Linguistics and Writing

All writers are interested in language. I know that's a sweeping statement, but it's true. They've got to be - otherwise they wouldn't be writing. They would be painting, or making silent films, or crocheting tea cosies or throwing pots in order to express themselves. And I think that knowing more about the tools of your trade is not only fascinating, but vital. So here are three books about language and linguistics that I've found interesting, useful, and quite often inspiring.

Introducing Linguistics by RL Trask and Bill Mayblin (Icon Books, 2005) is a graphic guide to language theory. Although it's full of quirky cartoons and illustrations, it doesn't compromise on subject matter. It's a great introduction to the subject, covering both the history of linguistics and current linguistic theories. 

Below is a sample page. And this particular one led me to the much more complicated and fascinating Women, Fire and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff (University of Chicago Press, 1987).

Language Myths, edited by Laurie Bayer and Peter Trudgill (Penguin, 1998), is a collection of twenty one essays exploring misconceptions about language. For example, there are essays that address the myths that some languages don't have grammar, that modern English is being ruined, that women talk too much, and that word meanings should be fixed. A fascinating range, and very readable. Great if you want a quick language theory fix, and good subject matter for dinner party conversations!

Mark Turner's The Literary Mind (OUP, 1996) is a bit more heavy going, but well worth the read. In it, he draws on cognitive linguistics and literary theory to explore the idea that humans understand life and the world around us through what is more commonly thought of as 'literary' thought. Turner says, 'Parable is the root of the human mind - of thinking, knowing, acting, creating, and plausibly even of speaking. But the common view, firmly in place for two and a half millennia, sees the everyday mind as unliterary and the literary mind as optional'. So anyone who is interested in literature and storytelling in any form will find this book very interesting and highly relevant.