The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
by Guy Deutscher
Rating: 5.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2023-01-02
A playful and hands-on investigation of how complex grammatical language might have evolved. After reading, I can’t look at a phrase or word without wondering how it came to be.
Summary of chapters:
1 a castle in the air Language is simultaneously (1) sophisticated, expressive and (2) absurd, full of dumb rules
2 perpetual motion Language changes all the time. At any given time, multiple variations coexist (ee-ther eye-ther, wicked)
3 the forces of destruction We move to easier pronunciation We have intensity inflation for meaning
4 a reef of dead metaphors All abstract words trace their etymology back to something concrete Many languages use similar metaphors (“have” traces back to “hold” or “grab”)
5 the forces of creation set phrases get compacted into standalone words
6 craving for order back-formation results in new words
7 the unfolding of language a worked example where he develops a story from “me tarzan” style all the way to modern grammar using phenomenon from previous chapters