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How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die
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.
Whether looking at the whistle languages of the Canary Islands or describing the layout of the human throat, this landmark book will enrich the lives of everyone who reads it.
Whether looking at the whistle languages of the Canary Islands or describing the layout of the human throat, this landmark book will enrich the lives of everyone who reads it.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
302 people are currently reading
4,119 people want to read
About the author
David Crystal
227Ìýbooks755ÌýfollowersDavid Crystal works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. His family moved to Liverpool in 1951, and he received his secondary schooling at St Mary's College. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He held a chair at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. These days he divides his time between work on language and work on internet applications.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
September 11, 2015
Subtitle: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die. It took me a bit to figure out what about this book on linguistics seemed odd to me: there's no Big Idea. Which is kind of cool, really.
By "Big Idea", I mean the grand overarching theory that the author is in the throes of. Like Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar, or Stephen Pinker's rejection of the Blank Slate. It doesn't mean Crystal has nothing to say. However, what you will not find here is a Grand Thesis, which ties it all together. He's a guy who's thought about language a lot, apparently most of his adult life (he was born in 1941), and this is a book where he pretty much summarizes what he knows about it.
There's chapters on how our mouth parts work to produce speech, how children learn to speak, how we write (and how we used to write in the past), sign language, how we learn grammar and how it differs between language types, how dialects form, coexist, and sometimes die, how languages are related, what parts of the brain interpret language and what happens when we lose them, and how electronic media change how we use language.
Every one of these is a meaty enough topic for an entire, or several books of its own. In some sense, it's ludicrous to give each one of them a few dozen pages. But, on the other hand, that's somewhat like saying it's ludicrous to have a globe, when the level of detail for each nation is too little to guide you anywhere. Perhaps it's true, but it can be useful to have a mental map of the big picture.
Maybe I should say, the Big Picture. Perhaps Crystal has no Big Idea, because instead he's giving us the Big Picture. This, is the breadth and diversity of the topic of Language(s). The list of figures illustrates how broad that is:
1 General arrangement of the vocal organs
...
3 Movement of a single air particle
...
10 Egyptian hieroglyphs over time
...
14 Two-handed and one-handed finger-spelling
...
18 Some words for 'father' in Indo-European
You get the idea. This is a bit like browsing the encyclopedia, back when there were encyclopedias to browse through. It stimulates the brain, it keeps moving, and it gives you an idea of what things you might want to go back to look at in more detail (in some other book, perhaps with a Big Idea). Bully for David Crystal. Thumbs up!
By "Big Idea", I mean the grand overarching theory that the author is in the throes of. Like Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar, or Stephen Pinker's rejection of the Blank Slate. It doesn't mean Crystal has nothing to say. However, what you will not find here is a Grand Thesis, which ties it all together. He's a guy who's thought about language a lot, apparently most of his adult life (he was born in 1941), and this is a book where he pretty much summarizes what he knows about it.
There's chapters on how our mouth parts work to produce speech, how children learn to speak, how we write (and how we used to write in the past), sign language, how we learn grammar and how it differs between language types, how dialects form, coexist, and sometimes die, how languages are related, what parts of the brain interpret language and what happens when we lose them, and how electronic media change how we use language.
Every one of these is a meaty enough topic for an entire, or several books of its own. In some sense, it's ludicrous to give each one of them a few dozen pages. But, on the other hand, that's somewhat like saying it's ludicrous to have a globe, when the level of detail for each nation is too little to guide you anywhere. Perhaps it's true, but it can be useful to have a mental map of the big picture.
Maybe I should say, the Big Picture. Perhaps Crystal has no Big Idea, because instead he's giving us the Big Picture. This, is the breadth and diversity of the topic of Language(s). The list of figures illustrates how broad that is:
1 General arrangement of the vocal organs
...
3 Movement of a single air particle
...
10 Egyptian hieroglyphs over time
...
14 Two-handed and one-handed finger-spelling
...
18 Some words for 'father' in Indo-European
You get the idea. This is a bit like browsing the encyclopedia, back when there were encyclopedias to browse through. It stimulates the brain, it keeps moving, and it gives you an idea of what things you might want to go back to look at in more detail (in some other book, perhaps with a Big Idea). Bully for David Crystal. Thumbs up!
February 19, 2013
While this book isn't specifically geared toward helping writers become better, it's a comprehensive look at how language develops and is learned and used.
In 73 chapters it covers introducing language, spoken language, written language, sign language, language structure, discourse, dialects, languages, multilingualism, and looking after language.
Despite its length, the book is a fast read and unexpectedly enjoyable. Think of it as a introduction to language as a whole, as it doesn't go into great detail about any of the components. All its chapters are short.
It's a great read and highly recommended.
In 73 chapters it covers introducing language, spoken language, written language, sign language, language structure, discourse, dialects, languages, multilingualism, and looking after language.
Despite its length, the book is a fast read and unexpectedly enjoyable. Think of it as a introduction to language as a whole, as it doesn't go into great detail about any of the components. All its chapters are short.
It's a great read and highly recommended.
July 27, 2011
Personally I found this book frustrating: It covers too much material in too few pages (and my edition is almost 500 pages of very small print). The coverage of each topic was too superficial to be engrossing. I already knew a lot of the material and was disappointed not to learn more: He would mention something that would pique my interest, but then move right on to something else. For the material I didn't already know, the discussion was too cursory to really stick: no examples, analysis, or anecdotes. I don't feel like I know any more than I did before I read the book. Also I don't think he had room for his writing style to really shine the way it does in some of his books.
That said, this is David Crystal, so of course the writing is very clear and pithy. And I did enjoy the section on conversations (if he has written a whole book on this topic I would like to read it... and perhaps suggest it to a couple friends...), and I especially enjoyed his attack on the Lynne Trusses of the world (more even, oddly, than his whole book on the topic, The Fight for English).
