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Mahala Helf's Reviews > Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English
by
by
Six assertions of unexplained significance are belabored into the first three repetitious soporific chapters(literally--1st & last book in all my years that put me to sleep within a page time after time):
1. Most linguists study individual languages & are ignorant of others.
2. This ignorance causes them to exceptionalize and mistake the reasons for changes in the English language.
3. John McWhorter aloneable to synthesis research and theory about all languages to discern the errors.
3. Changes in grammar from Old English to Middle English are remarkable and ignored by linguists in favor of attention to vocabulary changes.
4. Celtic and Viking influence account for these remarkable grammar changes.
5. The written texts linguists have relied on do not reflect Old & Middle English as it was actually spoke by any of the non-scribes .
6. English grammar is simpler than that of many other languages.
Tortorous analogies from McWhorter’s life and times are roadblocks, not detours. Nothing is illuminated.
Start with chapter 4,” Does Our Grammar Channel Our Thought?” It’s accessible without being codescending, succinct and better-edited
1. Most linguists study individual languages & are ignorant of others.
2. This ignorance causes them to exceptionalize and mistake the reasons for changes in the English language.
3. John McWhorter aloneable to synthesis research and theory about all languages to discern the errors.
3. Changes in grammar from Old English to Middle English are remarkable and ignored by linguists in favor of attention to vocabulary changes.
4. Celtic and Viking influence account for these remarkable grammar changes.
5. The written texts linguists have relied on do not reflect Old & Middle English as it was actually spoke by any of the non-scribes .
6. English grammar is simpler than that of many other languages.
Tortorous analogies from McWhorter’s life and times are roadblocks, not detours. Nothing is illuminated.
Start with chapter 4,” Does Our Grammar Channel Our Thought?” It’s accessible without being codescending, succinct and better-edited
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Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
May 1, 2009
–
Finished Reading
June 22, 2009
– Shelved
