LINGUIST List 12.2661

Wed Oct 24 2001

Media: The Atoms of Language/Article/Books & Culture

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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  • Suzette Haden Elgin, Media: Review of Baker's _The Atoms of Language_

    Message 1: Media: Review of Baker's _The Atoms of Language_

     Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 13:24:39 -0600
    From: Suzette Haden Elgin <oclsmadisoncounty.net>
    Subject: Media: Review of Baker's _The Atoms of Language_


    October 24, 2001

    Dear Linguist List,

    The November/December 2001 issue of _Books & Culture_, pp. 18-19, has a review by John H. McWhorter of Mark C. Baker's _The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar_ (from Basic Books 2001). The review offers examples from a number of languages, discusses the Principles & Parameters model, and raises the question of why, precisely, such things should matter either to the general public or to linguists. McWhorter offers a Gricean comment to the effect that Baker "is not consistently successful in ushering the lay reader into concepts that can be initially rather obscure," but gives the book as a whole at least an A-minus.

    Suzette Haden Elgin