How a Psychotic Savant Shaped the Englisn Language as We Know It
596031
Good history on an obscure topic.  I appreciate how well-written history can weave together different themes. Besides the two protagonists, this one boasts:  treatment of the insane in the 1870s England; history of how words were defined & compiled into the most monumental work of all time; Irish emigration to the U.S., sexual obsession and acting out; and accepting the gifts and contributions of a savant, and accepting the rest (as it is) too.  It had its dry spots, but then compiling definitions of every word used in the English language was a tedious effort.  It's easy enough to skim over parts if you lose attention.
1530746
In the books choice title, Bickerton describes himself as a trailblazing linguist who finds clues to common humanity in the worlds lowliest languages. The title does a fine job at demonstrating the authors motive. First, Bickerton differentiates himself as a trailblazing linguist as opposed to a desk-dwelling academic one. He offers numerous examples of this distinction as he delights the reader with stories of adventure and rebellion. If theres a shortcut and a dangerous field experiment, the reader is soon following Bickerton as he pursues it.  Second, the common humanity in the title hints toward the journey of developing his linguistic theory, the language bioprogram hypothesis.  The first half of the book lays the groundwork for his eventual revelation for Creole acquisition.  In short, he proposes that Creole languages are created by the children of native Pidgin speakers during the natural language acquisition process. He argues that all Creoles have syntactic similarities and this provides evidence to Noam Chomskys innate claim that humans are born with a Language Acquisition Device.  We observe Bickerton make several attempts to prove this theory by enlisting the same academic institutions he mocks throughout the book.  Lastly, Bickerton uses the term, lowliest languages to ironically refer to the languages of innocent citizens belonging to various underdeveloped communities; he  satirically overgeneralizes the people whove endured prejudice born of colonialism and slavery for the purpose of highlighting its wrongful lowly stature. Bickerton shows great admiration for Pidgin and Creole speakers and exhibits a sincere fascination for their innate ability to invent new forms of communicating.
3778968
The author seems too eloquent and well-adjusted to be autistic, but seems to understand autistic minds well enough that he must have some ability to think autistically. He was clearly autistic as a child, but seems harder to classify now (he mentions people who think he's no longer autistic, and helps us understand why his personality doesn't fit into a standard stereotype).

He provides clear descriptions of how several minds that he studies differ from average minds and from each other. For examples, he describes how perceptual differences prevent one person from understanding ordinary instructions for how to identify a bus stop. Yet that person was quite capable of finding an alternate way to identify it after studying the problem enough. And his realization that people treat conversation as performance, with the entertainment value being more important than the information being exchanged.
1865295
"The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way" is an entertaining tour of the merits and idiosyncrasies of humanity's most global language: English. Author Bill Bryson introduces the reader to the history, evolution, and variety of English with good humor and lots of examples. Spoken fluently by probably about 400 million people worldwide, not including speakers of English-based creoles, English is not the most-spoken language, but it is the most studied, emulated, and widely distributed, being an official language in 44 countries. As it has become "the lingua franca of business, science, education, politics, and pop culture", it's worth taking a look at how confusing and wonderful English really is.

Bryson writes mostly of British and American English, with occasional references to Australian and Canadian, but this book is written for an American audience. Although it does touch upon some different dialects, it does not address pidgins or creoles. It does explain what makes English simple -few inflected verbs and adjectives, few consonant clusters and tonal variations, no gender- and what makes it difficult -huge vocabulary and ridiculous spelling. No less fascinating than the discussions of English are Bryson's examples of the behavior of other languages for comparison, which give the characteristics of English some context and inspire interest in language in general.

After a history of English's 1000+ years and an explanation of how words enter into language, the book launches into English's endearing (ahem) eccentricities: the evolution of pronunciation, development of regional dialects, how (and why?) we manage (or not) to spell 40 sounds in 200 different ways, word meanings and dictionaries, and a lightweight chapter on the lack of authority on English grammar. Bryson concludes with some fun chapters on names, swear words, and word games. He's dismissive of attempts to restore/introduce phonetic spelling, but there are good arguments for doing so, and workable alphabets have been devised for this purpose.

