《Languages A Very Short Introduction》
by Stephen Anderson (Author)
Paperback: 152 pages
Publisher: OUP Oxford (28 Jun. 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199590591
ISBN-13: 978-0199590599
Product Dimensions:16.8 x 1 x 11.2 cm
How
many languages are there? What differentiates one language from
another? Are new languages still being discovered? Why are so many
languages disappearing?
The diversity of languages today is varied, but it is steadily declining. In thisVery Short Introduction,
Stephen Anderson answers the above questions by looking at the science
behind languages. Considering a wide range of different languages and
linguistic examples, he demonstrates how languages are not uniformly
distributed around the world; just as some places are more diverse than
others in terms of plants and animal species, the same goes for the
distribution of languages.
Exploring the basis for linguistic
classification and raising questions about how we identify a language,
as well as considering signed languages as well as spoken, Anderson
examines the wider social issues of losing languages, and their impact
in terms of the endangerment of cultures and peoples.
ABOUT THE
SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press
contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These
pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject
quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new
ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly
readable.
Stephen Anderson has been the Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics at Yale University for the last 15 years. He has written or co-authored six books in Linguistics, includingDoctor Dolittle's Delusion (Yale University Press, 2004) a book on animal communication and its relation to human language intended for the educated general reader that was chosen as the Best Book in Psychology for 2004 by the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linguistic Society of America, and the Association for Psychological Science. He was also President of the Linguistic Society of America in 2007.
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