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The Unfolding Of Language by [Deutscher, Guy]

The Unfolding Of Language Kindle Edition

by Guy Deutscher (Author)

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'Language is mankind's greatest invention - except of course, that it was never invented.' So begins Guy Deutscher's fascinating investigation into the evolution of language. No one believes that the Roman Senate sat down one day to design the complex system that is Latin grammar, and few believe, these days, in the literal truth of the story of the Tower of Babel. But then how did there come to be so many languages, and of such elaborate design? If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of 'man throw spear', how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced shades of meaning?

Drawing on recent, groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication. Along the way, we learn why German maidens are neuter while German turnips are female, why we have feet not foots, and how great changes in pronunciation may result from simple laziness...

Length: 320 pages

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

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Product details

File Size: 5619 KB
Print Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (March 20, 2010)
Publication Date: March 30, 2010
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B003D87PPY
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,144 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1004 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Linguistics
- #6996 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Linguistics
- #36184 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar

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A sure purchase

ByDr.G.on August 18, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The study and history of language, I feel, is irresistibly interesting. This book is absolutely fascinating in taking us on a tour of various languages and the many surprises, oddities, and shock about ingenuities that exotic languages, and not-so-exotic languages, embody. It expands our minds in the way that it shows us how other cultures see, and express, perceptions and ideas in a totally different light augmenting our own awareness of the commonplace and not-so-common place."Amazing. I never thought of .... (fill in the blanks) that way before. I have never seen and understood things that way," I found myself saying repeatedly in my head. I could not put this book down. I defy you to do so as well. A sure purchase.

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Fascinating Subject, Sparkling Presentation -- A Terrific Book.

ByAnne Millson December 30, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is one of the best and most exciting books I've ever read on language (I 'm not a professional, but I am a devotee). Deutscher's focus, as the title makes clear, is the way in which language could have emerged. This has to be speculative in part, since we are never going to find a fossil of the first noun. But Deutscher's approach is solid and convincing: he looks at the way languages grow and change at present, to deduce what may have happened in the past. In doing so, he considers the ways in which language itself could have emerged and why it may have evolved in certain ways. He does not focussing on the narrower issues of the emergence and development of specific lanquages, which is what most historical linguistics book I have read seem to do.

In addition to its fascinating subject matter and compelling research, this book is delightfully written. That's not a word I usually throw around in discussing books about language, many of which are written for an academic audience, and show it. But Deutcher is a lovely writer, which only reinforces my enthusiasm for this book. I like this book so much that I emailed the author to express my gratitude and appreciation. How often does one send fan mail to linquists?

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Why language is not degenerating

Byscotton October 16, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A great book, well-written, humorous, knowledgeable. The main accomplishment of this book,for me, was to explain why, over the centuries of written language, prominent commentators have bemoaned the decline of their language by fellow citizens, grousing over how nobody speaks correctly any more, and citing examples of poor usage, ungrammatical forms, distortions of original meanings of words, etc. It apparently happens in every generation. And no commentator of language has ever (to my knowledge) claimed that language usage is improving in his generation. But if things have only gone down hill forever, how then did any langauge ever start out in "good" condition? The author explains that languages change as people find quicker and shorter ways to say things (from "going to" to "gonna"), add or change words to make things clearer, and generalize from one example to parallels. The net effect of all these changes is the evolution of a language, eventually to the point where it seems like a different language. The old guard cites Latin, with its declensions (suffixes to words indicating a word's grammatical role in a sentence), as an example of a "perfect" language. Language descendants of Latin (and for English, descendant of Old German) have tended to drop these suffixes and use word order and other markers to indicate the part of speech a word fills in a sentence. What the grousers don't know is that the classic Latin endings were once probably separate words that indicated the grammatical function of the previous word, but that those separate words were eventually shortened and attached to the previous word, until they remained only as a one or two or three letter ending. So classical Latin is an example of "degeneration" from its earlier form. I'm not trained in linguistics or languages, but I found the book fascinating and fun to read.

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Great introduction into evolutionary linguistics

ByDavid H. Rubinon July 29, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Mr. Deutscher does the layman a great service in introducing us to some of the difficult ideas about the history of languages and their evolutionary development over the ages. He takes us far beyond the Grimm's law and explains highly technical notions in a way we can understand with a bit of effort. Much of the book is devoted to the question, "If languages seem to be getting simpler and simpler over time, what caused them to become complex to begin with?" The answer appears to lie in the analogy with earth geology's erosion and sedimentation.

The only thing I found lacking was a linkage to real world history, outside of the language context. That is, what was happening in the world while certain language developments were taking place. That must be the subject of another book.

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Phenomenal book written with incredible wit,humor, erudition and intelligence

ByKindle Customeron May 2, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A phenomenal book on the evolution of human language written with incredible wit and humor, as well as great erudition and intelligence. Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning how and why language changes over the ages. As a speaker of both English and a Semitic language I found this book especially interesting as these are two language family groups that the author goes into a great deal of detail about. I would, however, have appreciated more references to the tonal languages of Asia as I know nothing of their grammar and wonder if this language family undergoes the same processes the Semitic and Indo-European languages do.