"The Mother Tongue" does not go into a great deal of depth on its subjects but rather introduces the reader to the strengths and peculiarities of English. Though I think Bryson gets his main points across well, there are an unfortunate number of factual errors, particularly relating to other languages. Bryson seems to have taken a lot of information from popular books instead of consulting direct sources, such as linguists or foreign language scholars. Still, he is a good writer, and the casual reader cannot help but develop a new fascination and admiration for the English language. "The Mother Tongue" is a charming inducement to investigate its subjects in more depth. 3 1/2 stars.
2746606
For anyone who enjoys knowing how the English language came to be, and specifically where many phrases come from, this book is very engrossing.  It is odd how virtually no one knows the origin of so many strange terms.  A book like this is especially good when one wants to relax, or when one wants to read something in an place that isn't suitable for heavy-duty concentrating.
4547212
Word-gamers, punners, palindromists, and the simply weird will enjoy this book.  It's full of mind-twisting and paradigm-bending palindromes, some of which are old chestnuts (such as Napoleon's lament "Able was ere I saw Elba" or the more complicated "'Naomi, sex at noon taxes', I moan") while others are truly bizarre.  Moreover, the author plucks palindromes out of heretofore unexplored territory (airport codes, geographical locations, and the like).
Interestingly, the book is not limited to palindromes; it also features some anagrams as well as word-squares.
Don't expect to read this in one sitting.  Your mind will turn to mush if you try to do so!
78485
As a language teacher, I can appreciate the time spent on translating this old literary giant, Ian has made this difficult subject open to the masses in a way that even those with limited interest in the subject can read and appreciate. It is well written originally, well translated, and Ian has displayed exceptional talent in his field. I was impressed with the ease of which the reader is drawn in and becomes interested.

Well Done.

Angela Hooper, author of In Dark Minds
3280687
The Structure of Magic, along with Noam Chomsky's work on Language (Knowledge of Language, Language and Thought, Language and Mind) are the bedrock documents of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a rhetorical/psychological/spiritual discipline much misunderstood and much mis-appropriated by various well-meaning folks and charlatans alike, the most famous of whom is Anthony Robbins.
If you're serious about understanding where NLP comes from, begin with this book and with Chomsky. Since Structure of Magic relies on an understanding of transformational grammar, it may be necessary to read Chomsky (and a good textbook on transgrammar) first.
Additionally, you may find it valuable to have a general psycholinguistics text handy, and to have at least a passing understanding of psychoanalytic/psychological therapeutic technique (since Structure of Magic looks at the practices of particularly highly-performant psychologists/analysts).
Once you're mastered this material, you'll discover that most of the other texts on NLP either miss key aspects of the discipline, or appropriate NLP's vocabulary and models for peculiar and sometimes suspect ends.
A hard read, in the final analysis, but well worth it.
2739806
Very interesting and enlightening even though some of the material is only for linguists.
2061870
Linguist buffs take note because this is not your typical word book.  Its subject is not word origins, the evolution of language, or the fine points of grammar. Instead The Secret Life of Pronouns is more psychology than etymology.  It explores and analyzes the little words we use, and author James W. Pennebaker makes the case that it's these tiny, forgettable words that tell a lot about our personality, emotional state, style of thinking and connections with other people. These "little words" are not just the pronouns of the title, they are all function words, including articles like "a", "an", and "the" and prepositions like "of", "from" and "toward", that connect and organize the larger, more apparently important words like nouns and verbs. Using a computer program that took three years to write Pennebaker investigates and draws conclusions from the little function words in movies, of politicians, in college application essays, of lovers, of liars, in literature, of people in groups, and of leaders vs. followers.  The results are not always intuitive, for instance it's better for a politician to use "I" rather than "we", but the conclusions are often interesting and sometimes fascinating.
2283833
This is a book that follows a mentally disturbed patient from her trigger incident, into and through a mental hospital. Written in the first person, in typical irrational, dyslexic thought patterns that ultimately lead to a functional state of mind, the author does an excellent job of illustrating the strange world of the mentally ill and their path to sanity.  A very interesting book.

