almartin's review against another edition
3.0
This was Strand basement table bait - some nuggets of interest but frankly not enough here to merit 240 pages and however many hours of your time. Basic argument (language influences how we conceptualize and categorize continuous variation, especially color) would make an excellent times magazine article, but becomes somewhat ponderous here. Act two explores the strong form of the argument (do language systems for gender, space, and color influence *thinking*?) but is short on bang/long on wimper. You can find differences in undergrad psych labs; meaning for the real world is totally unclear.
Mind diamonds worth a drunken retell:
-the Russians have two different color names for navy blue and light blue and find it absurd that we do not.
-Many ancient languages lack color words for anything beyond black, white and red.
-Some languages that consider all light hues (light red, green, etc) the same 'color'
Mind diamonds worth a drunken retell:
-the Russians have two different color names for navy blue and light blue and find it absurd that we do not.
-Many ancient languages lack color words for anything beyond black, white and red.
-Some languages that consider all light hues (light red, green, etc) the same 'color'
mirajoe's review against another edition
4.0
Quirky and interesting read. There isn't a lot of concrete information but that's due to the very shaky foundations of the field. I would say however that this book is more suited to a bilingual/polylingual person or simply a person less interested in the physiological workings of the brain.
dragonsandfoxes's review against another edition
5.0
Dil bilim ile ilgilenen herkesin okuması gereken muhteşem bir kitap. Okurken yoğunlaşmak ve üzerinde düşünmek gerekiyor; bitirdiğinizde ise alan hakkında en azından temel bir bilgiye sahip olacağınız ve genel kültürünüzün gelişmiş olacağı kesin.
onesime's review against another edition
4.0
This book offers a history of the often (and rightly) maligned Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and details how the notion that language shapes people's perception of the world became an *idea non grata*. Deutscher takes the reader from William Gladstone's 19th century analysis of Homer to state-of-the-art neurolinguistics research in order to not only show how language affects perception, but also to show that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is mostly just a high-flying fantasy. To summarize it in a sentence, Deutscher argues that culture, i.e. language, has a stronger effect on our thinking than we are comfortable to admit, but that the impact of language on thought is very different from what it was believed to be in the past.
Specifically, he argues that there is no evidence that our mother tongue constrains our cognitive capacity or that it imposes limits on what we can understand. In other words, he says the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is bunk. Instead, he argues that "the real effects of the mother tongue are rather the habits that develop through the frequent use of certain ways of expression. The concepts we are trained to treat as distinct, the information our mother tongue continuously forces us to specify, the details it requires us to be attentive to, and the repeated associations it imposes on us - all these habits of speech can create habits of mind that affect more than merely the knowledge of language itself". He summarizes this idea in what he calls the Boas-Jakobson principle: Languages differ essentially in what they must convey, not in what they may convey.
By surveying not only current research, but also methodologies and findings from the past 200 years, Deutscher makes a very plausible claim for the Boas-Jakobson principle and for his rejection of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the linguistic dogma that language does not fundamentally affect the way we think.
Although there is no dearth of substance in this book, Deutscher shines more brightly when it comes to style. He has a knack for explaining the history of ideas (particularly when it comes to the history of color and perception) and dropping quirky anecdotes at the right moment (i.e. almost all the time). In short, this is an engaging read that offers a rather nuanced take on one of the thorniest linguistic questions. As such, definitely worth the few hours it takes to read.
Specifically, he argues that there is no evidence that our mother tongue constrains our cognitive capacity or that it imposes limits on what we can understand. In other words, he says the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is bunk. Instead, he argues that "the real effects of the mother tongue are rather the habits that develop through the frequent use of certain ways of expression. The concepts we are trained to treat as distinct, the information our mother tongue continuously forces us to specify, the details it requires us to be attentive to, and the repeated associations it imposes on us - all these habits of speech can create habits of mind that affect more than merely the knowledge of language itself". He summarizes this idea in what he calls the Boas-Jakobson principle: Languages differ essentially in what they must convey, not in what they may convey.
By surveying not only current research, but also methodologies and findings from the past 200 years, Deutscher makes a very plausible claim for the Boas-Jakobson principle and for his rejection of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the linguistic dogma that language does not fundamentally affect the way we think.
Although there is no dearth of substance in this book, Deutscher shines more brightly when it comes to style. He has a knack for explaining the history of ideas (particularly when it comes to the history of color and perception) and dropping quirky anecdotes at the right moment (i.e. almost all the time). In short, this is an engaging read that offers a rather nuanced take on one of the thorniest linguistic questions. As such, definitely worth the few hours it takes to read.
homs_dream's review against another edition
4.0
هذا الكتاب يجعل رأسك يدور بعد الفراغ منه، يتركك مع كومة أسئلة معلّقة.
لو شئتَ معلومات فريدة وجدتْ، ولو سجال علمي عالٍ وجدتْ، ولو شئت خلخلة مفاهيم وجدتْ.
فصول الكتاب ممتعة، كل فصل فيه آراء وضدّها عن اللغة والتفكير والتمايز اللغوي.
الترجمة رائعة.
لو شئتَ معلومات فريدة وجدتْ، ولو سجال علمي عالٍ وجدتْ، ولو شئت خلخلة مفاهيم وجدتْ.
فصول الكتاب ممتعة، كل فصل فيه آراء وضدّها عن اللغة والتفكير والتمايز اللغوي.
الترجمة رائعة.