24.3192, Review: General Linguistics: Anderson (2012)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-3192. Wed Aug 07 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.3192, Review: General Linguistics: Anderson (2012)

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Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:36:46
From: Dibella Wdzenczny [wdzencz at gmail.com]
Subject: Languages

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-4032.html

AUTHOR: Stephen R. Anderson
TITLE: Languages
SUBTITLE: A Very Short Introduction
SERIES TITLE: Very Short Introductions
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Dibella Wdzenczny, University of California, Santa Barbara

SUMMARY

‘Languages: A Very Short Introduction’, by Stephen R. Anderson, is one of the
newest releases in the ‘Oxford Very Short Introduction’ series. It is a small
book in height, width, and girth; it is only 129 pages long and includes eight
chapters along with references, a list for further reading, and an index. It
is not an overview of the entire field of Linguistics (for that, see another
book in this series, Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (Matthews 2003)).
Much of the book centers on the classification and enumeration of languages,
as well as topics tangential to questions surrounding these issues. Anderson
also draws many parallels between linguistic science and biology. Overall, the
book is primarily aimed at interested non-linguists.

Chapter 1 is titled ‘Introduction: dimensions of linguistic diversity’. Here,
a basic question is raised: How many languages are there? A brief discussion
is given (before returning to the topic in the next chapter), including the
different ways of measuring the number of languages. Next, the taxonomy of
languages is compared to taxonomy in biology, and finally, the topics of later
chapters are summarized.

Chapter 2, titled ‘How many languages are there in the world?’, examines the
issues raised in the Introduction in further detail. This chapter shows that
the question of the number of languages spoken in the world is not a trivial
one at all, but rather one of great interest, and also explains why; this book
examines how language can be separated from ethnicity, political boundaries,
and genetics, dispelling notions commonly held by non-linguists. Specifically,
Anderson touches on the general notions of ‘Chinese’ and ‘Arabic’ as single
languages; calling these single ‘languages’ is quite misleading, and even
though they have very high numbers of speakers, they are quite internally
diverse. Anderson notes that these internal diversities are often called
‘dialects’ rather than the distinct languages that they are, and he continues
the discussion about this topic throughout the book, especially in Chapter 5.

Chapter 3, ‘Phylogenetic linguistics: establishing linguistic relationships’,
examines the historical genetic relationships between languages. It begins
with a general comparison of linguistic evolution to biological evolution,
highlighting parallels between the two branches of science (e.g. two related
languages (or species) diverging from a common ancestor), and that changes in
one branch of a genetic family may not be reflected in another, resulting in
speciation. This chapter discusses many interesting questions about historical
change, such as how such relationships are determined, rates of change, time
depth, and why languages change in the first place. Mechanisms of change,
along with several tables of cognate sets in familiar languages, are also
presented.

Chapter 4, titled ‘The future of languages’, addresses issues surrounding
endangered languages, and specifically, what linguistics as a science stands
to lose: basic information about human cognition, possible human languages,
and the understanding of linguistic history. Anderson again draws parallels
with biology, commenting on the concern for endangered species, but a lack
thereof for endangered languages. The indigenous language situation in North
America is discussed as an example, and the different facets of endangered
knowledge are also enumerated. Finally, the chapter ends with a consideration
of how language contact and language death affect endangered languages. Here,
he acknowledges that when a language dies, “a world dies with it, in the sense
that a community’s connection with its past, its traditions, and its base of
specific knowledge are all typically lost when the vehicle linking people to
that knowledge is abandoned” (pg. 58).

Chapter 5 investigates issues surrounding the definition of language, and is
appropriately titled ‘Some problems in the counting of languages’. It
discusses the role of social identity, as in the case of Serbo-Croatian
(considered a single language by linguists, but separate by speakers) or the
case of ‘Chinese’ as stipulated by the Chinese government (i.e. all Chinese
languages are dialects of one language with a unified writing system) and
caveats around the traditional linguistic definition of “mutual
unintelligibility”. as well as problems with counting languages simply by
considering numbers of speakers or countries. Anderson illustrates these
points with examples of asymmetrical intelligibility (i.e. where speaker A
understands speaker B, but not vice versa), such as that among Scandinavian
languages, or in the case of Bulgarian and Macedonian, where Bulgarian
speakers consider Macedonian a dialect of Bulgarian, but Macedonian speakers
consider themselves as speaking a separate language.

Chapter 6, ‘The genotypes of languages’, is essentially an account of
generative typology, offering an explanation of the concepts of E-language
(i.e. external language, or language produced by speakers), I-language (i.e.
internal language, or the linguistic representation that exists in the mind),
and generative parameters (i.e. binary possibilities in language, such as
Verb-Object versus Object-Verb word order).

Chapter 7, ‘The diversity of signed languages’, contains information about
sign languages. It reviews common misconceptions about signed languages (e.g.
the notion that sign languages are merely analogs or physical representations
of spoken languages, or that all sign languages are very similar) and
discusses how linguists consider such languages to fit into our overarching
framework of human language Anderson examines how sign languages can originate
spontaneously, and shows that they are organized hierarchically just like
spoken language. Also mentioned is how signs are not necessarily consistently
iconic, and that this abstract representation is much akin to the idea of the
phoneme. Many diagrams of different signs in different sign languages are
included in this chapter for reference.