That said, this is David Crystal, so of course the writing is very clear and pithy. And I did enjoy the section on conversations (if he has written a whole book on this topic I would like to read it... and perhaps suggest it to a couple friends...), and I especially enjoyed his attack on the Lynne Trusses of the world (more even, oddly, than his whole book on the topic, The Fight for English).
August 20, 2011
An enjoyable overview of linguistics. Crystal's 73 chapters can be read consecutively, or - he claims - dipped into at random. Each chapter is a short introduction to one topic. For example, 'How vocabulary grows' or 'How to study dialects'. Since each is only five pages or so, you know not to expect too much - it's an orientation to the topic.
Towards the end of the book (unless you randomly start there, of course), Crystal shows his great desire in writing: to encourage more interest in and concern for language. (That's definitely language as a whole, rather than languages individually.) For him, language and all aspects of its study are eminent in grasping human culture's richness. I think he's right to be such a proponenet of linguistic study, of respect for language.
Towards the end of the book (unless you randomly start there, of course), Crystal shows his great desire in writing: to encourage more interest in and concern for language. (That's definitely language as a whole, rather than languages individually.) For him, language and all aspects of its study are eminent in grasping human culture's richness. I think he's right to be such a proponenet of linguistic study, of respect for language.
November 5, 2009
There's so much information in this book that it's difficult to absorb it all, let alone recall it a few days after the fact. To a language enthusiast like me, it was fascinating; I could see how many or perhaps most readers might get bored. Some chapters are much more interesting than others: I'm not that jazzed about the explanation of how we physically produce a uvular fricative, but I love the discussions of how humans learn language and about common features that all languages share. Crystal really does write it as though it were a "how to" manual, but I don't think it's less valuable in that respect than it is as a sheer comprehensive discussion of many aspects of linguistics.
March 7, 2023
Non-Fiction>Language and Linguistics
I read this book as a buddy read in the Non-Fiction Book club and we had quite a discussion if you're interested in more details of this text.
Overall, this was a well-organized book and the author states from the start that his intention is to separate the topics and provide info in a way that doesn't require cover to cover reading. We did read this cover to cover, but I could see how it could be kept as a reference book of sorts. The chapters are very short and are pretty much exactly what the title of the chapter says--very much like long encyclopedia entries.
I might have gotten a little more out of this if American English were the primary language examples, but British English isn't so different that I couldn't follow it, of course. In some ways I wish there were more detail about some of the concepts and more discussion about working theories on language development, comprehension, production, etc. This is really a primer on the topic and any detailed info the reader is requiring will need to be found elsewhere. This is a great place to start if you are wanting to learn more about linguistics and need to familiarize yourself with the basic terms and concepts.
I read this book as a buddy read in the Non-Fiction Book club and we had quite a discussion if you're interested in more details of this text.
Overall, this was a well-organized book and the author states from the start that his intention is to separate the topics and provide info in a way that doesn't require cover to cover reading. We did read this cover to cover, but I could see how it could be kept as a reference book of sorts. The chapters are very short and are pretty much exactly what the title of the chapter says--very much like long encyclopedia entries.
I might have gotten a little more out of this if American English were the primary language examples, but British English isn't so different that I couldn't follow it, of course. In some ways I wish there were more detail about some of the concepts and more discussion about working theories on language development, comprehension, production, etc. This is really a primer on the topic and any detailed info the reader is requiring will need to be found elsewhere. This is a great place to start if you are wanting to learn more about linguistics and need to familiarize yourself with the basic terms and concepts.
January 2, 2022
I have always been interested in linguistics and learning languages, but after an attack that lead to me almost losing my ability to speak and understand language I became very interested in learning more about how it originated and how it continues to evolve with us.
Even after reading this it still baffles me how such varied and complex languages have developed around the world.
This book is one of my favourite nonfiction books this year (2021).
Even after reading this it still baffles me how such varied and complex languages have developed around the world.
This book is one of my favourite nonfiction books this year (2021).
November 27, 2010
A clear and concise listing of all the issues that are related to language, from the physiological (how we produce sounds, how we hear sounds) to how we use language. The latter is, of course, a large subject, including such items as how babies learn language from their parents, how we mean something different than what we actually say ("It's cold in here!" can be interpreted as "Close the window, please!"), and my favorite subject, the status of dialects and how its in constant influx.
This book is out there to entice you to get interested in linguistics (it even says so at the end), and it's not an in-depth look at all the issues it mentions. The book does its job of including so many different aspects of language together in one spot well.
This book is out there to entice you to get interested in linguistics (it even says so at the end), and it's not an in-depth look at all the issues it mentions. The book does its job of including so many different aspects of language together in one spot well.
July 26, 2013
This book is arranged in chapters that can stand alone or be read as a volume. Chapters are divided into sub chapters which similarly stand alone or can be read as a cohesive work of prose.
While the author is British, the emphasis is universal. The British influence shows the most in the discussion of dialects.
The articles vary from being anecdotal to factually meaty. The chapters on vocabulary show how vocabulary is learned with great anecdotes and factual backup. Like Crystal, I think that this is a very much neglected area of language learning.
I like that he uses interesting sentences and words for examples. Too often books on linguistics provide dull stilted examples.
While the author is British, the emphasis is universal. The British influence shows the most in the discussion of dialects.
The articles vary from being anecdotal to factually meaty. The chapters on vocabulary show how vocabulary is learned with great anecdotes and factual backup. Like Crystal, I think that this is a very much neglected area of language learning.
I like that he uses interesting sentences and words for examples. Too often books on linguistics provide dull stilted examples.
