The Unfolding of Language [Hardcover]

 

 

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I have been sporadically dipping into the 'linguistics for laypeople' market for the last few years, but in this book I think I have found precisely what I have been looking for.

The book uses a very simple idea to explain the evolution of language; analogy (working out 'rules' from other words), expressiveness (emphasis etc) and economy (plain laziness). He uses these rules to explain almost every facet of human communication, and will hopefully convert many grammar pedants! If there is a moral to this story, it is that language is defined by the people who use it, not purely by convention and what has come before. Language is not deteriorating as has been the lament of many scholars past and present, it is evolving and changing, though the forces of destruction are more apparent than those of creation!

As a learner of Korean and Chinese, reading this book has given me knew insight on these languages' use of certain sentence orders, constant use, tone use and irregularities in conjugations etc, which I find absolutely fascinating and has made me realise that learning a language is not like hacking into a dark and random jungle armed only with a blunt penknife, but that there is rhyme and reason behind everything if only you stop to look!

The only part of this book I felt somewhat uneasy reading was the final chapter, where he traces a possible path from the 'man throw spear' stage of language to the verbosity of modern speech. Since it deals with pre-historical development, it is wild conjecture; though to be fair to Deutscher he does include a disclaimer before the chapter!

Not only is the content fascinating, the presentation of the book and the style of language are also laudable. It is accessible without ever being patronising, and the purpose of the chapters are always clearly explained and at the end tied into the overall theme of the book, i.e. the three drivers of human language mentioned above. For this the author deserves high praise as it helps readers through some somewhat heavy topics!

Overall, this is an absolutely fantastic book on linguistics, accessible to the interested laymen, though it may not hold a purely casual reader. By far the best book I have read on the subject so far, and it has spurred me to read many more!

If nobody actually invented it, how could the bewildering variety, rich complexity and sheer expressiveness of human language 'mankind's greatest invention' have ever come about? Guy Deutscher takes us through an entertaining and plausible history of language's origins, explaining how the intricacy of for example Latin and Old English grammar could have emerged through a natural process of expressiveness and metaphor (creatively adding new words to phrases), analogy (ordering random variance into meaningful rules) and erosion (lazy speaking, losing endings and shortening words). He even explains how the weird and wonderful Semitic verb structure (where Hebrew and Arabic are forever united in parallel linguistic complexity) could have arisen. The first three quarters of the book reads like a novel, charting the exciting history of linguistics as well as language theory itself, only slowing in the final section where the author attempts to explain the strange source of subordinate clauses, a difficult area even for dedicated linguists to decipher. The ending, too, seems unexpectedly abrupt. If language is a flux of creation and destruction, why has there been a marked tendency in modern languages towards grammatical simplification with the case endings of Latin and Old English `rubbed off' in their modern counterparts? Is literacy the culprit? There are some quite interesting theories around but unfortunately they are skipped over here, leaving the reader with many questions unanswered. Nonetheless, this is still a cracking page-turning introduction to a fascinating area and not to be missed if you have any interest in the mysteries of language.

The author calls language an "uninvented invention". This highly engaging, witty book is an attempt to uncover at least some of the secrets of language and to dismantle the stated paradox. He explains the meaning of `structure', argues that the present is the key to the past & explains why languages do not remain static. By drawing on recent discoveries in linguistics, he explores the forces of destruction, creation and the innate structure of language. It is revealed that the source of grammatical elements like case markers, pre- & post-positions and tense markers is the mundane words like inter alia `hand' and `go'.

Chapter One: Castles In The Air, takes a close look at the structure of language, whilst the following chapter: Perpetual Motion, demonstrates linguistic development and change with particular reference to English, German, French and the Indo-European language family as a whole. Chapter Three: Forces Of Destruction, is a further investigation of how and why changes in sound and meaning take place, with many examples from Indo-European.

Chapter Four examines interesting verbs like "to have/to hold" and the concepts of space & time in linguistic expression. All languages use spatial terms to describe temporal relations, revealing that space-time is deeply entrenched in human cognition. A metaphor is a way of describing something by comparing it to something else, and is an indispensable element in thought-processing. The stream of metaphors flowing through language moves from the concrete to the abstract. Language consists of layer upon layer of metaphors that are as common in plain conversation as in sublime poetics.

