Set of 3 audio CDs about human language. 36 lectures. #greatcourses #language #audio #teachingcompany

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New York

Social Studies

"I never met a person who is not interested in language," wrote the bestselling author and psychologist Steven Pinker. There are good reasons that language fascinates us so. It not only defines humans as a species, placing us head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators, but it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries. Dr. John McWhorter, one of America's leading linguists and a frequent commentator on network television and National Public Radio, addresses these and other questions as he takes you on an in-depth, 36-lecture tour of the development of human language, showing how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today. An accomplished scholar, Professor McWhorter is also a skilled popularizer, whose book The Power of Babel was called "startling, provocative, and remarkably entertaining," by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The London Times called him "a born teacher." And Steven Pinker, best known as the author of The Language Instinct, offered this praise for the book: "McWhorter's arguments are sharply reasoned, refreshingly honest, and thoroughly original." Discover How Linguists Think For the past century linguistics has been one of the most exciting and productive fields in the social sciences. In the process of telling the story of language, Professor McWhorter introduces you to some of the current controversies in the discipline. He also briefs you on the recent connection made between an obscure language of Nepal and the language family of Papua New Guinea, which may represent the oldest documentable historical relationship between words, extending back as far as 75,000 years. In discovering how linguists think, you will begin to see language in an entirely new way. You will learn that everything about a language is eternally and inherently changeable, from its word order and grammar to the very sound and meaning of basic words. That's why Professor McWhorter describes language as "like one of those lava lamps from the 1970s. It's not marching toward an ideal, and it's not slowly going to the dogs. It's always just variations of the same thing-endless morphings." A Wealth of Examples from a Teacher Passionate about Language In an interview with the New York Times on October 30, 2001, Professor McWhorter said this about himself: "Languages have been a passion since I was a small child. I used to teach them to myself as a hobby. I speak three and a bit of Japanese, and can read seven." In this course, he includes these languages and many more as examples. Anyone who has ever studied a language will surely find it discussed-along with Albanian, Armenian, Turkish, Sanskrit, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Korean, Tagalog, Maori, Fijian, Samoan, Gullah, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, Yupik Eskimo, Quechua, and Welsh, as well as Latin, Greek, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Swedish, and many others. It's remarkable how much one language sheds light on another. For example, the ancestor language of English is Proto-Germanic and the ancestor of that is Proto-Indo-European. A curious transformation took place in the consonants of Proto-Germanic, in which Proto-Indo-European p became f, d became t; and so on with other consonant pairs. Hence, Latin pater is English father, and Latin decem is English ten. This rule is called Grimm's Law after its discoverer, the same Jacob Grimm who collected folk tales. Such patterns make relationships among different languages clear and make learning these languages much easier. "The Armory of the Human Mind" Professor McWhorter covers a wealth of material, enlivened with wit and personal observations. Language is indeed a powerful tool-"the armory of the human mind" in the words of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. With this course, you will be richly rewarded in investigating what linguists have learned about the origin and evolution of the marvelous gift of speech.

Category - Textbook/Educational Curriculum / College & Above

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Good

Listed - A year ago

Views - 14

Wishes - 1

Ships From - New York

Est. Publication Date - Jan 2004

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ISBN: 9781565859470

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The Story of Human Language

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By: John McWhorter

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