April 27, 2025
4.5/5
This has been my bible for nearly two months. Roughly every other day, I would pick it up and read a couple of the short chapters (of which there are 73 in total). Ranging in anatomical analysis on how spoken language is produced, to analyses on language structures and their relationships, to language death and how we can (and should!) prevent such cultural decay from happening.
The latter subject was what initially got me interested in this book. I read the 52nd chapter on 'How languages dies' a couple of years ago as a piece of research in university for an essay I was writing on that exact topic. Two years later, I finally bought the whole book and sought after everything Crystal had to say on the topic of language.
I could write feature articles or essays responding to and interacting with the various areas of language Crystal covers in this book—I flagged more than 30 sections and my pen has annotated countless pages throughout! To keep this short(ish) and readable, I will just highlight a couple of moments.
On the subject of language death, Crystal writes, "A language dies only when the last person who speaks it dies. Or perhaps it dies when the second-last person who speaks it dies, for then there is no one left to talk to" (p.336) I think this speaks to the cultural identity and humanity of languages that Crystal emphasises throughout the book. When people are asked, "what are languages for?", they typically say something like, "to communicate information". This feels so disconnected to me. Perhaps it's an increasing symptom of living in a computer world but if we think just a little deeper, language is used for much more than "to communicate information" to one another. We use language to express emotion, to play with each other (through jokes, and stories), to express our individuality, and more! We aren't computers, we shouldn't want to be (although that's another conversation for another day *cough* Neuralink *cough*).
In the chapter on how vocabulary grows, Crystal briefly references the etymological fallacy. This is a common view in which an older or original meaning of a word is stated as being the true or correct meaning. It's a view I've personally encountered through arguments or other readings which absolutely grinds my gears. Almost every word has changed meaning throughout history and origins of words are almost impossible to come by. The disregard to a word's change is entirely arbitrary and only invoked in order to justify (usually a weak) position.
I simply adore this book. There were some chapters which got stuck into areas which don't interest me as much but I was still happy to go along for the ride. I easily see myself coming back to this as a reference book and perhaps inspiration for more of my own writing in this wheelhouse we call language <3
This has been my bible for nearly two months. Roughly every other day, I would pick it up and read a couple of the short chapters (of which there are 73 in total). Ranging in anatomical analysis on how spoken language is produced, to analyses on language structures and their relationships, to language death and how we can (and should!) prevent such cultural decay from happening.
The latter subject was what initially got me interested in this book. I read the 52nd chapter on 'How languages dies' a couple of years ago as a piece of research in university for an essay I was writing on that exact topic. Two years later, I finally bought the whole book and sought after everything Crystal had to say on the topic of language.
I could write feature articles or essays responding to and interacting with the various areas of language Crystal covers in this book—I flagged more than 30 sections and my pen has annotated countless pages throughout! To keep this short(ish) and readable, I will just highlight a couple of moments.
On the subject of language death, Crystal writes, "A language dies only when the last person who speaks it dies. Or perhaps it dies when the second-last person who speaks it dies, for then there is no one left to talk to" (p.336) I think this speaks to the cultural identity and humanity of languages that Crystal emphasises throughout the book. When people are asked, "what are languages for?", they typically say something like, "to communicate information". This feels so disconnected to me. Perhaps it's an increasing symptom of living in a computer world but if we think just a little deeper, language is used for much more than "to communicate information" to one another. We use language to express emotion, to play with each other (through jokes, and stories), to express our individuality, and more! We aren't computers, we shouldn't want to be (although that's another conversation for another day *cough* Neuralink *cough*).
In the chapter on how vocabulary grows, Crystal briefly references the etymological fallacy. This is a common view in which an older or original meaning of a word is stated as being the true or correct meaning. It's a view I've personally encountered through arguments or other readings which absolutely grinds my gears. Almost every word has changed meaning throughout history and origins of words are almost impossible to come by. The disregard to a word's change is entirely arbitrary and only invoked in order to justify (usually a weak) position.
I simply adore this book. There were some chapters which got stuck into areas which don't interest me as much but I was still happy to go along for the ride. I easily see myself coming back to this as a reference book and perhaps inspiration for more of my own writing in this wheelhouse we call language <3
May 18, 2019
This meaty book took me a couple of months to read, but it is a fantastic introduction into the world of linguistics. It provides a brief overview of all the possible avenues of study that a linguist can pursue, from the "hard science" side (the physics, neuroscience, and anatomy of how we actually generate sounds/words/thoughts/etc.) to the "arts" side (the human impact of different levels of formality, tones of voice in speech and writing, etc.). In about 70 chapters, David Crystal introduces subject after subject pertaining to linguistics, reinforcing the central theme of his concluding chapter: Without language, we would have no other knowledge. Language underpins all other forms of academic and cultural pursuit.
As an English major who has spent years arguing (usually good-naturedly) with my engineering/physics-majoring relatives about the validity of my course of study, I found this book deeply gratifying and validating (I always was more of a linguist than a literature student at heart anyway).
From a content and structure perspective, this book is almost a tease. Crystal tackles the nigh-impossible task of giving an overview of language and linguistics as a whole without making the book 3,000 pages long (which, frankly, is probably a vast underestimate). He essentially "dabbles" in subjects that can (and have) had entire books written about them, from the structure of the ear and the miracle of sound waves to the language-development process of babies to the anthropological evidence of language families to the wide range of uses of language in a variety of social contexts. Given the constraints of writing a broad-spectrum overview, he skims the surface of each topic, providing only cursory examples and illustrations.
As an introduction, it's excellent, but it is by no means comprehensive, and it invites further study by piquing a budding linguist's interest in a variety of topics. I'm glad I restarted my linguistic study with this one. Now on to the pile of other linguistic books sitting on my to-read list.
