Books › Through the language glass
Through the language glass
320 pages
A witty, mind-bending tour through the hidden ways our mother tongues sculpt our perception of reality.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting in on a masterclass taught by your favorite, most eccentric professor. It is an intellectually exhilarating ride that moves at a brisk, engaging clip, effortlessly blending nineteenth-century historical blunders with cutting-edge cognitive science. The mood is one of constant, joyful illumination, inviting you to look at the everyday act of speaking through a completely new lens. Deutscher's prose is wry and accessible, stripping the pretension from academic linguistics while maintaining a deep respect for the complexity of human culture. It delights in the weirdness of grammar and vocabulary, making you hyper-aware of your own thoughts. Perfect for language nerds and curious minds, it leaves you with a lingering, expansive awe for the invisible architecture of the words we use every day.
- Mood
- illuminating
- intellectually stimulating
- expansive
- Tone
- wry
- erudite
- playful
- inquisitive
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the hidden architecture of thought · cultural relativity · the limits of perception · the evolution of human communication
- The writing
- Witty, accessible, and elegantly structured, turning dense academic history into a lively, conversational narrative.
- The arc
- Begins with playful historical curiosities and builds to a profound, paradigm-shifting awe at the diversity of human cognition.
- Who it's for
- Language enthusiasts and armchair anthropologists who love having their fundamental assumptions about the world gently dismantled.
Content notes
- discussions of historical racism
- outdated 19th-century anthropological views
About the book
This book confronts the thorny question of how and whether culture shapes language and language, culture. Linguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even bigoted) chatter about the romance of Italian and the goose-stepping orderliness of German has made serious thinkers wary of the entire subject. But now, acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher has dared to reopen the issue. Can culture influence languageand vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Could our experience of the world depend on whether our language has a word for "blue"? Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are hard-wired in our genes and thus universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to all these questions isyes. In thrilling fashion, he takes us from Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, from how to name the rainbow to why Russian water -- a "she" -- becomes a "he" once you dip a tea bag into her, demonstrating that language does in fact reflect culture in ways that are anything but trivial. Audacious, delightful, and field-changing, Through the Language Glass is a classic of intellectual discovery. - Publisher.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Through the language glass
See why they match
How Language WorksDavid CrystalA delightful, eye-opening tour through the invisible architecture of the words we use every day.
The Unfolding of LanguageGuy DeutscherA fascinating archaeological dig into the words we use every day, revealing the hidden forces of destruction and creation that shape human communication.
The Stuff of ThoughtSteven PinkerA witty, mind-expanding deep dive into the hidden cognitive machinery behind the words we use every day.
Because InternetGretchen McCullochA joyful, validating deep dive into the hidden grammar and vibrant evolution of our digital lives.
Language, thought, and realityBenjamin Lee WhorfA mind-bending, foundational exploration of how the grammar we speak builds the universe we perceive.
The Language InstinctSteven PinkerA witty, mind-expanding journey into the biological machinery that makes human communication possible.