The Language Imperative: How Learning Languages Can Enrich Your Life

By Suzette Haden Elgin

Book Overview

Many of us view language as a tool, a means by which to communicate our thoughts and emotions. But is there more to language than just "talk"? Can learning languages actually change the way you think? In The Language Imperative, best-selling author and linguistic scholar Suzette Haden Elgin makes a persuasive case that the linguistic differences between us are not trivial, that language and culture are inextricably linked, and that multilingualism has a profound (and beneficial) effect on the human mind. Drawing on examples from the worlds of medicine, business, religion, and family life, Elgin illustrates that each language learned gains for the speaker another worldview -- perhaps even another personality. This makes it all the more disturbing that many of the world's languages are rapidly disappearing, and that the "English Only" movement is gaining ground. Based on solid science and filled with personal insights, The Language Imperative is required reading for anyone interested in how words shape our lives, both as individuals and as a nation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738204285
• ISBN13: 9780738204284
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

refreshingly simple and yet complex

It is refreshing to read a text based on linguistic philosophy and the politics of language that is written in such readable language, though her accessible prose hardly lacks complexity of thought. Also, Haden is not afraid to voice her opinion instead of simply stating an accumulation of facts and citations. I read books to hear what other people are thinking, including the author. After researching and writing such an in-depth report, she'd better have some opinions of the subject matter! I'm glad that now, I know them too. The issues she covers are chock full of debate, so her intellectual views and personal views are more than appropriate. Overall, a strongly stated argument and informing book.

thought provoking but opinionated

I bought this book looking for an interesting and informative discussion on the effects of language, and got just that. Ms. Elgin highlights the many contradictions our culture is grapling with, such as the argument to teach only in English in US schools. She also touches on the controvetial subject of whether or not language shapes our view of reality and approach to life. Despite the interesting subject matter and obvious research that has gone into this book, Ms. Elgin is quick to insert her opinions and just as quick to apologize for them. The book would have been vastly improved if these personal opinions had been eliminated from the text or mentioned in the preface or afterward, not after every new theory is introduced. Altogether an interesting and informative book which must be read with skepticism as it is so strongly opinionated.