As an English major who has spent years arguing (usually good-naturedly) with my engineering/physics-majoring relatives about the validity of my course of study, I found this book deeply gratifying and validating (I always was more of a linguist than a literature student at heart anyway).
From a content and structure perspective, this book is almost a tease. Crystal tackles the nigh-impossible task of giving an overview of language and linguistics as a whole without making the book 3,000 pages long (which, frankly, is probably a vast underestimate). He essentially "dabbles" in subjects that can (and have) had entire books written about them, from the structure of the ear and the miracle of sound waves to the language-development process of babies to the anthropological evidence of language families to the wide range of uses of language in a variety of social contexts. Given the constraints of writing a broad-spectrum overview, he skims the surface of each topic, providing only cursory examples and illustrations.
As an introduction, it's excellent, but it is by no means comprehensive, and it invites further study by piquing a budding linguist's interest in a variety of topics. I'm glad I restarted my linguistic study with this one. Now on to the pile of other linguistic books sitting on my to-read list.
February 5, 2021
Brilliant book. Cannot overstate how important the info is in here absolutely loved it.
November 23, 2023
Worth a read
March 13, 2023
By focusing on the "how" of language makes the book accessible and makes for lighter reading. Hi By reading this book, I was able to remember much of linguistic studies at university. By starting my 2023 study of All Things Language with this book, I feel as though I have just gone through a brain warmup.
There is plenty of opportunity to go down rabbit paths, discovering topics of interests and picking up buddy reads. One option I have for a buddy read: by .
Next: a memoir by .
There is plenty of opportunity to go down rabbit paths, discovering topics of interests and picking up buddy reads. One option I have for a buddy read: by .
Next: a memoir by .
August 18, 2019
How Language Works is a masterful book on everything related to language. Author David Crystal’s specialty is in the English language, but that doesn’t mean he can’t tell us about other aspects of language acquisition. Each chapter is a self-contained section with references to other sections. While you can read the book from cover-to-cover, it is also possible to explore the different sections and find information on a particular item you might be interested in. This particular feature gives the book a good steady clip that makes it go by quickly.
When I say the book is a masterful account, I mean it covers everything. It goes into sign language, the brain structures that formulate and understand language, how the positions of the mouth structures translate into different sounds, the basic idea of how to write down different sounds, and a lot more. I would consider the book to be exhaustive without being tiring.
The book has images and illustrations that clearly show the anatomical structures related to speech and hearing and so on. Charts and tables display the phonetic alphabet and other language-related things.
I really enjoyed the book. I didn’t find it to be lacking or missing any information at all. Then again, I am not a linguist and can’t really say that with any level of confidence.
When I say the book is a masterful account, I mean it covers everything. It goes into sign language, the brain structures that formulate and understand language, how the positions of the mouth structures translate into different sounds, the basic idea of how to write down different sounds, and a lot more. I would consider the book to be exhaustive without being tiring.
The book has images and illustrations that clearly show the anatomical structures related to speech and hearing and so on. Charts and tables display the phonetic alphabet and other language-related things.
I really enjoyed the book. I didn’t find it to be lacking or missing any information at all. Then again, I am not a linguist and can’t really say that with any level of confidence.
March 4, 2010
This is an interesting and easy to read book. The chapters do not need to be read consecutively, each is a self-contained essay on some aspect of language.
I had hardly started the book, when it started me on an observational quest for an "Eyebrow Flash". I got one that same night from the ticket seller when I went to see a movie. Here is what the book says on page 7:
"Some visual effects are widely used in the cultures of the world. An example is the EYEBROW FLASH, used unconsciously when people approach each other and wish to show that they are ready to make social contact. Each person performs a single upward movement of the eyebrows, keeping them raised for about a sixth of a second. The effect is so automatic that we are hardly ever conscious of it. But we become uneasy if we do not receive an eyebrow flash when we expect one (from someone we know); and to receive an eyebrow flash from someone we do not know can be uncomfortable, embarrassing, or even threatening."
I had hardly started the book, when it started me on an observational quest for an "Eyebrow Flash". I got one that same night from the ticket seller when I went to see a movie. Here is what the book says on page 7:
"Some visual effects are widely used in the cultures of the world. An example is the EYEBROW FLASH, used unconsciously when people approach each other and wish to show that they are ready to make social contact. Each person performs a single upward movement of the eyebrows, keeping them raised for about a sixth of a second. The effect is so automatic that we are hardly ever conscious of it. But we become uneasy if we do not receive an eyebrow flash when we expect one (from someone we know); and to receive an eyebrow flash from someone we do not know can be uncomfortable, embarrassing, or even threatening."
September 11, 2012
I would almost think about rating this book 4 stars (and then buying a copy), but there were several chapters that were extra informative (the type that makes me sleepy) and slightly fluffy. However, I very much enjoyed what I did learn regarding basic linguistic concepts, the many facets of cultural communication, what we know about how the brain works in constructing language flow (verbal, written, physical, etc) and the plethora of other connect-the-dots type of information (73 chapters worth). I'm just getting into learning about linguistics and this was my first book. Overall, even though I whimsically grabbed it from off the shelf at the library, I feel that my time was well spent while reading it.
July 27, 2022
This book played a major role in my decision to study linguistics at university so I feel I should say something about it. While it's been many years since I read it, I remember it being very well-written and easy to understand even for a 15 year old that had no background in the subject. It makes linguistics fun and interesting which can be hard to do (looking at you morphosyntax <3). There are no complicated theories but there is still a tremendous amount of information and I would recommend this book to anyone curious about the science of language. I would also like to thrust this book into the hands of every person who replies to my statement of "I'm a linguist" with "How many languages do you speak?".
January 17, 2021
I picked this up because I've read some of Crystal's work before (and am interested in linguistics, of course), but I have to say that it seems to me a bit more dry than some of his other work.