This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
3023223
This book is a marvelous synthesis of research, by the author, his students, and many others, on how children learn the meanings of words. It makes clear why learning the meanings of words is a difficult task requiring explication, which is not immediately obvious, and then presents a great deal of evidence bearing on how it is done. As someone accustomed to reading very critically and frequently finding faults and gaps even in arguments to which I am sympathetic, I was amazed at how rarely I could find anything to quibble with. The book is also very balanced theoretically; the author considers a wide range of possible factors, from innate constraints on lexical semantics to general principles of theory of mind, and argues his case very fairly.
The book is not always easy reading, but it is always clear and pleasant. In a few cases the interpretation of an experiment described will not be entirely clear to someone with no background in psycholinguistics; in a few others, linguistic ideas are referred to without much explanation. Overall, however, the book should be accessible even to those without specialized trainng in linguistics or psychology.
4557384
Whatever happened to Esperanto -- is it still ticking?  And Volapuek, does anyone still speak it?  Here's the low-down on invented languages, starting with the mystical Seventeeth and enlightened Eighteen centuries, when serious attempts were made not only to name BUT TO ORDER every word out there in wholly new languages that would be not only rational but would unpack our (now we know) unpackable universe.  Then came the One Worlders:  the rise of nationalism in the Nineteenth Century provoked a reaction in Esperanto, Ido, Volapeuk and other invented languages that were meant to cross national boundaries, be easy to learn, have simplified grammars, and generally pull humankind together.  Those movements generally went into decline after the Second World War.  However, don't accept the blithe assumptions that English has become the world's *lingua franca* and that's that.  A lot more is going on and new invented languages are popping up all the time, though often, as with the "Blissymbol" system, they find uses other than pure communication.  (Blessedly, author Akira Okrent knows just when to stop shy of entering the realm of computer languages, so if you're looking for a taste of Fortran, Cobal or Linux, go elsewhere.)  A recurring theme in this insightful work is that no perfect language can be obtained because by the time one can be compiled, the social uses of it change and prompt either schisms or evolutions in the invented language.  An example of breach is Loglan, whose adherents so strongly rebelled against its conservative founder that they came up with Lojban, originally meant to incorporate changes the master would not permit.  (For the record, these are both difficult and complicated languages and would probably have any old-school Esperantist shaking his *kapo* (or her *kapa*) in dismay.)  Esperanto itself is an example of a created language refusing to remain static, as younger speakers casually drop the "n" accusative ending of nouns much as English-speakers commonly dismiss with terminal "g" from our words, and slang expressions and colorful idioms continue to thrive.

The benefit of  IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES is that Okrent knows whereof she speaks -- she's a professional linguist with double Ph. D.'s from the University of Chicago in both Linguistics and Cognition/Cognitive Science.  A born language nut and polyglot; what she doesn't know she set out to follow in compiling this book, and shares with us in a very witty manner.  (On first encountering one formerly promising language, she first looks up "s--t" in their dictionary to see if it's there.)  While this book is great fun to read, and can go into constructed languages or "conlangs" I would never have imagined (a pro-feminist language that has separate words for experiences such as "to menstruate joyfully" or "to menstruate painfully"),  at times I feel the author could have been a bit more comprehensive without sacrificing her tone of informed breeziness.  For instance, she says next to nothing about the "Latine sine flexione"/Interlingua/IA family of languages that were thought to be Europe's savior during much of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, but with the help of the Klingon annual conference does go on and on (entertainingly, to be sure) about that language and its structure, in particularly the earthers who try to speak it.  It may or may not be a sign of these times that the One World attempts to simplify language of 125 years ago have given way to the First World problem of mass communication being solved by Klingon, designed from scratch by one savant to be as difficult as possible, a warrior's language for a fictive warrior people.  (Leave it to Okrent to find some humor even here:  the Klingon word for "buttocks" is simply "tuchis" spelled backward, but such obvious mnemonics are quite rare.)  IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES is fun, informative, but to this observer could have been a bit more substantive.  Nonetheless, read it anyway.
4575643
For those people who delight in circling garbled or gramatically incorrect headlines and roadway signs in their everyday life, this book is a surefire winner.  Authors Petras and Petras take the reader on an international journey of well-intentioned but absolutely mis-used English.

This small-format paperback is broken into chapters by usage, from traveling to sightseeing to athletic events to dining to dealing with government agencies.  Not surprisingly, Asian examples make up a good portion of the book, but there are also delightful entries from Italy, Russia, and European counties.

