Through the Language Glass: Why The World Looks Different In Other Languages

Description

A brilliant and provocative exploration of how the cultures we live in affect the languages we speak and how we think of the world around us. "Guy Deutscher is that rare beast, an academic who talks good sense about linguistics... he argues in a playful and provocative way, that our mother tongue does indeed affect how we think and, just as important, how we perceive the world." Observer *Does language reflect the culture of a society? *Is our mother-tongue a lens through which we perceive the world? *Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? In Through the Language Glass, acclaimed author Guy Deutscher will convince you that, contrary to the fashionable academic consensus of today, the answer to all these questions is - yes. A delightful amalgam of cultural history and popular science, this book explores some of the most fascinating and controversial questions about language, culture and the human mind.

Guy Deutscher is the author of The Unfolding of Language- The Evolution of Mankind's Greatest Invention. Formerly a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge and of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he is an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. He lives in Surrey with his wife and two daughters.

Jaw-droppingly wonderful ... A marvellous and surprising book which left me breathless and dizzy with delight. The ironic, playful tone at the beginning gradates into something serious that is never pompous, intellectually and historically complex and yet always pellucidly laid out. Plus I learned the word plaidoyer which I shall do my utmost to use every day * Stephen Fry * Fabulously interesting ... a remarkably rich, provocative and intelligent work of pop science * Sunday Times * Brilliant beautifully written * Financial Times * So robustly researched and wonderfully told that it is hard to put down * New Scientist * A delight to read * Spectator *