He sets himself the monumental task to provide the reader with a massive amount of anything related to language, and while that means there is a lot to be learned from this book, it also means that the discussion of the many topics can, by necessity, be a bit shallow at times. Nevertheless, this book summarizes a large chunk of my linguistic university education, and is probably a good reference for when you need a refresher on one topic or another.
He sets himself the monumental task to provide the reader with a massive amount of anything related to language, and while that means there is a lot to be learned from this book, it also means that the discussion of the many topics can, by necessity, be a bit shallow at times. Nevertheless, this book summarizes a large chunk of my linguistic university education, and is probably a good reference for when you need a refresher on one topic or another.
January 4, 2009
Though the writing style itself is good, the content is very generalized and introductory. This might make a reasonable introductory text for a linguistics course, but did not really hold my interest. Even the section on language families, which was of greatest interest to me, lacked the basics of an actual diagram showing the inter-relationships of the language families. Instead, Crystal includes multiple chapters of prose, one family following the other. Disappointing.
September 5, 2018
I found this book somewhat disappointing.
Since the author is clearly one of the top dudes in the language business, it seems not unreasonable to expect its accurate use in a work of his. It's a little unnerving, therefore, to read on the flyleaf that he “received the Order of the British Empire�*.
Fortunately, this sloppiness does not extend to the interior of the book (although prescriptivists may be irritated by words such as “mediums�, and I had a few uneasy twinges even apart from that. When the author says that small communities can easily be decimated or wiped out [p. 337], does he mean reduced by a tenth, or to a tenth? The context seems to imply the latter.)
The organization is logical, systematic, and well thought out. In fact, since we learn things by organizing them in our minds rather than by ingesting them in unstructured lumps, the layout of the book and the clear explanations of terminology are themselves useful learning tools.
Nevertheless, despite all the expertise and careful organization, the impression I got at the start of this book was of facts dumped on to the page the way a trashcan is emptied into a garbage truck; or � more to the point � the way a schoolboy told to write an essay on the Canadian Redwood dumps the relevant contents of his encyclopædia. Assertions are made with a sort of stolid incuriosity about the reasons for them that I would normally ascribe either to a dull mind, or to total disinterest in the subject matter. Since presumably neither of these can apply here, I assumed there must be a third reason that escaped me.
For instance, in the chapter on childhood language acquisition (How We Learn Grammar), we’re told that it can take several years before errors such as “Are we going on the bus home?� are eliminated [p. 257]. What we’re not told is why this is considered an error: if “Are we going on the bus tomorrow?� is alright, why should the first sentence not be?
Likewise, we learn that “a few advanced constructions are not acquired until the early school years, e.g. the use of ‘some� vs. ‘any� [...] or the use of ‘hardly� or ‘scarcely� �. But there is no explanation of why these constructions are considered advanced � which in fact they are, having whole sections to themselves in books that teach English as a Second Language. Remember, the title of this book is How Language Works!
We’re told that backward-looking coreference relationships are known as ‘anaphoric� and forward-looking ones as ‘cataphoric�, but not why; and after all, you can’t expect every reader to be a classical scholar!
“I’ve got a pencil. Do you have one?� This is given as an example of substitution, but it seems decidedly strange to me, being neither British (as is the author) nor American: I would expect either “I’ve got a pencil. Have you got one?� or “I have a pencil. Do you have one?� (cf. “do� in ). But the author passes over this without remark, so perhaps it’s just me.
The traditional Clause Analysis, that those of us who are old enough had to suffer through in school, is described; but no explanation is given of why this is now considered unsatisfactory or inadequate. A couple of references are made in passing to Chomsky, but none that sheds any light on his work, which (let’s face it) is as opaque to most people as Quantum Chromodynamics.
And so on.
More generally, topics are abandoned just when they’re getting interesting. For instance, we learn [p. 288] that the character of a person’s voice can affect the way in which a jury judges the credibility of what is said; but then the discussion veers off in another direction. So perhaps everything is simply the result of trying to cram too much into a single book.
It really started to come into focus for me when the author moved on from grammar to the subject of different languages; and, in particular, how they live or die (I see that Professor Crystal is bilingual in English and Welsh, which may go some way towards explaining this). From this point on, I found the material far more engaging, although still disappointingly brief. Fortunately, there is an interesting-looking list of further reading.
Summary
So all in all, I would say this book is worth reading: the author is clearly an expert; compresses into a reasonable space a large amount of material not easily found elsewhere; and writes more than serviceably.
But if you haven’t read any books on language before, I would still recommend Steven Pinker’s (with its very clear exposition of language acquisition, among many other things) first. And his would be a strong contender for second.
*For those unfamiliar with the arcane British honours system, the Order is an organization, and one can no more receive it than one can receive the Internal Revenue Service. One may be made a Member of it (M.B.E.), or, as in Professor Crystal’s case, an Officer of it (O.B.E.), etc.
Since the author is clearly one of the top dudes in the language business, it seems not unreasonable to expect its accurate use in a work of his. It's a little unnerving, therefore, to read on the flyleaf that he “received the Order of the British Empire�*.
Fortunately, this sloppiness does not extend to the interior of the book (although prescriptivists may be irritated by words such as “mediums�, and I had a few uneasy twinges even apart from that. When the author says that small communities can easily be decimated or wiped out [p. 337], does he mean reduced by a tenth, or to a tenth? The context seems to imply the latter.)
The organization is logical, systematic, and well thought out. In fact, since we learn things by organizing them in our minds rather than by ingesting them in unstructured lumps, the layout of the book and the clear explanations of terminology are themselves useful learning tools.
