DON’T BELIEVE A WORD: THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT LANGUAGE
Book ID/图书代码： 00200017C00012
English Summary/英文概要： Language is going to the dogs, they tell us: “ultimately, no doubt, we shall communicate with a series of grunts” says John Humphrys. When the language is discussed it is in these terms – that it is not treated with the respect it deserves; that teaching of it is not what it should be; that if we’re not careful the rules and traditions that make the language what it is and that give words meaning will disappear. Many of us buy those arguments, but how many of us have actually given them due consideration? How many of us have thought about what language is, and what its functions are? How many of us have looked at language scientifically?
There’s so much about language we should know and that we don’t is because we’ve handed over control of the conversation around it to the pedants and the linguists in their ivory towers. Did you know, for example, that there are birds that communicate with roughly the same level of sophistication as four-year-old children? That it’s politics and not science that means we think of Arabic as one language but Swedish and Danish two? Or that the words apron, umpire and adder were originally napron, numpire and nadder? Not only are these fun dinner party facts but each reveals something fundamental about what languages are, how they are constructed and why changes to them should be embraced.
In DON’T BELIEVE A WORD David Shariatmadari, trained linguist and writer behind the Guardian’s Buzzwords pop linguistics series, takes the reader on an adventure through language, exploding long-held myths and celebrating what should be held up as one of humanity’s greatest and most fundamental achievements. He argues that the prevailing views of language demonstrate a deep misunderstanding – of where it came from, how it developed, its flexibility – and undervalue it. He takes to task the pedants and theorists whose ideas have held sway for so long to show that language belongs not only to a self-appointed elite but to all of us. That the history of language is the history of the influences on it, but more than that it is the history of humanity – changes to the language are indicative of what might, rightly or wrongly, be seen as bigger changes: the political, technological and societal. And if that’s the case, isn’t it time we got to know it a little better?
Chinese Summary/中文概要： John Humphrys说：“最终，毫无疑问，我们将用一系列呼噜声进行交流。”当我们用这种方式讨论语言时，语言并没有得到应有的尊重。语言教学并未采用正确的方式；如果我们不小心，那些塑造语言、赋予单词意义的规则就会消失。我们中的许多人都相信这些论点，但我们中有多少人认真考虑过这些观点？我们中有多少人想过语言是什么，语言的功能是什么？我们中有多少人科学地研究过语言？
关于语言，我们应该知道的有很多，但我们却并不知道，因为我们把围绕语言的话语控制权交给了象牙塔里的语言学家。你是否知道，有些鸟类的交流技巧和四岁的孩子差不多？是政治、而非科学，令我们认为阿拉伯语是一种语言，而瑞典语和丹麦语是两种语言? 你又是否知道， apron, umpire, adder 这几个单词原来的拼写是 napron, numpire and nadder？
在《一句也别信》一书中，作者David Shariatmadari（一位训练有素的语言学家兼作家），带领读者经历了一场语言冒险，探索长期存在的神话，庆祝人类最伟大和最根本的成就。作者认为，对语言的普遍看法（即语言的来源、语言的发展方式和语言的灵活性）存在着深刻的误解，人们低估了语言。语言不仅属于精英阶层，而且属于我们所有人。语言的历史是对其影响的历史，但更重要的是，它是人类的历史----语言的演变表明了政治、技术和社会的更深层次的变革。(LYR)
Awards/获奖情况：“David Shariatmadari translates the often arcane theories of linguistics into a sequence of accessible ideas and theories, making us look afresh at the language we speak and how it structures our intimacies, our thoughts, and our identities. Wry and immensely intelligent, this learned book awakens us to complexities of communication that we too readily ignore, and it does so with both deep scholarship and a light touch.”
David Shariatmadari translates the often arcane theories of linguistics into a sequence of accessible ideas and theories, making us look afresh at the language we speak and how it structures our intimacies, our thoughts, and our identities. Wry and immensely intelligent, this learned book awakens us to complexities of communication that we too readily ignore, and it does so with both deep scholarship and a light touch (ANDREW SOLOMON)
About the Author/作者介绍： David Shariatmadari现任《卫报》撰稿人兼编辑。他曾在剑桥大学攻读语言学，之后又前往伦敦大学学习，在伦敦大学主修神经语言学和声音变化。完成音韵学的论文后，他以优异的成绩荣获了硕士学位。《一句也别信》是他的第一本著作。David Shariatmadari is a writer and editor at the GUARDIAN. He read Linguistics at Cambridge University, and went on to study at the University of London, where he focused on neurolinguistics and sound change. He was awarded a Master’s degree with distinction after completing his thesis in phonology. DON’T BELIEVE A WORD is his first book.
Format:
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada rights to W&N (Jenny Lord) .
DON’T BELIEVE A WORD by David Shariatmadari – the full MS is delivered (attached) and Chris Wellbelove recently sold North American rights to Norton (Tom Mayer). He previously sold UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada to W&N (Jenny Lord).
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