"Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love follows the path that language takes through a human life - from an infant's first attempts at sense-making to the vulnerabilities and losses that accompany aging. As Sedivy shows, however, language and life are inextricable, and here she offers them together: a childish misunderstanding of her mother's meaning reveals the difficulty of relating to other minds; frustration with 'professional' communication styles exposes the labyrinth of standards that define success; the first signs of hearing loss lead to a meditation on society's discomfort with physical and mental limitations. Part memoir, part scientific exploration, and part cultural commentary, this book celebrates the thrills of a life steeped in the aesthetic delights of language and the joys of its scientific scrutiny." --
Record details
ISBN:9780374601836 (hardcover)
ISBN:0374601836 (hardcover)
Physical Description:print 320 pages ; 22 cm
Edition:First edition.
Publisher:New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.
Part I: Childhood. Before meaning -- Minds, meeting and parting -- Feral polyglot -- Prosthesis -- Crevasses -- Part II: Maturity. The rectilinear movement of time -- Resolving ambiguities -- How to be a success! -- Pleasure hunts -- Part III: Loss. Missing words -- Limits -- Silence.
Book