Nevertheless, despite all the expertise and careful organization, the impression I got at the start of this book was of facts dumped on to the page the way a trashcan is emptied into a garbage truck; or � more to the point � the way a schoolboy told to write an essay on the Canadian Redwood dumps the relevant contents of his encyclopædia. Assertions are made with a sort of stolid incuriosity about the reasons for them that I would normally ascribe either to a dull mind, or to total disinterest in the subject matter. Since presumably neither of these can apply here, I assumed there must be a third reason that escaped me.
For instance, in the chapter on childhood language acquisition (How We Learn Grammar), we’re told that it can take several years before errors such as “Are we going on the bus home?� are eliminated [p. 257]. What we’re not told is why this is considered an error: if “Are we going on the bus tomorrow?� is alright, why should the first sentence not be?
Likewise, we learn that “a few advanced constructions are not acquired until the early school years, e.g. the use of ‘some� vs. ‘any� [...] or the use of ‘hardly� or ‘scarcely� �. But there is no explanation of why these constructions are considered advanced � which in fact they are, having whole sections to themselves in books that teach English as a Second Language. Remember, the title of this book is How Language Works!
We’re told that backward-looking coreference relationships are known as ‘anaphoric� and forward-looking ones as ‘cataphoric�, but not why; and after all, you can’t expect every reader to be a classical scholar!
“I’ve got a pencil. Do you have one?� This is given as an example of substitution, but it seems decidedly strange to me, being neither British (as is the author) nor American: I would expect either “I’ve got a pencil. Have you got one?� or “I have a pencil. Do you have one?� (cf. “do� in ). But the author passes over this without remark, so perhaps it’s just me.
The traditional Clause Analysis, that those of us who are old enough had to suffer through in school, is described; but no explanation is given of why this is now considered unsatisfactory or inadequate. A couple of references are made in passing to Chomsky, but none that sheds any light on his work, which (let’s face it) is as opaque to most people as Quantum Chromodynamics.
And so on.
More generally, topics are abandoned just when they’re getting interesting. For instance, we learn [p. 288] that the character of a person’s voice can affect the way in which a jury judges the credibility of what is said; but then the discussion veers off in another direction. So perhaps everything is simply the result of trying to cram too much into a single book.
It really started to come into focus for me when the author moved on from grammar to the subject of different languages; and, in particular, how they live or die (I see that Professor Crystal is bilingual in English and Welsh, which may go some way towards explaining this). From this point on, I found the material far more engaging, although still disappointingly brief. Fortunately, there is an interesting-looking list of further reading.
Summary
So all in all, I would say this book is worth reading: the author is clearly an expert; compresses into a reasonable space a large amount of material not easily found elsewhere; and writes more than serviceably.
But if you haven’t read any books on language before, I would still recommend Steven Pinker’s (with its very clear exposition of language acquisition, among many other things) first. And his would be a strong contender for second.
*For those unfamiliar with the arcane British honours system, the Order is an organization, and one can no more receive it than one can receive the Internal Revenue Service. One may be made a Member of it (M.B.E.), or, as in Professor Crystal’s case, an Officer of it (O.B.E.), etc.
October 30, 2023
Interesting and dull at the same time (or alternately, I suppose), in a sort of not-quite textbookish way, where if you're vastly interested in the subject then it could be interesting, and yet turn on a dime and bore you to tears on a quite similar subject.
I'm still trying to find a successor to Guy Deutscher's amazing The Unfolding of Language, about how languages change and evolve, so I leapt on Mr. Crystal's subtitle titbit of "words change meaning" and hoped this would be Deutscheresque, but no.
At times he could be quite irritating. Here's a direct quote, easier to read if you know that "FLL" equals Foreign Language Learning:
"FLL is becoming increasingly important as unemployment and reduced working hours add to people’s leisure time. Tourist travel is a major motivation, but many have come to find FLL a satisfying leisure activity in its own right, enabling them to have direct access to the world of foreign cinema, radio and television, vocal music, literature, and the history of ideas."
His point seems to be that if you're bored, having read and watched it all in your first language, a second language opens up new entertainment options. Which is hardly the same thing as "a satisfying leisure activity in its own right," which you could say about model railroad building, gardening, or spying on neighbours. If it's satisying in its own right, don't explain why, that undecuts "in its own right." This sort of writing that would just slightly rub me the wrong way popped up often enough that I thought it deserved mention.
This book really aims to cover it all: from Anatomy to Zulu (a Bantu language). I know a lot about Bantu and other languages because sometimes (often) Crystal moves from precise to pedantic ... it's interesting to learn there are a lot of languages in the world, sometimes spoken by few people. But if I'm never going to remember something (e.g. the number of people who speak such-and-such a language that I never heard of before and will never hear of again) there's no need to tell. Throw in a chart that indicates the relative reach of languages (bar one: # of languages spoken by 1-1000, bar two: # spoken by 1000 - 10,000, etc.) and it sums up the information for you in a way droning on for pages can't do. And I might recall the chart takeaway, but no one (honestly, no one) could possibly assimilate all the information on the various languages, he really lost me there.
And why write a book if those who read it can't possibly remember it? To entertain, I suppose, but this isn't an entertaining book. For future reference, sure (which is why it's textbook like) though thanks to the Internet there are better ways to look up the individual facts. Anyway, intermittently interesting.
There were moments where I wondered if I'd read the book before, some of his examples seemed so familiar, but perhaps they are familiar famous examples to linguists and everyone uses them. Certainly I didn't remember having read the very very dull bits before, so I assume this was my first read.
He also has an English (language) bias, and very much a UK bias, as if he felt assured that only Brits would be reading this book. He'll talk about education, child-rearing, etc., and it's always UK education, UK child-rearing, UK etc., unless he makes a point of differentiating. It's a bit offputting given how many English speakers there are (and he knows how many) to have it presumed all English speakers will be from the same few small islands west of Europe. We're not. I try to just giggle, as when he says mothers reading to their children might mention the "full stop." Not in my part of the world, where we call it a "period," in the unlikely event we point it out to our children (well, maybe baby pointed and asked).
