num_pages: 368
description: Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced degrees of meaning?Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves, and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early "Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings.
language: English
title: The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
titlecomplete: The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
genres: Linguistics, Language, History, Popular Science, Cultural, Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, Evolution, Anthropology
ratings_count: 3643
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Susanne K. Langer Award
category: Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form
publisher: Holt Paperbacks