A Little Book of Language (2010)

Apparently this is aimed at young people, as there are all sorts of references to 'you, the next generation' and 'you, who grew up online.' ?áBut if it weren't for those allusions, I'd say it's just a bit too simple for a reader who has been playing with and studying words all her life. ?áSo, yes, some of this was old hat to me. ?áOtoh, there are a lot of bookdarts, a lot of things I found noteworthy. ?áSo, overall, I do highly recommend this.

Several of my favorite bits are about comparing bits of different languages. ?áFor example, we in English use the 'at sign' in email addresses, but in Poland it's a 'malpa' for 'monkey.' ?áEtc.?á
Also texting abbreviations vary in different languages - I bet you can figure out what 'salu2' means in Spanish? ?áThere's also a bit about how Political Correctness is expressed in a few other languages.

I also enjoyed the chapter on place names. ?áEnding in 'by' means it was originally a Viking?áfarmstead or?ávillage; ending in 'caster' or 'chester' means Roman fort or town.

Language at play yields me a few more mind games I can play while having trouble falling asleep (I need something a bit more complex than counting sheep ;).
Tell a story leaving out one key letter, such as 'e' or 't' - (lipogram)
Create sentences in which the vowel is the same in each word: Cool schoolboys do not do sports on top of London shopfronts." ?á(univocalic)
Use the alphabet to create a 26 word long sentence or paragraph: "A big cowboy, dancing elegantly for grand hotels in..."

My only caveats are: 1. no bibliography or notes 2. focus is on British English, history, culture, and geography, with token admissions to American." ( )

Turns out this was written for young people, but I can't figure out just what age range he wrote it for. It is 260 pages long, and contains some pretty complex ideas, but the syntax is very simplistic, as though written for preteens. I think it is meant for teenagers, but they might find the tone rather condescending. I was already familiar with most of the information in the book, but found the chapters on language use in the electronic age very interesting. ( )

I love all things about language, and really enjoyed this book as a quick overview on the subject. ( )

There was interesting and good information in this book. If I'd never read anything else about linguistics and/or language, it probably would have been really good. However, the writing style made me feel like I was being talked down to, and I would have really preferred a deeper look at a lot of the ideas presented. ( )

This is a fine introductory book on language and linguistics for high school students, or perhaps middle school students. But I ended up buying and reading it myself because it was written by David Crystal, whose other works I've enjoyed, and nothing about this book's cover suggested that it was for a younger audience (it's published in the U.S. by Yale University Press—not a major children's book publisher!). If you know anything about linguistics already, it's likely to bore you. For that matter, even if this is a completely new subject to you, I'd suggest finding one of Crystal's other books or another introduction to linguistics intended for adults. The book itself isn't badly written or inaccurate, it's just not suitable for many adult readers. ( )