Oh, he's also a bit bossy even when decrying bossy people with their bossy rules. He particularly dislikes it when, say, a Lynne Trusse type will write an exceptionally entertaining and popular book pointing out punctuation issues. He says it's not worth bothering about because those mistakes don't actually confuse people. I'm here to say loud and clear "They confuse me!" I'm terribly literal and don't tolerate ambiguity well, I'm likely neurodiverse in some way. If I see "In the 1970's London was diverse and growing" my brain doesn't automatically rewrite this to "in the 1970s London was diverse and growing," no, my brain expects something like "in the 1970's London was a short-lived market stall" and I grow tense searching for the noun phrase which never comes. It's the same for bad grammar, even aurally, since I also (so much fun) have an auditory discrimination disorder, thus I will always wonder if they did say that or if I just misheard it. So please, world, keep trying to stick to the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation standards, for people like me who need them. (That doesn't make my spelling and punctuation perfect, I'm still human, but I try!)
In summary: I liked it when I liked it, and was bored and irritated when I was bored and irritated.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
I'm still trying to find a successor to Guy Deutscher's amazing The Unfolding of Language, about how languages change and evolve, so I leapt on Mr. Crystal's subtitle titbit of "words change meaning" and hoped this would be Deutscheresque, but no.
At times he could be quite irritating. Here's a direct quote, easier to read if you know that "FLL" equals Foreign Language Learning:
"FLL is becoming increasingly important as unemployment and reduced working hours add to people’s leisure time. Tourist travel is a major motivation, but many have come to find FLL a satisfying leisure activity in its own right, enabling them to have direct access to the world of foreign cinema, radio and television, vocal music, literature, and the history of ideas."
His point seems to be that if you're bored, having read and watched it all in your first language, a second language opens up new entertainment options. Which is hardly the same thing as "a satisfying leisure activity in its own right," which you could say about model railroad building, gardening, or spying on neighbours. If it's satisying in its own right, don't explain why, that undecuts "in its own right." This sort of writing that would just slightly rub me the wrong way popped up often enough that I thought it deserved mention.
This book really aims to cover it all: from Anatomy to Zulu (a Bantu language). I know a lot about Bantu and other languages because sometimes (often) Crystal moves from precise to pedantic ... it's interesting to learn there are a lot of languages in the world, sometimes spoken by few people. But if I'm never going to remember something (e.g. the number of people who speak such-and-such a language that I never heard of before and will never hear of again) there's no need to tell. Throw in a chart that indicates the relative reach of languages (bar one: # of languages spoken by 1-1000, bar two: # spoken by 1000 - 10,000, etc.) and it sums up the information for you in a way droning on for pages can't do. And I might recall the chart takeaway, but no one (honestly, no one) could possibly assimilate all the information on the various languages, he really lost me there.
And why write a book if those who read it can't possibly remember it? To entertain, I suppose, but this isn't an entertaining book. For future reference, sure (which is why it's textbook like) though thanks to the Internet there are better ways to look up the individual facts. Anyway, intermittently interesting.
There were moments where I wondered if I'd read the book before, some of his examples seemed so familiar, but perhaps they are familiar famous examples to linguists and everyone uses them. Certainly I didn't remember having read the very very dull bits before, so I assume this was my first read.
He also has an English (language) bias, and very much a UK bias, as if he felt assured that only Brits would be reading this book. He'll talk about education, child-rearing, etc., and it's always UK education, UK child-rearing, UK etc., unless he makes a point of differentiating. It's a bit offputting given how many English speakers there are (and he knows how many) to have it presumed all English speakers will be from the same few small islands west of Europe. We're not. I try to just giggle, as when he says mothers reading to their children might mention the "full stop." Not in my part of the world, where we call it a "period," in the unlikely event we point it out to our children (well, maybe baby pointed and asked).
Oh, he's also a bit bossy even when decrying bossy people with their bossy rules. He particularly dislikes it when, say, a Lynne Trusse type will write an exceptionally entertaining and popular book pointing out punctuation issues. He says it's not worth bothering about because those mistakes don't actually confuse people. I'm here to say loud and clear "They confuse me!" I'm terribly literal and don't tolerate ambiguity well, I'm likely neurodiverse in some way. If I see "In the 1970's London was diverse and growing" my brain doesn't automatically rewrite this to "in the 1970s London was diverse and growing," no, my brain expects something like "in the 1970's London was a short-lived market stall" and I grow tense searching for the noun phrase which never comes. It's the same for bad grammar, even aurally, since I also (so much fun) have an auditory discrimination disorder, thus I will always wonder if they did say that or if I just misheard it. So please, world, keep trying to stick to the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation standards, for people like me who need them. (That doesn't make my spelling and punctuation perfect, I'm still human, but I try!)
In summary: I liked it when I liked it, and was bored and irritated when I was bored and irritated.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
June 20, 2016
A good introduction to languages and everything about them. I found the chapters on language families particularly interesting. As it is only a introduction, it does not go deeply into the specifics.
March 17, 2014
''Aren't you lovely!' said a man outside the window of a car showroom, unaware that a linguist was passing him at the time.'
73 pithy chapters giving an introduction to the many facets of language.
73 pithy chapters giving an introduction to the many facets of language.
July 10, 2016
Very interesting
Read
February 17, 2023DNF at 54%
March 7, 2023
I didn't intend to read this entire book but I ended up doing just that. It wasn't that it was particularly riveting, but once I got going, I just kept going.
