Customer Reviews

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language

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The author wrote a column for _Natural Language and Linguistic Theory_ for six years; this book collects them, with new prefaces to each essay. The tone is light, often frivolous, sometimes bitchy, occasionally educational, and always entertaining. The title essay demolishes the idea that Eskimos have many words for snow (there are two), and traces the myth's origin. Others contain a dialogue between Noam Chomsky (the linguist) and Spock (the Vulcan); a discussion of perverse punctuation (which many newsgroup writers would do well to read); a searing but hilarious attack on the English First people ("Here Come the Linguistic Fascists"); and "Some Lists of Things About Books" (my favorite: "Four Extraordinarily Ignorant Claims About Language in Books by Linguists"; all four come from the same book). Some of the humor is too linguistics-insider to be easily deciphered, but for the most part this is a highly amusing bunch of little articles from somebody who clearly loves language, and is fortunately willing to share his love with us.

I had this professor for my introduction to UNIX course at UC Santa Cruz. After the class, I noticed this book in the bookstore, and immediately purchased a copy.

I loved the Chomsky vs. the Vulcan thing :)

The linguistic concepts were a bit beyond me, but i loved the article about how linguistic journals correct (incorrectly) the grammar *of linguists*. And the English First article really shows the idiocity and lack of lingustic understanding among the general public. I'm starting to wonder if every academic discipline is misunderstood by the faceless "general public" ... and if so how I can reconcile this with my professed belief in the "inherent worth and dignity of every person."

Anyways, other interested pieces included a fictious piece where each division on campus is vying for the linguistics department to be moved under their jurisdiction, the eskimo vocabulary hoax piece of course, and just the overall tone and stuff. I highly recommend this if you like linguistics, or even if you don't like linguistics but like academic books with a sense of humor ;)

You do not need to be a linguist to enjoy this funny, barbed, and acerbic look at the practice and culture of linquistics. If you are interested in studying linguistics, this is not a bad place to start. If you are a linguist, you will alternately wince and cheer at Pullum's observations.

And if you want to know whether one of the Eskimo languages has more words for snow than, say, English, here's the definitive and surprising answer.

John V. Karavitis I got my hands on this book because, as I recall, it was mentioned in Arika Okrent's "In the Land of Invented Languages" (I just love it when I discover another interesting book to read when I'm reading a book!). I was curious as to the circumstances surrounding the origin of the idea that Eskimos have hundreds of words for different types of "snow". Turns out, there are only two words: "qanik" for snow in the air or snowflake, and "aput" for snow on the ground. It turns out that English has more descriptive words for different types of snow.

The Amazon.com editorial review for this book has it right: Geoffrey Pullum wrote an editorial column (titled "Topic.... Column") for seven years for the journal "Natural Language and Linguistic Theory" starting in the early 1980s. Here, we are treated to 23 of Pullum's 28 editorials for NLLT over those seven years, and we get his perspective on the field of linguistics, how linguists "work", and other issues that caught Pullum's fancy, e.g. libel laws in Britain versus the United States (definitely should be on one's "must read" list!), how linguistics should be taught, where linguistics should be placed as a discipline in academia, issues re publishing in journals in academia, and, of course, issues re linguistics theories. Some of the material that dives headlong into linguistics theory can be a bit disorienting, but I enjoyed reading this book. I have a deep curiosity about linguistics, which is why I decided to read the entire work, and not just the article on Eskimos' words for snow. It wasn't spectacular or mind-bending, but, as I said, I enjoy learning about linguistics, and I got to see it from the perspective of an insider. John V. Karavitis, John Karavitis, Karavitis.