Chapter Five: Forces Of Creation, is a discussion of how new words and structures arise, how meanings change and the multiple ways in which languages are enriched by these developments. It was interesting to learn, for example that the conjunction `but' derives from Old English `be-utan' ("by the outside").

Chapter Six looks at the need for order in languages and contains lots of interesting information on the intricate Semitic verbal system. In essence, the effects of erosion interact with the mind's craving for order. There is thus a constant search for regular patterns and spontaneous analogical innovations arise. This is based on erosion + expressiveness and erosion + analogy.

The final chapter brings it all together and includes detailed discussions of the common sources out of which possessives, quantifiers, plural markers & articles may develop, the various interactions of verbs & nouns, and the nuances of action like tenses (past, present, future, continues & completed), and modality (should, ought, etc.). Adverbs and subordinate clauses are also discussed.

In the Epilogue, Deutscher revisits the mind's desire for order and the fact that innovation is based on a principle of recycling. He also discusses the movement towards simplification in the word structure of the Indo-European languages over thousands of years in terms of cyclical & linear time. Proto Indo-European had eight cases for nouns in the singular, dual & plural while the modern daughter languages have few left and there is a marked decline in the fusion of words.

This highly entertaining read is accessible to the non-linguist and explains many fascinating features of language and its structure. There are five appendices, copious notes, a bibliography and glossary of terms. The book concludes with an index. The text is enhanced by figures, illustrations and photographs, including an aerial view of the ruins of & an artist's impression of Hattusa in its heyday plus portraits of the Brothers Grimm and Sir William Jones who discovered the relationship of Sanskrit to Greek & Latin.

Appendix A provides more info on the flipping of word categories with reference to the word `go' which functions both as a verb and an auxiliary marking the future tense. Appendix B revisits the role of laryngeal consonants in the Semitic languages that changed the vowels I and U in their vicinity into A and the consequences of the phenomenon.

The next appendix elaborates on the complicated Semitic verbal templates with reference to how reflexives, intensives, causatives, passives & passive reflexive forms originated. Appendix D looks at how the ambiguity of pronouns as to referent may be solved; for example, by harnessing the emphatic `self' to function as a reflexive.

The final appendix, The Turkish Mirror, deals with the convergence of all languages into two opposing word-order camps. Joseph Greenberg made this discovery in the 1960s. The word-order arrangement results from the positioning of one particular couple, the verb and the object. The early choice between VO or OV determines whether pre- or postpositions will be employed and ripples throughout the entire structure of a language to determine, amongst others, the possessive construction where the two nouns arrange themselves to correspond with pre- or post-positions.

I also recommend On the Origin of Languages & A Guide to the World's Languages by Merritt Ruhlen, A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler and the work of that great pioneer of language classification, Professor Joseph Greenberg, especially Language Universals & Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Erudite, accessible and then I hit the wall
As a casual frequenter of books on language and languages I found this book instructive and entertaining. It is well written and I lapped up the first chapters hungrily. Read more

Published 4 months ago by BookMark

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As an individual who is trying to learn a few different languages i was looking for a grounding in where all language originates. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Xarada

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
The book gives fascinating insights about the evolution of languages, giving examples from multiple languages, but analysing in depth some specific of Indo-European and Semitic... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Jaime Benito De Ruiz

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous
This is a truly enjoyable book, right down to the several appendices. Deutscher uses humour as part of an engaging writing style, but it's never frivolous or pointless. Read more

Published 10 months ago by biblia

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly readable
It is a paradox that the vast majority of linguistics books are virtually unreadable, that books which attempt to describe the process of communication are usually good examples... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Seán

3.0 out of 5 stars For the specialist only
Written with great authority, this book has some good accessible chapters but also large chunks which are only for the super-specialist. Read more

Published 11 months ago by David Howells

5.0 out of 5 stars phew
I thought I must be thick because I couldn't understand Chomsky's concept of a universal grammar,despite all those diagrams. Read more

Published 11 months ago by jane

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not a linguist but I loved it...
This book has got to be the best book I've ever read in terms of being able to deconstruct language. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Sontee

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating for linguists and non-linguists alike
A brilliantly readable and accessible look at some of the forces that shape language, particularly the destructive ones that actually seem quite creative on the face of it. Read more

Published 21 months ago by R. WEST-SOLEY

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely wonderful!
Miffed at how languages always seem to be losing inflection? Amazed at the grace and beauty of the Classical languages? Read more

Published 22 months ago by ellis

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