Posted: Oct 19, 2017 7:59 am
1.Thresholds of Peace. German prisoners and the People of Britain. 1944-1948 - Matthew Sullivan
2. Escape from Germany - Aidan Crawley
3. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching - Jeanette Littlemore
4. Food in History - Reay Tannahill
5. The Cyclist Who Went Out In the Cold - Tim Moore
6. Cognitive English Grammar - Günther Radden & René Dirven
7. The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland - Rory Stewart
8. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe - Gaston Dorren
9. The Blitz: The British Under Attack - Juliet Gardiner
10. Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin
11. Seeds of Earth - Michael Cobley
12. An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler - Peter Fritzsche
13. Speaking our Minds: Why Human communication is Different, and How Language Evolved to make it Special - Thom Scott-Phillips
14. In the Land of Giants: A journey through the Dark Ages - Max Adams
15. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding - Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond & Jack Sidnell (Eds.)
16. Indirect Reports and Pragmatics: Interdisciplinary Studies (Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology) - Alessandro Capone (Ed.) (Re-read)
17. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can help Adults Learn a Foreign Language - Richard Robers and Roger Kreuz
18. Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology - Jeff Persels and Russell Ganim (Eds.)
19. Books that Changed the World - Robert B Downs.
20. Um el Madayan: An Islamic City through the Ages - Abderrahman Ayoub, Jamila Binous and Abderrazak Gragueb (Re-read)
21. English Grammar: Your questions answered - Michael McCarthy
22. Look to Windward - Iain M Banks (re-read)
23. War against War - Ernst Friedrich
24. The Story of the Human Body - Daniel Lieberman
25. The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu - Dan Jurafsky
26. Grammars of Space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity
27. An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or...60 Years of making the same mistakes as always - John O'Farrel
28. The Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone (re-read)
29. The Story of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
30. The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End - Robert Gerwath
31. Soldier Spy - Tom Marcus
32. Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs) - Florian Coulmas (Ed.)
33. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language) = John Gumperz & Steven Levinson (Eds.)
34. Is that a Fish in your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation - David Bellos
35. The Voices Within: The History and Science of How we Talk to Ourselves - Charles Fernyhough
36. Dunkirk: The History Behind the Motion Picture - Joshua Levine
37. Alphabetical: How Every Letter tells a Story: Michael Rosen
38. Warsaw Boy: A Memoir of a Wartime Childhood - Andrew Borowiec
39. An Introduction to the Languages of the World - Anatole V. Lyovin, Brett Kessler, William R. Leben
No 39 was a heavy duty book that served as a reminder of how little I know about language. Needed to do some googling to try to understand the contrast between Nominative Accusative languages and Absolutive Ergative languages. Some of the phonetics stuff was pretty hard to fathom as well. But there were some useful insights into the ways in which languages can work, and work in ways which are starkly different from the languages I am familiar with. There is a language in the Caucasus which has the highest differential between consonants and vowels, with something like 40 consonants but only 2 vowels. Some of the Polynesian languages are at the other end of the scale with a large number of vowels but a mere handful of consonants. Arabic has gender marking not only for the third person (he and she) but also for the second person ('You' in English covers both singular and plural and male and female.) Hawaiian has two categories of possession, inalienable and alienable. English can say 'John's brother' and 'John's car' with the apostrophe plus 's' indicating possession. But Hawaiian has to differentiate these two. John didn't have any agency in having a brother, but he did have agency in coming into possession of a car.
The list goes on an on but the authors at several points warn against the dangers of exoticism. As I know from my teaching experience, English can be a pretty weird beast when looked at from the outside.
2. Escape from Germany - Aidan Crawley
3. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching - Jeanette Littlemore
4. Food in History - Reay Tannahill
5. The Cyclist Who Went Out In the Cold - Tim Moore
6. Cognitive English Grammar - Günther Radden & René Dirven
7. The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland - Rory Stewart
8. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe - Gaston Dorren
9. The Blitz: The British Under Attack - Juliet Gardiner
10. Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin
11. Seeds of Earth - Michael Cobley
12. An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler - Peter Fritzsche
13. Speaking our Minds: Why Human communication is Different, and How Language Evolved to make it Special - Thom Scott-Phillips
14. In the Land of Giants: A journey through the Dark Ages - Max Adams
15. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding - Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond & Jack Sidnell (Eds.)
16. Indirect Reports and Pragmatics: Interdisciplinary Studies (Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology) - Alessandro Capone (Ed.) (Re-read)
17. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can help Adults Learn a Foreign Language - Richard Robers and Roger Kreuz
18. Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology - Jeff Persels and Russell Ganim (Eds.)
19. Books that Changed the World - Robert B Downs.
20. Um el Madayan: An Islamic City through the Ages - Abderrahman Ayoub, Jamila Binous and Abderrazak Gragueb (Re-read)
21. English Grammar: Your questions answered - Michael McCarthy
22. Look to Windward - Iain M Banks (re-read)
23. War against War - Ernst Friedrich
24. The Story of the Human Body - Daniel Lieberman
25. The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu - Dan Jurafsky
26. Grammars of Space: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity
27. An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or...60 Years of making the same mistakes as always - John O'Farrel
28. The Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone (re-read)
29. The Story of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
30. The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End - Robert Gerwath
31. Soldier Spy - Tom Marcus
32. Direct and Indirect Speech (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs) - Florian Coulmas (Ed.)
33. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language) = John Gumperz & Steven Levinson (Eds.)
34. Is that a Fish in your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation - David Bellos
35. The Voices Within: The History and Science of How we Talk to Ourselves - Charles Fernyhough
36. Dunkirk: The History Behind the Motion Picture - Joshua Levine
37. Alphabetical: How Every Letter tells a Story: Michael Rosen
38. Warsaw Boy: A Memoir of a Wartime Childhood - Andrew Borowiec
39. An Introduction to the Languages of the World - Anatole V. Lyovin, Brett Kessler, William R. Leben
No 39 was a heavy duty book that served as a reminder of how little I know about language. Needed to do some googling to try to understand the contrast between Nominative Accusative languages and Absolutive Ergative languages. Some of the phonetics stuff was pretty hard to fathom as well. But there were some useful insights into the ways in which languages can work, and work in ways which are starkly different from the languages I am familiar with. There is a language in the Caucasus which has the highest differential between consonants and vowels, with something like 40 consonants but only 2 vowels. Some of the Polynesian languages are at the other end of the scale with a large number of vowels but a mere handful of consonants. Arabic has gender marking not only for the third person (he and she) but also for the second person ('You' in English covers both singular and plural and male and female.) Hawaiian has two categories of possession, inalienable and alienable. English can say 'John's brother' and 'John's car' with the apostrophe plus 's' indicating possession. But Hawaiian has to differentiate these two. John didn't have any agency in having a brother, but he did have agency in coming into possession of a car.
The list goes on an on but the authors at several points warn against the dangers of exoticism. As I know from my teaching experience, English can be a pretty weird beast when looked at from the outside.