Be Specific About Books To The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
| Original Title: | The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way |
| ISBN: | 0380715430 (ISBN13: 9780380715435) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Bill Bryson
Paperback | Pages: 270 pages Rating: 3.93 | 33492 Users | 2586 Reviews
Interpretation Conducive To Books The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson—the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent—brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries.
Define Regarding Books The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
| Title | : | The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way |
| Author | : | Bill Bryson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 270 pages |
| Published | : | September 28th 1991 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published July 17th 1990) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Humanities. Language. Linguistics. Humor. Travel. Writing |
Rating Regarding Books The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
Ratings: 3.93 From 33492 Users | 2586 ReviewsEvaluation Regarding Books The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
English is one crazy language. As a person who is not a native speaker, this book is very insightful in terms of how the most globalized language developed (and is still developing). It is similar with how history's made, there were wars, migrations, proliferation of mass media, the making of dictionaries, public figures making their own linguistic marks (and complete fools of themselves), class and regional divisions, and so on and so forth. Bryson is a funny guy. I think I have read at least1★ (DNF)I thought this would be fun. I love words and languages and have a passing interest in linguistics. I started this with enthusiasm and was enjoying his breezy style until it occurred to me that a lot of what he was saying seemed to be anecdotal. You know, limited or no research. Then I thought, well, it was written more than 25 years ago, so things that sounded like old stories to me may have been new stories then like this one: The Eskimos, as is well known, have fifty words for types
The Mother Tongue is the story of the evolution of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a Germanic tongue to what it has evolved into over the centuries.So, Bill Bryson + cheap equals insta-buy for me, apparently. Too bad even Bill Bryson couldn't make this terribly entertaining.I have a long history as "the obscure facts guy" at social gatherings, at least, I did when people still invited me to such things. However, even I had trouble sticking with this one at times.Old Bill is
I have to share my discontent with the world after keeping the words bottled up inside me for so long.I bought this book about two or three years ago, thinking it might be an entertaining read that might fill me in on some of the historical aspects of the English language. I had already read "A Short History Of Nearly Everything", and, knowing nothing about science, thought it was a rather entertaining read, even though I had some... well, doubts about the book since I tend to favour more
Bryson's book on the English language is a compendium of linguistic trivia interspersed with the author's biased and misinformed musings on the history and features of the language. Published in 1990, the book was written before Internet changed the way the world communicates and hence a lot of the content regarding the spread of languages is hopelessly outdated by now.Bryson is not a linguist, neither is he a historian. Therefore his attempts to explain the popularity and status of English as
Sorry Mr Bryson, but as a historical linguist of English myself, I cannot take this book seriously. There are simply too many mistakes that have no place in a well-researched book. The subject matter is not that hard, so I can only guess "The Mother Tongue" was written in such a hurry that you only consulted one or two sources, where it should have been five or six. The history of English is not something you learn from reading one textbook; there is a lot of ongoing research and debate. And
Why was this book even published? There are so many errors, inaccuracies, misconceptions, misunderstandings and whatnot, I don't even know where to begin. (And I'm not even a linguist.)All of this makes me question all the other "facts" I don't know anything about, I simply don't know if I've learned more about them from reading this book.The Acknowledgements of the book mentions several people, but I hope for their sake that he didn't follow their advice. Otherwise they should receive a
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.