What makes this book work is the structure and commentary provided by the authors.  This isn't a laundry list of goofy signs, rather, it is an intelligent anthology of English usage organized by subject matter.  The authors provide commentary and introduction to all of the sayings, signs, and instructions.
1616295
Theories which put humans far above other creatures have always troubled me.  It makes sense that our intelligence developed in an organic, common sensical way, not a huge leap that made us somehow God- or computer-like. Lynch theorizes that the tool of language is THE difference between our thinking and animal thinking.  Our thinking developed because of language and then language developed as thinking became more advanced.  I'll be interested to read more of his books.
3453559
John V. Karavitis  I came across this gem of a book in a review that I read on the Internet.  I couldn't get my hands on a copy fast enough, and my efforts were greatly rewarded.  Arika Okrent, a double-PhD in Linguistics and Psychology, takes us on a historical tour of "invented languages", i.e., artificial languages.  I had no idea that so many people over the centuries had gone to, and continue to go to, such extreme lengths to "take care of" natural languages' perceived faults.  Starting with Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century nun, and continuing to the present day, Dr. Okrent shows that the fervor to perfect human language has never stopped.  We see three main periods of artificial language contruction:  (1)  the 1600s, where John Wilkins' attempt may have led to Roget's Thesaurus 200 years later;  (2) the 1800s, which saw the birth and rise not only of Esperanto, but also modern-day Hebrew (!) - and both from the same historical causes; and (3) the modern age, where the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in the 1950s led to Lojban today, and where Blissymbolics stands out as a partial success.  Dr. Okrent takes the reader on a tour of the centuries, ending with her successful attempt at learning basic Klingon.  At the end is a list of 900 of these artificial languages, along with examples of the Lord's Prayer and a section of the Bible dealing with the Tower of Babel, both translated into some of these artificial languages.  As Dr, Okrent herself states, even though language is seen as imperfect and messy, every natural language is part of some human society and some particular culture and time.  Our languages are messy because they rely on the speakers negotiating terms and meanings, and they also rely on situational context.  Perfect man-made languages have good intentions at heart, but ultimately fail as they try to anticipate and write down in stone every possible situation and idea (e.g. Lojban as the most extreme example of this).  As those of us who live and breathe in the real world know, language will always be messy.  But if you want to "explore the possibilities", it makes for good fun!  I enjoyed this book, I rate it FIVE STARS!  John V. Karavitis, John Karavitis, Karavitis, KC9ISD, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, BigSight.
4320477
Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach believed that who we truly are can be found not in what we say, but in what we see. In 1917 he created an experiment that would go on to test this theory. The experiment consisted of ten carefully created inkblots.

In this book, the first biography written about Rorschach, Searls discusses the man, his life, and his work. We learn how culture shaped the test; how the test shaped culture (especially American culture); and how culture, in turn, reshaped the test, again and again.

The only thing that will stop me from giving this book five stars is that it became a bit stiff toward the end. What started as a writing style that felt more like storytelling turned more clinical and systematic. Perhaps it was unavoidable given the content, but it slowed my reading.

Otherwise, this is an excellent read. I knew nothing about Rorschach going into this book, and as I finished I left like I was leaving an old friend. Maybe because I see a bit of myself in him. He's someone I think I would have enjoyed talking to.

It was Rorschach's understanding and insight into boththe human mind and the world around him that made the inkblots work. This was proven time and again through the years as changes were made to how the test was given and scored. It wasn't something that could be quantified or standardized. Rorschach knew this, and expressed that he saw the inkblots more as an experiment than a test. Yet, he was able to use it, and teach others to use it, to uncover mental health issues and devise treatments.

The section of the book that interested me most was the use of the inkblots at Nuremburg on Nazi war criminals. The results were bothfascinating and chilling, and something I'd like to read more about.

But Hermann Rorschach was a fascinating man himself. The book contains copies of a few of Rorschach's inkblots, as well as some discussion of how scoring works. Searls alsoutilized many personal letters when covering Rorschach's life, which adds a personal touch that drew me in, and the notes section is extensive. Searls did his research, and it shows.

I received a complimentarycopy of this book fromBlogging for Books in return for an honest review.