In the Land of Invented Languages

Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0385529716
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
Here is the captivating story of humankind’s enduring quest to build a better language—and overcome the curse of Babel. Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man’s attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, Loglan (not to be confused with Lojban), and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries. With intelligence and humor, Arika Okrent has written a truly original and enlightening book for all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers.

In the Land of Invented Languages

Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812980891
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 354

The Art of Language Invention

Author: David J. Peterson
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 0143126466
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
From language creator David J. Peterson comes a creative gui de to language constructio, offering an overview of language creation, covering its history from Tolkien's creations and Klingon to today's thriving global community of conlangers. He provides the essential tools necessary for inventing and evolving new languages, using examples from a variety of languages including his own creations.

Highly Irregular

Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539424
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
Maybe you've been speaking English all your life, or maybe you learned it later on. But whether you use it just well enough to get your daily business done, or you're an expert with a red pen who never omits a comma or misplaces a modifier, you must have noticed that there are some things about this language that are just weird. Perhaps you're reading a book and stop to puzzle over absurd spelling rules (Why are there so many ways to say '-gh'?), or you hear someone talking and get stuck on an expression (Why do we say "How dare you" but not "How try you"?), or your kid quizzes you on homework (Why is it "eleven and twelve" instead of "oneteen and twoteen"?). Suddenly you ask yourself, "Wait, why do we do it this way?" You think about it, try to explain it, and keep running into walls. It doesn't conform to logic. It doesn't work the way you'd expect it to. There doesn't seem to be any rule at all. There might not be a logical explanation, but there will be an explanation, and this book is here to help. In Highly Irregular, Arika Okrent answers these questions and many more. Along the way she tells the story of the many influences--from invading French armies to stubborn Flemish printers--that made our language the way it is today. Both an entertaining send-up of linguistic oddities and a deeply researched history of English, Highly Irregular is essential reading for anyone who has paused to wonder about our marvelous mess of a language.

Language Invention in Linguistics Pedagogy

Author: Jeffrey Punske
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192565435
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Book Description
This book is the first to explore the varied ways in which invented languages can be used to teach languages and linguistics in university courses. There has long been interest in invented languages, also known as constructed languages or conlangs, both in the political arena (as with Esperanto) and in the world of literature and science fiction and fantasy media - Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin, Dothraki in Game of Thrones, and Klingon in the Star Trek franchise, among many others. Linguists have recently served as language creators or consultants for film and television, with notable examples including Jessica Coons work on the film Arrival Christine Schreyers Kryptonian for Man of Steel, David Adgers contributions to the series Beowulf, and David J. Peterson's numerous languages for Game of Thrones and other franchises. The chapters in this volume show how the use of invented languages as a teaching tool can reach a student population who might not otherwise be interested in studying linguistics, as well as helping those students to develop the fundamental core skills of linguistic analysis. Invented languages encourage problem-based and active learning; they shed light on the nature of linguistic diversity and implicational universals; and they provide insights into the complex interplay of linguistic patterns and social, environmental, and historical processes. The volume brings together renowned scholars and junior researchers who have used language invention and constructed languages to achieve a range of pedagogical objectives. It will be of interest to graduate students and teachers of linguistics and those in related areas such as anthropology and psychology.

A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0008131406
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
First ever critical study of Tolkien’s little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones.

Enthusiasms

Author: Mark Girouard
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
ISBN: 1781010889
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
“Charming” essays on literature and life by the British raconteur who “often finds poignancy or humor in the seemingly trivial” (Publishers Weekly). Does a neglected masterpiece by Jane Austen enshrine her first love affair? Who was Vita Sackville West’s real grandfather? What clues are there to the identity of “Walter,” doyen of Victorian pornographers? When and why did P.G. Wodehouse mutate from hack to genius? Was Oscar Wilde really down and out in Paris? Was Brideshead really Madresfield? These and other excursions into literary or social history have developed out of Mark Girouard’s spare time enthusiasms, as diversions from his main occupation as an architectural historian. In nine essays he calls attention to points that have not been noticed before, corrects fallacies that have gotten into general circulation, suggests, identifies, redates, refutes, or pours a little cold water on unjustified romanticisms. Three further essays sample another enthusiasm, his own family background, and introduce characters such as the dwarf who had to stand on a bench to address the South African Parliament, the colonial governor who fell in love with his niece, and the dowager duchess with whom he spent his childhood on the edge of the park at Chatsworth. “An architectural historian fascinated not merely by buildings but, still more, by the ways of life which they supported and by the people whom they served.” —The Telegraph

Talk on the Wild Side

Author: Lane Greene
Publisher: The Economist
ISBN: 1610398343
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Language is the most human invention. Spontaneous, unruly, passionate, and erratic it resists every attempt to discipline or regularize it--a history celebrated here in all its irreverent glory. Language is a wild thing. It is vague and anarchic. Style, meaning, and usage are continually on the move. Throughout history, for every mutation, idiosyncrasy, and ubiquitous mistake, there have been countervailing rules, pronouncements and systems making some attempt to bring language to heel. From the utopian language-builder to the stereotypical grammatical stickler to the programmer trying to teach a computer to translate, Lane Greene takes the reader through a multi-disciplinary survey of the many different ways in which we attempt to control language, exploring the philosophies, motivations, and complications of each. The result is a highly readable caper that covers history, linguistics, politics, and grammar with the ease and humor of a dinner party anecdote. Talk on the Wild Side is both a guide to the great debates and controversies of usage, and a love letter to language itself. Holding it together is Greene's infectious enthusiasm for his subject. While you can walk away with the finer points of who says "whom" and the strange history of "buxom" schoolboys, most of all, it inspires awe in language itself: for its elegance, resourcefulness, and power.

Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks

Author: Bruce Tate
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
ISBN: 1680504746
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Book Description
Great programmers aren't born--they're made. The industry is moving from object-oriented languages to functional languages, and you need to commit to radical improvement. New programming languages arm you with the tools and idioms you need to refine your craft. While other language primers take you through basic installation and "Hello, World," we aim higher. Each language in Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks will take you on a step-by-step journey through the most important paradigms of our time. You'll learn seven exciting languages: Lua, Factor, Elixir, Elm, Julia, MiniKanren, and Idris. Learn from the award-winning programming series that inspired the Elixir language. Hear how other programmers across broadly different communities solve problems important enough to compel language development. Expand your perspective, and learn to solve multicore and distribution problems. In each language, you'll solve a non-trivial problem, using the techniques that make that language special. Write a fully functional game in Elm, without a single callback, that compiles to JavaScript so you can deploy it in any browser. Write a logic program in Clojure using a programming model, MiniKanren, that is as powerful as Prolog but much better at interacting with the outside world. Build a distributed program in Elixir with Lisp-style macros, rich Ruby-like syntax, and the richness of the Erlang virtual machine. Build your own object layer in Lua, a statistical program in Julia, a proof in code with Idris, and a quiz game in Factor. When you're done, you'll have written programs in five different programming paradigms that were written on three different continents. You'll have explored four languages on the leading edge, invented in the past five years, and three more radically different languages, each with something significant to teach you.

The Unfolding of Language

Author: Guy Deutscher
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1466837837
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
Blending the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with the science of The Language Instinct, an original inquiry into the development of that most essential-and mysterious-of human creations: Language "Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced degrees of meaning? Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves, and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early "Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings. As entertaining as it is erudite, The Unfolding of Language moves nimbly from ancient Babylonian to American idiom, from the central role of metaphor to the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, to tell the dramatic story and explain the genius behind a uniquely human faculty.