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Bastard Tongues - A Trail-Blazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages (Paperback)
Loot Price: R430
Discovery Miles 4 300
You Save: R93
(18%)
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Bastard Tongues - A Trail-Blazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages (Paperback)
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List price R523
Loot Price R430
Discovery Miles 4 300
You Save R93 (18%)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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"Bastard Tongues "is an exciting, firsthand story of scientific
discovery in an area of research close to the heart of what it
means to be human--what language is, how it works, and how it
passes from generation to generation, even where historical
accidents have made normal transmission almost impossible. The
story focuses on languages so low in the pecking order that many
people don't regard them as languages at all--Creole languages
spoken by descendants of slaves and indentured laborers in
plantation colonies all over the world. The story is told by Derek
Bickerton, who has spent more than thirty years researching these
languages on four continents and developing a controversial theory
that explains why they are so similar to one another. A published
novelist, Bickerton (once described as "part scholar, part
swashbuckling man of action") does not present his findings in the
usual dry academic manner. Instead, you become a companion on his
journey of discovery. You learn things as he learned them, share
his disappointments and triumphs, explore the exotic locales where
he worked, and meet the colorful characters he encountered along
the way. The result is a unique blend of memoir, travelogue,
history, and linguistics primer, appealing to anyone who has ever
wondered how languages grow or what it's like to search the world
for new knowledge.
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