<p>Thanks to posts by so many on the “Good Reads about Math” thread, S has gotten and will be getting more good books about math. He’s also interested in languages, and with a friend, has been constructing a new one, just for fun. This is a kid who will sit in the bathroom for 40 minutes perusing a textbook on Hungarian, who purchased a couple of old German texts from the used book store, who taught himself the Greek alphabet when he was barely (maybe not even) out of diapers. </p>
<p>He’s read (some years ago now) Woe is I and Eats Shoots and Leaves, and enjoyed them. What other books about language and linguistics might be good reads for such a kid as mine?</p>
<p>Proust and the Squid isn’t exactly about linguistics, but it’s about how people learn to read, what goes wrong when they don’t, and how reading has changed our society and the ways in which we use our brains.</p>
<p>owlice- I thought you were writing about my son when I read your post- right down to the Hungarian. How in the world did these boys stumble upon Hungarian? How old is your son and what schools is he looking at? It’s too bad the National Vocabuary Contest was discontinued this year, your son would have enjoyed that. He has a ton of books about Linguistics and Languages so when he gets home I’ll have him list a few. It’s nice to know he isn’t the only with rather “unique” interests!</p>
<p>My S enjoyed Nicholas Ostler, *Empires of the Word: A Language History of the Word<a href=“N.Y.:%20Harper’s,%202006”>/i</a>. We got treated to snippets on car trips.</p>
<p>The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker is a good popular-science-writing type of intro to linguistics. Haven’t read Woe is I or Eats Shoots and Leaves, but it sounds like those might be more prescriptivist (read: anathema to linguists), while The Language Instinct would be a good intro to the more descriptivist mode actual linguistics uses.</p>
<p>I second the Language Instinct–it’s the book that started me on the road to a Linguistics major. Great stuff. And pseudonym has it right–Linguistics as a field generally disapproves of prescriptivist stuff like “Eats Shoots and Leaves”. </p>
<p>If he’s into the more cognitive-science side of linguistics, Oliver Sacks is a neurologist who’s written some great books–including Seeing Voices, which centers a lot on the perceptual bases of sign languages. </p>
<p>I’ve also heard good things about George Lakoff’s “Metaphors we Live By” (though I haven’t yet gotten around to reading it). The topic is a fascinating one.</p>
<p>Not really about language/linguistics, but I liked Reading Palestine by Ami Ayalon which talks about the impact of literacy on Palestinian society during the first half of the 20th century.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed *The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language *
by John Mcwhorter. He talks a lot about how languages change and evolve and develop dialects. </p>
<p>Roy Blount Jr. has a book which sounds interesting, but I’ve only read the NYT review. It’s called Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, … With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory. I love him on “Wait, Wait don’t tell me…”</p>
<p>Pretty sure Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue has been around for a bit, since I remember reading it in middle school, so it’s been around since at least 1999 I definitely enjoyed it a lot at the time, but it has a HUGE number of factual errors. So while I really wish I could recommend it just for how entertaining the writing is, it’s wrong to an extent and frequency that’s really embarrassing.</p>
<p>is still in print. It’s very entertaining and has lots of references to legitimate linguistics journal literature. I read it just before I started college, and it helped me with several of my courses.</p>
<p>I was going to recommend The Mother Tongue which I read ages and ages ago, until I read the reviews about how many errors it had!</p>
<p>The woman who wrote Woe is I and Words Send Me, is on the Leonard Lopate show (WNYC) about once a month. She’s not overly dogmatic in that she recognizes that rules change. She also answers her e-mail which is nice. :)</p>
<p>I third (fourth? fifth?) The Language Instinct. It’s great. Also Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals by Neil Smith is a good introduction to Chomskyan syntax. I-language by Isac & Reiss is interesting as well. </p>
<p>If you’re interested in phonetics, Vowels and Consonants by Peter Ladefoged is a good introduction to the field.</p>
<p>For philosophy of language and semantics, anything by Fodor. Fodor is tough to read, and I don’t agree with some of what he says, but he’s a major figure in linguistics and his contribution to the field of semantics has been huge. </p>
<p>Edited to add: if you want the non-Chomskyan view of language, Educating Eve by Geoffrey Sampson is worth a look. It was written in direct response to The Language Instinct. It’s got alot of flaws imo, but it is worth reading anyway, because sometimes it’s assumed that the Chomskyan view is the only one out there, and this book is an example of a different approach to language.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I bought the newest edition of the OED as a Christmas present for
my H. As a result, I got into reading about the creation of OED. Two books that I enjoyed were: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. The other was Lynda Mugglestone–Lost for Words.</p>
<p>Thank you all! I have my Amazon cart stuffed now, and will have to sit down with the ol’ budget to see just how many of these I can afford!!! It’s lovely to have so many great choices!</p>
I definitely enjoyed it a lot at the time, but it has a HUGE number of factual errors. So while I really wish I could recommend it just for how entertaining the writing is, it’s wrong to an extent and frequency that’s really embarrassing.</p>