Date: 28-Sep-2006
From: John Fry <jfryemail.sjsu.edu>
Subject: An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-3522.html
Author: Christopher J HallTitle: An Introduction to Language and LinguisticsSubtitle: Breaking the Language SpellPublished: 2005Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Reviewed by John Fry, San José State University
Christopher J. Hall has written a brief but remarkable new introduction tolanguage and linguistics. The book's central theme is the ''LanguageSpell'', a metaphor coined by Hall to describe the ''evolutionary magic'' thatprevents us from seeing how language really works even as we unconsciouslytake it for granted in our daily lives. The field of linguistics ispresented as the scientific quest to break out of the spell and to glimpsethe hidden structure underlying our language use.
SUMMARY
The book is divided into four parts. Part I, entitled ''Magic'', introducesHall's metaphor of the Language Spell. ''In our daily lives,'' writes Hall,''we operate as though under a spell, content to know that language isthere, but not able to see it plainly or penetrate is mystery... Thelanguage spell keeps most of the extraordinary nature of human languagetidily in the background as we concentrate on the messages it conveys.''
Hall then introduces his second theme, the Fundamental Paradox. TheFundamental Paradox of language is that it is at the same time a biologicaland a sociocultural entity. That is, while languages exist only inindividual human minds, they only work if they are perceived as shared bysocial groups. Because the biological reality of language is hidden by theSpell, we are normally aware of only its social purposes.
The remainder of the book introduces the reader to a broad variety oftopics in the fields of theoretical and applied linguistics, demonstratingthe different ways that linguists go about ''bombarding language with thecounter-spells of science''.
Part II, entitled ''Words'', addresses what words are, how they arise, andhow they relate to concepts in the minds of speakers and hearers. Eachlexical item, Hall explains, is represented in the mind as a 'triad'composed of a physically externalizable form (phonological, orthographic,or signed); a syntactic frame; and a meaning. Other topics introduced hereinclude language change, the phonological structure of words, andchildren's acquisition of word meaning.
Part III, ''Grammar'', covers morphology, syntax, language acquisition, andpragmatics. Here Hall sketches an account of how language-neutralconceptual structures (including thematic roles) are mapped onto linguisticexpressions via the syntactic component of the language faculty. Thebook's treatment of lexical and syntactic theory in Parts II and III isstrongly influenced by the ideas of Ray Jackendoff (2002), as Hall is eagerto acknowledge.
Finally, Part IV, ''Babel'', addresses variation, both between languages(typology) and within languages (sociolinguistics), before concluding witha section entitled ''Living under the Language Spell''. Here Hall wraps uphis discussion of the Fundamental Paradox. Language, he concludes, ''issimultaneously both biological and sociocultural, because that's it's job:to link separate biological organisms through a channel which allows themto share thoughts and feelings, and so build an individual identity that isalso integrated into a series of culturally-defined groups.'' Hall ends thebook with an appeal for wider dissemination of linguistic knowledge as away of combatting language prejudice, language death, and otherconsequences of linguistic ignorance.
Throughout the text, Hall illustrates his points with constructed examplesas well as with snippets of language use taken from novels, telephonetranscripts, court proceedings, and other examples from everyday life.
One striking feature of the book is how seriously it takes writtenlanguage. Throughout the text, writing is presented as a modality oflanguage on par with speaking and signing. This contrasts with the''phonocentric'' stance often associated with modern linguistics.
EVALUATION
There are already dozens of introductory texts on language and linguistics. Do we really need another one?
In this case, the answer is ''yes''. Hall's book is highly original, thanksmainly to the ''breaking the spell'' trope that underlies and motivates it.As Hall explains in the Preface, ''I have written this book in a way thatembraces and integrates the social and the psychological aspects oflanguage, using the spell metaphor to bridge the gap.'' At that he hasclearly succeeded.