Chapter 8, ‘Conclusion: the unity of human language’, brings together the
material discussed in the rest of the book, and also offers further
comparisons of language with other human biological systems (e.g. human
vision) and with ‘languages’ of other species. It ends with a discussion of
Chomsky’s core linguistic hypotheses, such as the poverty of the stimulus and
I-language parameters.

EVALUATION

While typically a book with just 129 small pages would make for a very short
review, Anderson’s book packs an impressive amount of information into a handy
size. As the series’ tagline says, these introductions are “stimulating ways
in to [sic] new subjects” and are not aimed at academic specialists (in this
case, linguists). While the text is exceptionally accurate, thorough, and
up-to-date, very little of the information presented here extends beyond what
might be found in upper-level undergraduate courses in linguistics. This is no
failing of the book, given that its intended audience is the non-academic,
general public. Indeed, ‘Languages: A Very Short Introduction’ is an
outstandingly well-written reference that will easily hold the interest of
non-linguists and provide them with a thorough overview of the field with
regard to language diversity. Given its reasonable price of $11.95, I would
highly recommend this volume to undergraduates considering majoring in
linguistics, to linguistics graduate students looking for a gift for family
members (many of whom have the question “So what exactly is linguistics?”), to
linguistics departments to keep on hand for interested students and potential
majors, and to anyone who has ever been the slightest bit curious about
diversity in human language. The book’s size allows it to fit very easily into
a pocket (or a Christmas stocking).

Virtually every common misconception about languages in general is addressed
in this volume. Particular issues addressed are: multilingualism is actually
quite common (pg. 13); language change is inevitable (pg. 23); language loss
includes the loss of cultural knowledge (pg. 45); ‘What is a language?’ is a
rather difficult question (Ch. 5); differences in grammars have common
cognitive underpinnings (pg. 83); signed languages are full-fledged languages
and not just metarepresentations of other media (pg. 91); and clarification of
specific Chomskyan ideas (Ch. 8). These explanations are exceptionally helpful
for non-specialists, and also resolve issues that linguists are often
frustrated to have to explain and demystify over and over to others.

Many core experts on primary linguistic subjects are cited, including a
dedication to the late Ken Hale at the very beginning of the book. Other
linguistics resources are cited as well, such as Language Log (pg. 1), and
Ethnologue (pg. 11), making the book a valuable resource for interested
readers to explore linguistics and languages beyond the text itself.

A variety of illustrative images, such as family trees, languages area maps,
and sign language diagrams are used in relevant chapters. For example, Chapter
7 includes a diagram comparing the sign for ‘tree’ in different signed
languages (pg. 95), which helpfully illustrates topics in the chapter and
gives the reader visual evidence that signed languages are
cross-linguistically similar (one of the topics discussed in that chapter).
Chapter 8 contains several bracketed diagrams and syntax trees to illustrate
different generative principles surrounding the idea of constituents and
parametric variation.

The chapter on signed languages is an excellent inclusion, especially since
the book is intended for non-specialists. Too often, signed languages are not
included in discussions of human language. It is certainly an important
inclusion, and the chapter is exceptionally well thought out and contains both
basic and more complex discussions about signed language as a type of human
language.

The book focuses primarily on grammatical and historical aspects of
linguistics, rather than on sociolinguistics (which is better addressed in
‘Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction’). Another caveat (or plus, depending
on the linguist) is that the approach taken in explaining particular ideas
about human language as a genetic endowment is largely generative/Chomskyan.
Of course, any book about linguistics or languages would do itself a
disservice to ignore the contributions of Chomsky to the science of
linguistics, but it seems that the diversity of human languages is slightly
downplayed in favor of ‘I-language as parametric variation’ and that
linguistic structural variety is limited. Considering that the first seven
chapters of the book are dedicated to linguistic diversity of form, one almost
gets the sense that the final chapter has the punch line “Well, it’s not all
that different after all”, undoing much of what was said previously. To his
credit, Anderson explicitly states where his biases lie when they are
appropriate (pg. 119), and this is quite understandable. While the factual
presentation of many different (competing) theories in linguistics is
sufficient and accurate, generative approaches are given preference.

In conclusion, ‘Languages: A Very Short Introduction’ is an excellent resource
for those interested in linguistics and who are not (yet?) specialists. The
book gives plenty of information and clear explanations for basic ideas in
linguistics regarding topics surrounding languages (as opposed to specific
linguistic subfields or phenomena), and could easily encourage further
exploration by interested readers. There is enough detail within the book that
even well-versed linguists might find something new, or at least a new
perspective, on something they are already familiar with. This book may be a
bit too basic to be a textbook for a linguistics course, but it might be a
decent choice for various ‘additional readings’ on an introductory course
syllabus. Anderson does a remarkable job of explaining complex linguistic
concepts without opaque technical jargon and through plenty of illustrative
examples. Its size makes it handy and easily readable, and this fact might
make it more appealing to non-linguists as a fun gift or travel book.

REFERENCES

Matthews, P.H. 2003. Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dibella Wdzenczny is a Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. Her primary interests include historical
linguistics, case systems, and the indigenous languages of Siberia and the
Americas. She is also interested in pedagogy in linguistics for both
university students and indigenous communities.








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