The Power of Babel: A Natural History of LanguageHarper Collins, 7. jan. 2003 - 352 sider There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects. |
Innhold
| 1 | |
| 15 | |
The Six Thousand Languages Develop | 53 |
The Thousands of Dialects Mix | 93 |
Some Languages Are Crushed to Powder | 131 |
The Thousands of Dialects of Thousands | 177 |
Some Languages Get Genetically Altered | 217 |
Most of the Worlds Languages | 253 |
of Adam and Eve | 287 |
Notes | 305 |
Index | 319 |
Andre utgaver - Vis alle
The Power Of Babel: A Natural History of Language John McWhorter Ingen forhåndsvisning tilgjengelig - 2011 |
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language John H. McWhorter Ingen forhåndsvisning tilgjengelig - 2003 |
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language John H. McWhorter Ingen forhåndsvisning tilgjengelig - 2002 |
Vanlige uttrykk og setninger
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