What Language Is: And What It Isnt and What It Could Be
Release date: 2011 / 205 pages
Synopsis (from the jacket cover): Most of our assumptions about language are wrong. Language is not pure. Language is not only words. Language is not divided into real language and ‘dialects.’ Language is not what we write on a page. So what, then, is language?…
First Sentence: Page through a grand old book on what was once known as natural history — as we all do so often, of course — and you’ll find that almost all drawings of marine life are rendered from the perspective of someone standing on the shore.
Review: Occasionally I read a book and think, “If I were the editor, I would have changed this, this, and this.” For example, What Language Is is a fascinating study of language from a multitude of perspectives, and is actually quite accessible at times. But I very nearly told TLC to take me off the tour halfway through the introduction. So, I would warn any potential reader not to judge this work by its first impression.
I would not recommend skipping the introduction, however. The opening metaphor describing how our view of marine life has changed in concert with our ability to fully understand our friends beneath the sea is quite useful. But the discussion of irregularities in the Archi language may have benefitted from a bit more scaffolding. Or perhaps we simply need time to get to know McWhorter through his sense of humor and helpful asides before attempting to appreciate languages unknown to the pedestrian reader.
But once the introduction is survived, McWhorter’s use of the word idiom as an acronym for what all languages share is a useful guide through an indepth and enlightening look at the symbols that allow us to communicate. IDIOM stands for Ingrown, Dissheveled, Intricate, Oral, and Mixed, and McWhorter dedicates a chapter to each element. Aspects of this book would work well as articles — for example, the section on Black English and excerpts from the Oral chapter. Honestly, most of the work would be useful in a linguistics course, but is slow going at times for the everyday reader interested in language.
I will share a few excerpts to provide a sense of McWhorter’s language and delivery:
“We tell people they have ‘made a mistake’ in saying I was just laying there because one is to use lie in such a context, laying being something you exert. If it was good enough for Anglo-Saxon shepherds, then it should be good enough for us. And then meanwhile we hear younger people saying ‘He’s all…’ instead of He said… and wince at this intrusive ‘slang,’ which ‘isn’t right’ because, well, it wasn’t familiar to the people who used to keep lie and lay separate? That Shakespeare spoke a different English from Chaucer is considered luscious. That people fifty years from now might speak slightly differently from us is considered a herald to the demise of civilization as we know it.”
“What this all means is that the very fabric of the English language we speak without a care is full of meaningless chunks, bits of stuff that hover awkwardly between life and death, sounds that started out as the ends of beginnings of adjacent words, and even sounds that wouldn’t be in the language at all anymore if a few people hadn’t decreed that they hand around in scattered random instances. Take a sentence like this:
A perfect sherry at twilight raised Ned’s spirits a notch and permitted him to forget about his health.
In bold are all of the parts that are dead, dying, opaque, or the product of what began as mistakes. Curious why? Then you would enjoy What Language Is!
So, if you are interested, please leave me a comment and I will choose a winner by the weekend!
Monday, August 1st: Book Club Classics!
Tuesday, August 2nd: BookNAround
Wednesday, August 3rd: In the Next Room
Thursday, August 4th: One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Friday, August 5th: Melody & Words
Monday, August 8th: Rundpinne
Tuesday, August 9th: Lit and Life
Wednesday, August 10th: Hey I Want to Read That
Thursday, August 11th: The Broke and the Bookish
Monday, August 15th: Book Bird Dog
Wednesday, August 17th: Acting Balanced
Thursday, August 18th: My Book Retreat
Monday, August 22nd: At Home with Books
Tuesday, August 23rd: Raging Bibliomania
Wednesday, August 24th: SMS Book Reviews
Thursday, August 25th: Unabridged Chick
Monday, August 29th: Overstuffed
What a lot to learn from such a book. Would love, love to win!
I’m always intrigued by language. Please count me in. Thank you!
nfmgirl At gmail DOT com
I’m glad you kept on in spite of the introduction – sound like it was worth it in the end!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
I want to read this. Thank you!
My Hubs was so excited to read about this book. I would love to win it for him.
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