Language and Human Nature

Mark Halpern

ISBN 10: 1587900890 / ISBN 13: 9781587900891

Published by Regent Press, 2006

About this Item

Language and Human Nature exposes a century's worth of flawed thinking about language, to exhibit some of the dangers it presents, and to suggest a path to recovery. It begins by examining the causes of changes in the English vocabulary. These sometimes take the form of new words, but more often that of new senses for old words. In the course of this examination, Halpern discusses a wide variety of verbal solecisms, vulgarisms, and infelicities generally. His objective is not to deplore such things, but to expose the reasons for their existence, the human traits that generate them.A large part of this book is devoted to contesting the claims of academic linguists to be the only experts in the study of language change. Language is too central to civilized life to be so deeply misunderstood without causing a multitude of troubles throughout our culture. We are currently experiencing such troubles, a number of which are examined here. The exposure of linguists' misunderstandings is not an end in itself, but a necessary first step in recovery from the confusion we are now enmeshed in.The picture of the relationship between words and thoughts that is part of the attempt to deal with language scientifically is partly responsible for dangerous cultural developments. The attempt by linguists to treat their subject scientifically makes them view meaning as an irritating complication to be ignored if possible. It turns them into formalists who try to understand language by studying its physical representations, with a resort to semantics only when unavoidable. With words practically stripped of their role as bearers of meaning, it becomes easy to see them as unimportant. Halpern's book is a serious critique of such oversimplified theorizing.

Seller Inventory # CIN1587900890G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Language and Human Nature
• Publisher: Regent Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1587900890
• ISBN 13: 9781587900891
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

As a professional writer and editor, the author has come to a critical view of the scholarly pursuit of linguistics, arguing that it was a mistake to move away from the valid knowledge of philology towards linguistics, which in endeavoring to be scientifically descriptive strips meaning from words. While not going as far as calling for an English Academy along the lines of the French Academy, he supports a more prescriptivist approach to language in light of the "language degradation" that results from the linguistic view of language and the difficulties it inflicts outside of the academy for professional writers and speakers, as well as for average citizens. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author

Mark Halpern is a freelance editor, onetime software designer and programmer, onetime soldier, onetime college instructor in English. He has degrees from City College of New York and Columbia University in English Language & Literature; he’s written a book and several articles on computer programming; and he writes, these days, principally on the topic of the inter-relations among linguistics, language usage, and politics.