Are Some Languages Better Than Others?This book sets out to answer a question that many linguists have been hesitant to ask: are some languages better than others? Can we say, for instance, that because German has three genders and French only two, German is a better language in this respect? Jarawara, spoken in the Amazonian jungle, has two ways of showing possession: one for a part (e.g. 'Father's foot') and the other for something which is owned and can be given away or sold (e.g. 'Father's knife'); is it thus a better language, in this respect, than English, which marks all possession in the same way? R. M. W. Dixon begins by outlining what he feels are the essential components of any language, such as the ability to pose questions, command actions, and provide statements. He then discusses desirable features including gender agreement, tenses, and articles, before concluding with his view of what the ideal language would look like - and an explanation of why it does not and probably never will exist. Written in the author's usual accessible and engaging style, and full of personal anecdotes and unusual linguistic phenomena, the book will be of interest to all general language enthusiasts as well as to a linguistics student audience, and particularly to anyone with an interest in linguistic typology. |
Contents
How languages work | 23 |
What is necessary | 47 |
What is desirable | 75 |
What is not really needed | 107 |
How about complexity? | 125 |
How many words should there be? | 147 |
The limits of a language | 173 |
Better for what purpose? | 193 |
An ideal language | 213 |
Facing up to the question | 245 |
Notes and sources | 247 |
Abbreviations | 255 |
Acknowledgements | 257 |
259 | |
267 | |
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Common terms and phrases
1st person 2016 by Oxford 3rd person abariko abstract noun adjective affixes all—languages argument auxiliaries Basic Linguistic Theory Bilyana chapter chips clause construction communication comparative constructions complexity content question contrast copula creoles described distinguished Dyirbal Elsa English evidentiality example eyewitness FahaS fair number feature feminine form Fijian fowa French fulfil function gender goes into slot grammatical category hawi-ne homonym homonymy hyponym instance interrogative intransitive verb irregular Jamamadi Jarawara John Languages Better lexeme lexical marking Mary MaryA saw masculine mato-ne meaning medium distance modality suffix mood suffix Murinypata negator goes noko non-inflecting verb noun phrase Nyawaygi Oxford University Press passive past tense paucal person singular plural polar question possessed nouns pronouns Published 2016 R. M. W. Dixon reference section 3.4 semantic semi-synonyms sentence Shifters speaker speech acts spoken suffix summary suppletion tense-evidentiality or modality thing Tok Pisin verbal suffix vowel water(fem word classes