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

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

by David Crystal (Author)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Penguin (29 Mar 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0141015527
ISBN-13: 978-0141015521
Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 134,249 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

In this fascinating survey of everything from how sounds become speech to how names work, David Crystal answers every question you might ever have had about the nuts and bolts of language in his usual highly illuminating way. Along the way we find out about eyebrow flashes, whistling languages, how parents teach their children to speak, how politeness travels across languages and how the way we talk show not just how old we are but where we’re from and even who we want to be.

About the Author

David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has published over ninety books, most recently The Stories of English, and is the editor of The Penguin Encyclopaedia. In 1995, he was awarded the OBE for services to the English language. He lives in Holyhead, Anglesey.

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	70% buy the item featured on this page: How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die 3.0 out of 5 stars (2) �6.47
	11% buy The Stories of English 4.4 out of 5 stars (9) �6.87
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	7% buy The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language 4.8 out of 5 stars (4) �6.47

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Customer Reviews

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3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good All Rounder, 30 May 2007

By	Emma (Hull) - See all my reviews

This book provides easy going summaries of everything to do with language. Students of linguistics will find it useful as it contains a background to all the usual things included in a linguistics degree from phonology to the origins of language. Invaluable.

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14 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What is the point of this book?, 28 April 2006

By	D. Govan (Adelaide) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die (Paperback)

Anyone expecting to find what the blurb says on this book is in for a big disappointment. There is nothing new, no opinions to chew over just a very rushed synopsis of everything that has to do with language. Anyone who has reached adulthood will know 90% of what this book contains anyway. A good 20% of the book is made up of a listing of world languages - no interesting detail just a listing.

Professor Crystal also holds the very odd view that language evolved 30,000 years ago some 30,000 years after man reached Australia. So how did that happen?

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