I Saw the Dog: How Language Works

Every language in the world has common features such as asking questions, saying something belongs to us, and telling someone what to do. However, languages are diverse and can tell us something about the people who use them. In I Saw the Dog, linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald explores the importance of names, the value of being able to say exactly what you mean, and what language can tell us about what it means to be human.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 08 April 2021
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Every language in the world shares a few common features: we can ask a question, say something belongs to us, and tell someone what to do. But beyond that, our languages are richly and almost infinitely varied: a French speaker can't conceive of a world that isn't split into un and une, male and female, while Estonians have only one word for both men and women: tema. In Dyirbal, an Australian language, things might be masculine, feminine, neuter, or edible vegetable. Every language tells us something about the people who use it. In I Saw the Dog, linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald takes us from the remote swamplands of Papua New Guinea to the university campuses of North America to illuminate the vital importance of names, the value of being able to say exactly what you mean, what language can tell us about what it means to be human, and what we lose when they disappear forever.

Every language in the world shares a few common features: we can ask a question, say something belongs to us, and tell someone what to do. But beyond that, our languages are richly and almost infinitely varied: a French speaker can't conceive of a world that isn't split into un and une, male and female, while Estonians have only one word for both men and women: tema. In Dyirbal, an Australian language, things might be masculine, feminine, neuter, or edible vegetable. Every language tells us something about the people who use it. In I Saw the Dog, linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald takes us from the remote swamplands of Papua New Guinea to the university campuses of North America to illuminate the vital importance of names, the value of being able to say exactly what you mean, what language can tell us about what it means to be human, and what we lose when they disappear forever.

Weight: 348g
Dimension: 144 x 224 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781781257715
Edition number: Main