Customer Reviews

How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would strongly disagree with the review that contends that this book does not explore its subject matter in enough depth. I particularly disagree with the reviewer when he keeps asking for further explanation ("it doesn't explain WHY...") The book is not intended to explain why. As the introduction makes clear, it is intended as an explanation of the HOW of linguistics; in other words, it is intended as a diagnostic overview of linguistic science. It is not a scientific investigation. It is not a historical (or etymological) overview of linguistic practices. It is a description of those practices. In this light, it succeeds admirably. I found the book extremely informative as an effective introduction to linguistics. And I did NOT find it a difficult read.
If you have no background study in linguistics, I HIGHLY recommend this book.

How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, And Languages Live Or Die by expert linguist David Crystal is a comprehensive guide written for lay readers and linguistic scholars alike to how language develops and evolves, both in individuals and in societies. In addition to chronicling how new languages are created from the mixing of cultures, and surveying the process of how languages die, How Language Works also makes an impassioned plea to protect and sustain as many languages as possible in a modern world beset with the threat of literally thousands of human languages on the verge of extinction. Championing languages as facets of intellectual and cultural diversity as well as miracles of science and nature, How Language Works is highly recommended.

This book covers every aspect of language: the physiological, paralingual communication, nuances of language, and almost any other thing that you can think of involving language. It is from England so some of the spellings and phrasings are different, but I found it to be interesting, readable, and full of new information, based on the latest research.

Maybe it will sound strange, but what I liked most about the book was not its content but its form: what a concise, structured, balanced and nearly perfect syntax! The sentences, paragraphs, sub-sections and chapters are of a perfect size and everything is written in a clear and comprehensible manner. The indentation and the typography for both text and titles were carefully designed and the kind of paper and the binding are of excellent quality, so the book is a pleasure to read and handle.

The book is an excellent introduction to linguistics or to how language works, starting from the anatomy of the vocal apparatus to how we produce sounds, from how we articulate them into a language to how we hear and distinguish language from noise; then it turns to how different parts of our brain process language to how we assign meaning and how languages are structured to better convey this meaning (how grammar serves semantics). It also includes sections on how languages are born, how they evolve and how they die, as well as how the currently existing languages belong to certain language families. Finally it concludes with how we can take care of languages in order to preserve the language diversity (and therefore the cultural heritage) of the world, since languages are extinguishing at an extremely fast pace, maybe even faster than that of the extinction of animal species.

The author covers a lot of topics, but for the same reason he delves not too deep into any of them. Regarding the topics that interested me most, I would have liked greater detail, but this is probably not possible in a book with such a wide scope. This book will probably lead you to some more specific sources in some linguistic area. Regarding the evolution and constant change of languages, as well as some specific examples of how these language shifts occur, I highly recommend The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention. For a deeper explanation of how the brain processes language The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by S. Pinker is a good choice, although I still need to read The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (P.S.), which is probably better. Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition gives you an excellent overview of the evolutionary steps that led from apes to modern humans - vocal apparatus included -together with the changes in the representation modes (and thereby memory) involved in these steps (from episodic to mimetic to narrative or linguistic and finally to symbolic, which allowed for written language).

As Crystal notes in the introduction, this is a book explaining the "how" of language, not the what. His chapters are short and to the point, not getting too deep into technical terms but explaining ideas as needed.

The diagrams give all the pertinent information and are useful in understanding the physiology of speech, especially.

His examples are revelent and interesting. Sometimes he seems to pick and choose which points he puts in the book and which he doesn't, giving the book a feel of being unbalanced, but this could just be my own emotions reflected on the material.

I would buy it again.

This book is really beautiful - the fonts used and the layout are very distinctive. A++ on that.

The book itself is a series of short chapters on a wide variety of language topics each of which could stand alone. It is interesting and well written, if a tad dry, but not too deep on any one topic. Think of a series of magazine articles in a magazine devoted to a particular interest, where the level of vocabulary assumes some knowledge of the topic. The chapters are all cross referenced - it would easily move to a web article.

The breath of topics is very wide - from sounds and physiology to computer translation by way of grammar and language families. Overall it is very informative, but a book to take in small doses.

We may all have an instinct for language but we can enjoy our use and perception of language far more with the help of such an astute observer and analyst as David Crystal. For anyone interested in using spoken-written language to convey meaning to other people, How Language Works, is well worth having read. I had to put forth more than ordinary effort to read this wonderful book, but I believe I have been well rewarded.

I enjoyed this book - lots of interesting data, much of which was new to me. I thought that the 'mechanical' chapters at the beginning were a rather dry intro and could perhaps have been put in an appendix.

The book was easy to read and relaxingly informative-I learnt a lot,David Crystal shows how linguistics and language should be discussed once again.

This book is arranged in chapters that can stand alone or be read as a volume. Chapters are divided into sub chapters which similarly stand alone or can be read as a cohesive work of prose.

While the author is British, the emphasis is universal. The British influence shows the most in the discussion of dialects.

The articles vary from being anecdotal to factually meaty. The chapters on vocabulary show how vocabulary is learned with great anecdotes and factual backup. Like Crystal, I think that this is a very much neglected area of language learning.

I like that he uses interesting sentences and words for examples. Too often books on linguistics provide dull stilted examples.