There were a few lines that really struck me. Here is one from the chapter on How Vocabulary Grows:
"Most words have experienced several changes in meaning throughout their history, so that it is impossible to say which stage in their meaning is the 'true' meaning. And if we attempt to go back to the beginning', we find it is impossible, for the original history of most words is quite lost."
This line was important to me because I have spent a lot of time analyzing words in the Bible in search of their original or 'true' meaning. Though I know it's endless work, I still find it worthwhile.
"Studies show that people react more favourable to those who move linguistically closer to them." I read that line shortly after my husband told me that he often picks up the speech patterns of those he works closely with. It's fun when I can link what I'm reading to what I talk about in life.
Even the boring sections on the languages of the world had a couple interesting tidbits. I didn't know that New Guinea has so much multilingual diversity in such a small area. Also, Africa contains more languages than any other continent.
The author makes the case that it is important to protect languages, even those that are dying, because they are important for the intellectual and cultural diversity of the planet. The language contains a community's history and a large part of its cultural identity.
This book made me think more deeply about language and what it means to society. Though I don't intend to throw any money at the problem of dying languages, I see the author's point for why they should be preserved. I definitely have a different view of linguistics than I did before I read this book.
There were a few lines that really struck me. Here is one from the chapter on How Vocabulary Grows:
"Most words have experienced several changes in meaning throughout their history, so that it is impossible to say which stage in their meaning is the 'true' meaning. And if we attempt to go back to the beginning', we find it is impossible, for the original history of most words is quite lost."
This line was important to me because I have spent a lot of time analyzing words in the Bible in search of their original or 'true' meaning. Though I know it's endless work, I still find it worthwhile.
"Studies show that people react more favourable to those who move linguistically closer to them." I read that line shortly after my husband told me that he often picks up the speech patterns of those he works closely with. It's fun when I can link what I'm reading to what I talk about in life.
Even the boring sections on the languages of the world had a couple interesting tidbits. I didn't know that New Guinea has so much multilingual diversity in such a small area. Also, Africa contains more languages than any other continent.
The author makes the case that it is important to protect languages, even those that are dying, because they are important for the intellectual and cultural diversity of the planet. The language contains a community's history and a large part of its cultural identity.
This book made me think more deeply about language and what it means to society. Though I don't intend to throw any money at the problem of dying languages, I see the author's point for why they should be preserved. I definitely have a different view of linguistics than I did before I read this book.
December 26, 2018
I bought this book intending to read it before starting my master's degree in linguistics but due to lack of time I only started reading it as my course began. Since I'm coming from a biosciences and computational background and, hence, often found even the introductory classes confusing, this book proved to be a great "introduction to introduction" for many topics. In fact, so great that I would love to give it 5* were it not for two reasons:
1) I was reading it as an e-book and some typesetting and certain glyphs were clearly lacking which meant that parts of the book were unreadable, especially those concerning phonology. For example: "The remaining three back vowels are unrounded: [v], [v], and [w]" or "the strongly stressed words are underlined" (no words underlined)
2) the phonetic section in general could use a video/sound tie-in. As great a writer as Crystal is, some sounds that one had never heard, or paid attention to, before are very difficult to explain in writing and that meant I ended up having to scour youtube for examples which correctness I wasn't able to judge. A small selection of links to the material on the publisher's site would have provided a much clearer explanation.
I would also say that the chapters dealing with language families are a bit dry but do a good job at giving an idea about the number and diversity of languages spoken in the world.
As usual, Crystal shines when it comes to explaining anything related to language change and diversity. If you have an annoying grammar nazi in your immediate environment, consider gifting them this book ;)
1) I was reading it as an e-book and some typesetting and certain glyphs were clearly lacking which meant that parts of the book were unreadable, especially those concerning phonology. For example: "The remaining three back vowels are unrounded: [v], [v], and [w]" or "the strongly stressed words are underlined" (no words underlined)
2) the phonetic section in general could use a video/sound tie-in. As great a writer as Crystal is, some sounds that one had never heard, or paid attention to, before are very difficult to explain in writing and that meant I ended up having to scour youtube for examples which correctness I wasn't able to judge. A small selection of links to the material on the publisher's site would have provided a much clearer explanation.
I would also say that the chapters dealing with language families are a bit dry but do a good job at giving an idea about the number and diversity of languages spoken in the world.
As usual, Crystal shines when it comes to explaining anything related to language change and diversity. If you have an annoying grammar nazi in your immediate environment, consider gifting them this book ;)
March 4, 2021
Despite being about a subject I find highly interesting, this book, for me, was somewhat disappointing. I found the writing rather dry and had a hard time maintaining interest. I think the problem is that the book is too much of an overview and does not go deep enough into each topic. For example, there's a sizeable section near the end on language families. I was excited to get to that part because I love learning about the similarities between various languages and how they are related. What this book provided, instead, was just a long list of language families along with lists of the various languages that comprise each family. Nowhere was the grammar and vocabulary discussed. Ever. Nothing to make these languages, many of which I had never heard of, come alive for me. Just the name of the language and the name of the family to which it belongs. Other sections of the book suffer from the same problem. Too much surface information and not enough deep knowledge.
July 1, 2024
This book was interesting, but it just seemed to go on forever and about so many different things. It was over 500 pages long, with over 75 chapters, very few of which were actually connected with each other. It almost went into the category of books that do like 100 things about X that I always hate because I can't remember anything. This was almost that but not quite because each chapter was sufficiently long and detailed that I remembered things from one week to the next. But anyway, the chapters of this were neither short enough that you wanted to read multiple of them at a time nor long enough to get you through a 500 page book in a reasonable amount of time, and I've been reading this book since January. Anyway, it kept my attention from January and I think I still remember some of the things I learned back then, so that's good. I think it just tried to do too much.
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