What Language Is: And What It Isn't and What It Could Be Paperback - 2012
by McWhorter, John
- Used
"New York Times"-bestselling author and renowned linguist McWhorter explores the complicated world of languages. He celebrates the history and curiosities of languages around the world and smashes assumptions about "correct" grammar.
Description
Standard delivery: 7 to 14 days
Details
- Title What Language Is: And What It Isn't and What It Could Be
- Author McWhorter, John
- Binding Paperback
- Condition Used - Good
- Pages 240
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Publishing Group
- Date 2012-08-07
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Maps, Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
- Bookseller's Inventory # WAL-J-6d-001391
- ISBN 9781592407200 / 159240720X
- Weight 0.4 lbs (0.18 kg)
- Dimensions 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 in (20.07 x 13.21 x 1.78 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects Language and languages - Etymology, Historical linguistics
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011010208
- Dewey Decimal Code 400
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Summary
An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Is offers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. from vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, and with copious revelations about the hodgepodge nature of English, John McWhorter shows readers how to see and hear languages as a linguist does.Packed with big ideas about language alongside wonderful trivia, What Language Is explains how languages across the globe (the Queen's English and Suriname creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place—from Persia to the languages of Sri Lanka—to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.
