. My main motivation behind listening to this course was to identify the ways that technology has changed the way we speak. Most lectures were dedicated instead to describing how we communicated using the new media.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book 3.5 stars. There's a lot of information about linguistics (sounds, characters, and different languages). And some of the technologies weren't that interesting, such as phone etiquette (it used to be impolite to call instead of sending an invitation to a person) and texting (ok, except "Emoji-Dick," which is a translation of Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick in Japanese emoji icons). A fascinating fact is that Ernest Hemingway used to be a journalist and sent his stories over the telegraph. This explains his clear, compact writing style.

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for linguistics. . .

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of communicative technologies from writing through to video conferencing and some of the pretty obvious linguistic implications of each. I found it underwhelming.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of those language/history of words audio courses that I love so much. I had a great time listening to it. I'd listen again.

[Chris Shoemaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

There isn't too much interesting insights. Would be better called a collection of mildly interesting factoids and trivia about the history of communication technology.

[Brenten Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING 3.45 STARS

Interesting "read". Each chapter is a lecture about the technologies that have affected how we communicate. I'll probably revisit this one later as well.

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

How interaction with technology influences our language.

[JanaT · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5, but not possible to fill in. Covers the history of the technical reproduction of the language.