EBOOK
Bastard Tongues
A Trailblazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages
Derek Bickerton(0)
About
Why Do Isolated Creole Languages Tend to Have Similar Grammatical Structures?
Bastard Tongues is an exciting, firsthand story of scientific discovery in an area of research close to the heart of what it means to be human-what language is, how it works, and how it passes from generation to generation, even where historical accidents have made normal transmission almost impossible. The story focuses on languages so low in the pecking order that many people don't regard them as languages at all-Creole languages spoken by descendants of slaves and indentured laborers in plantation colonies all over the world. The story is told by Derek Bickerton, who has spent more than thirty years researching these languages on four continents and developing a controversial theory that explains why they are so similar to one another. A published novelist, Bickerton (once described as "part scholar, part swashbuckling man of action") does not present his findings in the usual dry academic manner. Instead, you become a companion on his journey of discovery. You learn things as he learned them, share his disappointments and triumphs, explore the exotic locales where he worked, and meet the colorful characters he encountered along the way. The result is a unique blend of memoir, travelogue, history, and linguistics primer, appealing to anyone who has ever wondered how languages grow or what it's like to search the world for new knowledge.
Bastard Tongues is an exciting, firsthand story of scientific discovery in an area of research close to the heart of what it means to be human-what language is, how it works, and how it passes from generation to generation, even where historical accidents have made normal transmission almost impossible. The story focuses on languages so low in the pecking order that many people don't regard them as languages at all-Creole languages spoken by descendants of slaves and indentured laborers in plantation colonies all over the world. The story is told by Derek Bickerton, who has spent more than thirty years researching these languages on four continents and developing a controversial theory that explains why they are so similar to one another. A published novelist, Bickerton (once described as "part scholar, part swashbuckling man of action") does not present his findings in the usual dry academic manner. Instead, you become a companion on his journey of discovery. You learn things as he learned them, share his disappointments and triumphs, explore the exotic locales where he worked, and meet the colorful characters he encountered along the way. The result is a unique blend of memoir, travelogue, history, and linguistics primer, appealing to anyone who has ever wondered how languages grow or what it's like to search the world for new knowledge.
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Reviews
"One of the field's old lions, he has spent the last four decades studying pidgins and Creoles and writing a few novels on the side. A self-described macho "street linguist" for whom fieldwork is part pub crawl, Bickerton has a penchant for big ideas and a "total lack of respect for the respectable" that, judging from his new memoir, has put him at odds with bureaucrats and colleagues. "Bastard Tongues" is gossipy, vain and pugilistic--in other words, all the juicy things an academic memoir should be but too rarely is."
The New York Times Book Review
"Bickerton has made transformative discoveries about the way we acquire language… The book is part memoir, part intellectual detective story and part linguistics primer. Bickerton is a spirited, clever writer, and the tripartite nature of the narrative suits him."
The Los Angeles Times
"His intellectual enthusiasm is so contagious that many readers will find themselves sharing his indignation…the rebel in you can't help but warm to him."
New Scientist