Free Download The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
You could like to this publication since it is straightforward things to get over. It indicates that words and language to make use of in this The Power Of Babel: A Natural History Of Language been available in simplicity. This potential publication will certainly aid you easily making far better idea of brand-new idea and also upgraded info. When you actually want to get this book, juts find it in this site. We will certainly help you to check out guide web link and then get it as yours. This doesn't indicate to bewilder you to be in difficult situation.
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
Free Download The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
Announcing new item as a book is extremely outstanding for us. We can use a brand-new better thing time and again. When many individuals attempt to seek for the brand-new coming publications, we are below as the company. As an excellent supplier, we constantly provide all collections of books, from many resources. For this reason, guides from many nations are offered and also suitable here. This internet site is truly a wonderful publication supplier, even in the soft documents.
We understand that you are additionally fan of the writer of this publication. So, it will certainly not be even worse for you to pick it as recommendation. The Power Of Babel: A Natural History Of Language, as one of the crucial publications to check out can be taken into consideration as a publication that provides you something advised. You could take the similar topic from other publication, but the one that could offer you better impact is this book. This condition will actually influence you to offer the trusted selection.
And also why should read this publication? Many know that in this era, some books are covered in heavy things to pack. Some other will certainly be likewise matched in language difficulty to recognize. The Power Of Babel: A Natural History Of Language is one of the most up to date launched books that has basic principle of assumed with incredible facts and also lessons. It will certainly show you few things straightforward with simple language to recognize. Also you are from the foreigners, this book is also very easy adequate to be converted.
Currently, when you have an additional idea to pick the book, just what you can do? It will certainly be far better and easier to discover The Power Of Babel: A Natural History Of Language in this website since we provide you the straight link to go to the book site. It will certainly be much easier as well as faster to get it. Below, soft file will truly help you to save and read it each time you desire. Obviously, it will certainly not restrict you to review it in particular location.
There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.
Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations
›
View or edit your browsing history
After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.
Product details
Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Softcover Edition edition (January 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006052085X
ISBN-13: 978-0060520854
Product Dimensions:
5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
105 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#58,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The book presents an explanation of a very fascinating topic: how human languages change over time. When you consider that French, Spanish and Italian all started as dialects of the same language, you know something interesting underlies language evolution. The book is thorough, interesting and requires no prior knowledge of linguistics.While I enjoyed the book, I have two negative issues: first, the book is repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. The same points over and over again when it just wasn't necessary because the concepts are not that difficult. In addition, some of the examples used to were too detailed and too lengthy for the book's intended audience.The second thing that I found a little annoying about the book is that it is filled with footnotes and asides that I'm sure the author meant to be entertaining, but they frequently came across as glib and self serving. It was as if the author was imitating David Foster Wallace - but the author is not David Foster Wallace.All in all, it's a good book and worth reading, but if you stop reading after chapter 4 (about half way) you won't miss much.
This book by John McWhorter, whom I met a few weeks ago at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, is not only an erudite look at language, but is full of insights and is funny to boot. The book, labeled a natural history of language, discusses how all languages come from a shared root language, how those languages branched into the many languages we know today, and how languages come to die. Sprinkled throughout are anecdotes, normally in footnote form that not only serve to illustrate the point Prof. McWhorter is trying to make, but also lighten up the reading. It's a fantastic read for anyone interested in language and the human experience.
Another great book by my favorite writer on linguistics and race relations. Not quite as good as Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, it is nevertheless typical McWhorter - fast moving, clear, well developed and insightful. There is an embarrassment of riches here, but I would say among the main themes are how languages develop and change, that all languages are really dialects, the differences between pidgins and creoles and in the epilogue, that we cannot trace back to the original language through linguistic reconstructions.To steal a word from Homer which has little changed in meaning (and which I think the author would appreciate) - kudos!
My first exposure to John McWhorter was in the Great Courses DVD lecture series he does on Linguistics, called The Story of Human Language, and it was absolutely fascinating, although his voice is more than a bit oversoothing and can easily put you to sleep, and only his lively and expressive personality counters that effect.This book seems to me to be very much the book form of that lecture series, and for that it is definitely worth the purchase. McWhorter's writing style is very informal and conversational when it needs to be, and very analytical and formal when it also needs to be. He does not disappoint with this or any of his other books.
I had to buy this book for a class. It primarily for uses on information regarding the usage and development of language. I did not find it to be a particularly entertaining read, but if linguistics are an area of personal interest for you, the author's style is pleasant and he provides some novel information. It was helpful for my class and was easy to navigate to find the indentation that I needed for various assignments.
Yes, I've really done that. All I needed was a discussion with a fellow community band musician over whether "in excelsis deo" should be pronounced in church Latin or classical Latin, which then led to whether Russian is a dialect of Ukranian or Ukranian is a dialect of Russian (can you tell we are working on music for the Christmas season?) and I realized that here was a person who thinks language is as much fun as I do. So I grabbed his lapels and told him he had to go get this book.I've recommended it to any number of other people as well. Here's the sorts of people who would like this book: people who have ever tried to learn a foreign language and gotten distracted by cognates, people who not only know what cognates are but go looking for them for fun, people who deliberately try to read the liner notes in their CDs in one of the foreign languages and then check back with the English version to see how far off you were; people who debate whether Shakespeare is early modern English or modern English; people whose idea of a good time is playing word games; people who have ever participated in the User Friendly message boards translating the day's strip into ever-more outlandish languages...Have you ever read any of the "Asterix" comic strips? Would you like to see how Asterix looks in three different dialects of German?This book is not as downright serious as some, nor as deeply footnoted as a truly academic book would be. For that, you'd want to read "Empire of the Word" by Nicholas Ostler. It's much more thorough, and more academic, and dryer, and has far less humor. On the other hand, if you want to have FUN reading about language, "The Power of Babel" is the right book. Some other reviewers have referred to the book's "cheesy humor" or other lack of seriousness. I consider that a GOOD thing; this is a book that a person can sit and read, and enjoy, and share bits out loud with someone else in the room, rather than requiring the reader to squint and take notes and study. If it's wrong to appreciate books written for a popular audience rather than a scholarly one, then I don't wanna be right.One warning: after you read this book, you will have trouble falling asleep for a while because thoughts about the vast connectedness of everything will keep you awake, jumping from topic to topic and word to word. Also, you will annoy many of your friends by repeatedly announcing that "there are no languages, only dialects." So far, none of my friends has hit me over the head for this, so the side effects are safe enough to be worth the read.
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language PDF
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language EPub
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language Doc
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language iBooks
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language rtf
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language Mobipocket
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language Kindle