The Social Art: Language and Its Uses [Paperback]

Ronald Macaulay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195106571 | ISBN-13: 978-0195106572 | Publication Date: April 4, 1996

This engagingly written, highly readable volume introduces lay readers to the fascinating world of language. Replete with jokes, anecdotes, quotations, and readily intelligible examples, it offers a painless entree to the full range of linguistic knowledge. In thirty-one brief chapters, Macaulay delves into such topics as language acquisition, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, social dialects, sex differences, writing, style, register, conversation, narrative, swearing, rhetoric, second language learning, and linguistic change. The reader comes away with a new appreciation of the pleasure to be derived from the study of this complex and uniquely human phenomenon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its academic flavor, this survey of language will entertain the general reader. Its 33 short chapters range from children's language acquisition to semantics, syntax, creoles and language around the world. Macaulay, a linguistics professor at Pitzer College in California, highlights unspoken rules of conversation, decodes the puffery of advertisements, considers the finer points of insults and swearing and explains how the interactive nature of language affects what we say and how we say it. Calling Standard English a "nonregional dialect" promulgated by an educated minority, he argues that it may not be superior to nonstandard dialects in its logic, regularity or beauty. He also disputes the popular "linguistic relativity theory," finding insufficient evidence for its proponents' claim that people's thought processes are molded by the particular language they speak.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world as he investigates the way children learn their native tongue, the way adults acquire a second language, the way Old English transformed itself into modern English, and the way words enchant, beguile, frustrate, or seduce us in various settings. How is it, for instance, that English, Russian, Pima, and Laguna children all use almost the same words to refer to their fathers and mothers? In search of an answer, Macaulay clarifies the nature of a child's preverbal babbling, in which stop consonants (m, p, d) occur with remarkable regularity. And how is it that a word (humor) originally meaning "water" or "liquid" now refers to one's sense of the laughable? Only a foray into medieval physiology can illuminate the matter. But whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises. Itself a delightful introduction to linguistics, the book concludes with helpful recommendations for further reading. Bryce Christensen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195106571
• ISBN-13: 978-0195106572
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,915,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars linguistics survey for the non-linguistical, January 22, 2000

By 

Yoon Ha Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Social Art: Language and Its Uses (Paperback)

I found this a decent, though not outstanding, survey of linguistics. I'd hand it to a monolinguistic English speaker who was curious about linguistics. I wouldn't hand it to a multilingual or to someone who already knows something about the subject. In fact, I'm far more satisfied with David Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language as a survey both for browsing and the more serious lay reader.

I suppose my real complaint *is* that the book is oriented toward monolinguistic English speakers, which I am not. I feel a more interesting introduction to linguistics would have included more on other languages. Not bad, mind you, but understand its limitations.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly approachable above all else, December 8, 1999

By 

Phil Kretschman (Philly) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Social Art: Language and Its Uses (Paperback)

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in language or linguistics at any level of discipline. Macaulay's style is informative and approachable--how refreshing it is to read a book on the topic of language that utilizes an easily approachable one! The chapters are quite short but make their points and present their theories clearly and succinctly, never drudging out boring pedantry just to fill pages. His is a very down-to-earth style and approach to this often lofty topic.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good information. Most useful text in my Anthro 104 class, December 17, 2001

By 

Kenneth "YotaruVegeta" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Social Art: Language and Its Uses (Hardcover)

I loved this book because it was easier to read than my other two Anthropology 104 textbooks, Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation and The workings of language.

The best feature of this book is the glossary, which gives you meanings to some of the most used terms in the book. It has 33 chapters and it reads quickly like an elementary school english textbook.