David Shariatmadari takes us on a tour of what the study of linguistics tells us about language in Don’t Believe a Word. He starts by addressing everyone’s pet peeve that their language is going downhill and then moves on to talk about the relation between a word’s origin and its meaning or “true” meaning. During the course of the book he takes on sound, language and animals, the “untranslatable” word, what actually makes a something a language rather than a dialect, interpreting meaning in language, whether any one language is “better” than the others, and whether language is an instinct in humans.
This fascinating book is written for the non-linguist’s enjoyment and I would heartily recommend it.
