Sunday, January 27, 2013

new books and Great Courses DVD lectures

I haven't posted anything here for a few months. Hope some of you at least have missed me! Anyway it's not for lack of material. I ordered in December (as a Christmas present for myself) a few new books and 2 more Great Courses lectures. I've been going through the dvds and learning lots of fascinating language trivia I hope to share here in future posts.

I haven't delved very far into the books yet. "Languages of the World - An Introduction" by Asya Pereltsvaig, 2012, is a textbook-like discussion of each of the world's main language families. I expect it will contribute much to a blog I have in mind showing the great variations, in many ways, of the languages of the world.

"Through the Language Glass - Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages" by Guy Deutscher, 2010, argues the controversial idea that the structure and lexicon (vocabulary) of our language affects how we think and view the world. I'm looking forward to reading this one.


The "Myths. Lies and Half-truths of Language Usage" lecture series is by John McWhorter who I enjoyed in "The Story of Human Language" series. There's a lot of repeat information but also much that is new.

The "Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins" is by Anne Curzan, a professor of linguistics at U of Michigan. I'm quite enjoying her lectures which are well organized and interestingly delivered.

Look for more posts in the coming weeks.
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17 comments:

  1. Paul SunstoneJanuary 31, 2013 at 9:30 p.m.

    Those look like great books! I'll be especially interested in anything you post on "Through the Language Glass".

    ReplyDelete
  2. WadeFebruary 3, 2013 at 7:06 p.m.

    Great post! Glad your back in business!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2013 at 12:29 p.m.

      you're (contraction of you are)
      your (possessive pronoun)

      Delete
    2. WadeFebruary 4, 2013 at 1:13 p.m.

      Good catch. I am old and continually make mistakes that I wouldn't have made when younger.

      Delete
    3. Stan HingstonFebruary 4, 2013 at 4:08 p.m.

      by coincidence I just posted a comment on the Malapropism post http://englishcowpath.blogspot.ca/2012/08/malapropisms-mondegreens-spoonerisms.html about using the wrong homonym in writing, and actually used your/you're as an example. But don't feel bad - I've been caught doing it myself.

      Delete
  3. WadeFebruary 4, 2013 at 11:48 a.m.

    Hello, again!

    I thought you might be interested in today's post on Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog: http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/02/04/italys-weird-languages/

    I couldn't find your email address for this, but I immediately thought of you when I read this post today.

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  4. The Blog FodderFebruary 24, 2013 at 10:01 a.m.

    Catching slowly. Looking for more good stuff here!

    ReplyDelete
  5. this websiteAugust 16, 2018 at 7:00 a.m.

    DVD lecture! wow, It's really new for me. I don't know about this. I think its so helpful. And it save time also. that's a great thinking. I will try this one. Interesting.

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  6. AbirAugust 19, 2018 at 12:55 a.m.

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