Are Some Languages Better than Others?
R. M. W. Dixon
Abstract
There was a tendency, in the nineteenth century, for Europeans to denigrate the customs of dark-skinned peoples, and to put forward the uninformed opinion that their languages were ‘primitive’. To counter this mistaken idea, the first pages of textbooks and the first lectures of freshman courses in linguistics have emphasised, as loud as was possible, that ‘no language spoken in the world today is primitive’ and then ‘that all languages are about equal in complexity’. But surely they are not all of exactly equal worth. The present volume is the first serious attempt to address this question, i ... More
There was a tendency, in the nineteenth century, for Europeans to denigrate the customs of dark-skinned peoples, and to put forward the uninformed opinion that their languages were ‘primitive’. To counter this mistaken idea, the first pages of textbooks and the first lectures of freshman courses in linguistics have emphasised, as loud as was possible, that ‘no language spoken in the world today is primitive’ and then ‘that all languages are about equal in complexity’. But surely they are not all of exactly equal worth. The present volume is the first serious attempt to address this question, in a measured and scientific manner. It is intended for students of linguistics and, beyond that, for a wide general audience. In essence, it presents a succinct portrait of the discipline of linguistics, pared down to its essentials. I work on the principle that if something can be explained, it should be explainable in everyday language, which any intelligent person can understand, although of course a degree of concentration and thoughtfulness is required. The use of technical terms has been kept to a minimum. Examples are quoted from a wide range of languages; these have been chosen to be simple (although not simplified), avoiding additional complexities which are irrelevant to the point being made. The book will be accessible to anyone with an interest in how languages work.
Keywords:
language,
linguistics,
evaluation,
grammar,
vocabulary,
phonology,
synonymy,
homonymy,
complexity
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198766810 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198766810.001.0001 |