Hall is enthusiastic about his subject and explains it well. His prose isvivid and colorful and packed with apt metaphors. Some examples:''Activation of elements in memory is not like an on/off switch, but morelike the warming up and cooling down of an oven'' Hall writes about lexicalpriming. Later, on innateness: ''The brain of a newborn child or chimp isnot like the hollow shell of a new building, with empty rooms awaitingplumbing and power, furniture and fittings. Instead it is already cabledfor electricity and hooked up to the Internet... just waiting for theinterior decorators...'' Hall's prose does occasionally fall flat however:''a new sentence is more commonplace than a sneeze during the Moscow winter''.
Succinctness and brevity are among the book's virtues, but in many placesthe discussion simply zips by too fast. Hall warns the reader about thebreakneck pace in the preface: ''What you'll experience in the followingchapters is a roller-coaster ride through the labyrinth of human language.'' I sometimes found myself wishing that Hall would slow the coaster down,and some readers may be tempted to jump off. Some important topics blaze byso quickly that you miss them if you blink. Most glaringly, phonetics andphonology are relegated to just under four pages (!), in a subsectionentitled ''Sounds and phonemes'' tucked deep inside Chapter 5. Many of thetopics that Hall rushes through cry out for a helpful illustrative exampleor anecdote. For instance, the explanation of the contrast in languageproduction of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics in Chapter 11 could have beennicely complemented with some short representative transcriptions ofaphasic speech.
A number of topics that one normally finds in an introductory text aremissing from Hall's book. My own pet peeve in this regard is the omissionof count nouns and mass nouns (although Hall does distinguish ''concrete''from ''abstract'' nouns). The syntax chapter introduces the notions ofphrase-structure rules and X-bar structure, but (wisely in my view) doesnot wade into the swamp of transformations and empty categories.
The sections on linguistic bigotry and discrimination are generallyeven-handed, although American readers might quibble with Hall'scharacterization of the USA as an ''officially monolingual nation'' (p. 223)where ''Latin American immigrants...have had their traditional languagestaken away from them'' (p. 25).
The book is written in a very informal style that is often refreshing butsometimes off-putting. For example, Hall frequently uses dot-dot-dotellipsis in the main text to indicate pause or hesitation rather thanomission (e.g., ''dreams ... and so much more'', p. 51). These ellipses givethe text a chatty feel that seems out of place in an academic work. Isometimes found myself longing for the iron-fist editing and attention totypesetting detail associated with traditional textbooks, with theirem-dashes and serial commas.
The informality of the book also extends to its cross references. InChapter 11, near the end of the book, the reader is referred back to ''theegg diagram'' in Chapter 3. Navigating my way back to this diagram, some200 pages earlier in the text, proved quite challenging. The book offers nolist of figures. Since the page headers do not indicate chapter numbers, Ihad to consult the table of contents in order to find my way back toChapter 3. Next, I had to flip through all of Chapter 3 to find thefigures (there are four) and then determine which of these was the ''eggdiagram'' (the figure's title does not include these words). A helpfulcross reference to ''page 67'' would have been appreciated.
Hall states plainly in the preface that the book is not a conventionaltextbook. ''It's too selective and idiosyncratic in coverage,'' Hallexplains, ''to provide the kind of rigorous survey needed by students inlinguistics courses.'' Instead, Hall states, ''The purpose of the book is toappeal to as many ordinary readers as possible, to share with them a broadvision of the wonders of human language and the peril of taking them forgranted.''
I agree that this is not a linguistics textbook, but that is largely to itscredit. Compared to Hall's book, most linguistics textbooks are bloated(not to mention scandalously expensive) and seem to be (and often are)written by committees. This book is pleasantly idiosyncratic but alwaysfocused on the big picture: what language is and how it works.
On the other hand, there are two features that good linguistics textbooksoffer that Hall's book doesn't. The first is data from a variety oflanguages. Hall's examples are almost exclusively in English, with asmattering of Spanish. The second feature missing from Hall's book is aset of exercises at end of each chapter. In my opinion, both elements,diverse language data and problem sets, are essential components of anyintroductory linguistics course. Supplemented by these resources, Hall'sengaging book would make a fine textbook for an introductory course, eventhough it was not intended as such.
REFERENCES
Jackendoff, Ray. Foundations of Language: Brain, meaning, grammar,evolution. Oxford University Press, 2002.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
John Fry is a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at San José StateUniversity in California.
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