Imatge de l'autor

Per altres autors anomenats Paul Anthony Jones, vegeu la pàgina de desambiguació.

9 obres 296 Membres 18 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Paul Anthony Jones is a writer, etymologist and language blogger. He is the author of several books on language, including The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities, also published by the University of Chicago Press. He shares his linguistic discoveries via the Twitter account @HaggardHawks, which was mostra'n més named one of Twitter's best language accounts by Mental Floss. He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. mostra'n menys

Obres de Paul Anthony Jones

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Membres

Ressenyes

Best for:
Those interested in learning more about language (mostly English, but other languages as well).

In a nutshell:
Author Jones looks to answer 20 different questions about language.

Worth quoting:
“No matter what we say or how we say it, communication is fundamentally a demand for a person’s time, attention, effort, interest, knowledge and cooperation.”

Why I chose it:
I enjoy books like this.

What it left me feeling:
Informed.

Review:
Jones pulls off something that I think is a bit tricky: he’s written a fun book about language that is easy to read but also include a lot of interesting trivia and in depth history. In the hands of a different writer this might have been a challenge to read - it could have been too dense, or pulled out information that just wasn’t as interesting. But Jones has found a way to pick the right examples to explain things, and also to pick questions that I did indeed want to know the answers to.

The answers to each of the questions is a chapter long, with some just eight or nine pages, while others are over 20. The first four are the longest, as they tackle what is a word, what is a language, where do languages come from, and where do words come from. After that, it’s a bit more trivia focused, with questions like why does the ‘i' have a dot, and why is the alphabet in ABC order, though by the end it returns to more philosophical and scientific questions, like how do we read and how do we speak.

I found myself occasionally interrupting my partner to share things I’d learned in the book. Like, for example, there’s a language in Australia (Guugu Yimithirr) that doesn’t use words for right and left; everything is direction based. So a speaker of that language would say ‘hand me the book that’s west of the lamp,’ instead of saying ‘hand me the book that’s to the right of the lamp.’ This then wires their brain to know where they are relative to north and south for the rest of their lives. Fascinating.

I think my favorite question from a trivia perspective was what is the hardest language to learn, because it looked at so many different ways different languages do their things. But all the chapters offered things I had never learned before. I think this might be a cool book to get someone who is thinking about studying language, as a sort of starter kit.

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep.
… (més)
 
Marcat
ASKelmore | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Feb 12, 2023 |
In this stimulating book, a kind of “linguistics for the layperson,” Paul Anthony Jones gives us a lively and accessible introduction to a field of study that is much broader than I would ever have guessed. Why is This a Question? is built around twenty questions and covers a wide variety of topics. Although Jones’s focus is mainly on English and the Proto-Indo-European language it sprang from, he considers much larger matters, including what makes something a language in the first place. Among other things, consideration is given to: theories about how language emerged among early humans, the anatomy involved in the production of speech (i.e., what distinguishes consonants from vowels), the brain’s processing of spoken and written language, and how the alphabet we use came to be. Until reading Jones’s book, I didn’t understand the degree to which linguistics draws on disciplines such as anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology, computer science, and the health sciences. While I found some chapters more engaging than others, I learned something new from each. I only wish diagrams (to clarify anatomy) and visuals (to illustrate the various kinds of medieval scripts Jones refers to, for example) had been included.… (més)
½
 
Marcat
fountainoverflows | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jan 11, 2023 |
This was so fun and interesting! Linguistics is a fascinating topic so I was really excited to read this book. It's set up so you have one word for every day of the year. I loved getting a little bit of historical info to go with each word and a bit of culture, as well.
 
Marcat
managedbybooks | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | May 3, 2022 |
I love reading random facts. I also have a fascination with the English language. The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities is filled with forgotten words which lead to an explanation of the origin of the words themselves. There is an entry for every day of the year. I actually read this as a book which I definitely do not recommend as it gets a bit dry but reading one entry per corresponding day would be a lot of fun. I am actually reading it again that way. It would definitely be a fun and welcome present for anyone who likes random facts and learning about obscure words.… (més)
 
Marcat
Veronica.Sparrow | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | Mar 3, 2021 |

Potser també t'agrada

Estadístiques

Obres
9
Membres
296
Popularitat
#79,168
Valoració
4.0
Ressenyes
18
ISBN
32
Llengües
1

Gràfics i taules