The Ascent of Babel: An Exploration of Language, Mind, and Understanding
By Gerry T. M. Altmann
* Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages: 272
* Publication Date: 1999-05-06
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0198523777
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780198523772
Product Description:
With The Ascent of Babel, psycholinguist Gerry Altmann takes us on a journey of discovery, illuminating how, through the workings of the brain, we use language to reach out and touch each other's minds. Here, he explores the ways in which the mind produces and understands language: the ways in which the sounds of language evoke meaning, and the ways in which the desire to communicate causes us to produce those sounds to begin with.
Altmann begins even before we are born, revealing that the fetus in the last trimester is already listening to the language of its parents and that, within days of birth, it can distinguish its parents' language from other languages. From how babies learn language and how we discriminate between different sounds, through comprehension of the sounds and structures of language (and the pitfalls along the way), to the production of spoken and written language, the effects of brain damage on language, and finally the ways in which computer simulations of interconnecting nerve cells can learn language, Altmann offers a wide-ranging, engaging tour. Up to date, authoritative, and engagingly written, The Ascent of Babel is must reading for everyone curious about the mysteries of language or of the mind.
Summary: Very good, but might be a little dated.
Rating: 4
Linguistics is the science of language, and psycho-linguistics is a branch of psychology attempting to understand how we acquire and process language, both oral and written. While this is a book about psycho-linguistics, it provides the reader with the necessary background in the relevant areas of linguistics. Psycholinguistics utilizes a variety of inputs: some very clever experimental tools, both high tech and low tech; studies of individuals with brain damage of some kind; computer investigations of artificial intelligence. Most amazing are the experiments with infants only a few days old. Gerry writes very clearly, and employs just enough repetition to reinforce ideas without being boring. Notwithstanding his efforts, and the significant progress that has been made, psycholinguistics at this point still seems to be more a collection of intriguing conclusions and experiments than a coherent whole. A previous reviewer mentioned that his Tower of Babel analogy adds nothing, and I quickly learned to skip his references to the Tower, but this is a very minor point. I found some of the sentences Gerry used for illustrating points more convoluted than I would have liked, but perhaps that was necessary. I had always thought I would be interested in linguistics, but while the book's discussions of linguistics were interesting, especially on the differences between languages, Gerry left me with no great desire to read another book on the subject, which was a disappointment. In summary, a very good book, but written in 1997, so perhaps a more recent book would be better.
Summary: A good book, but could use some tweaking.
Rating: 3
This book covers many topics of psycholinguistics in a way that someone with no background (except personal experience) can understand. Ch. 10 ("Exercising the vocal organs") is especially good in this respect because it covers the kinds of slips-of-the-tongue all of us can relate to, and then discusses the theoretical implications of the kinds of slips that are made. So this book will do fine if you want to learn a little bit about learning different sounds, finding meanings for words, and guessing meanings from grammar. Also, there is a chapter that quickly overviews different kinds of aphasias, dyslexias, and dysgraphias (problems with spoken language, problems with understanding written language, and problems with writing) as well as a nice not-over-technical chapter on computer modeling of how the brain might learn grammar. I feel so enriched! (8
The flow of the text is awkward: the transitions between chapters were okay, but within some chapters Altmann seems to ramble on somewhat. The book is quite readable if you don't do it all at one sitting, in which case this sort of thing might get annoying, but rather a chapter or two at a time, which fits well with the author's page vi suggestion that "the reader of this book should also skip [passages of the book] as necessary." This is not any less so for the fact that Altmann includes a preface, a pre-chapter called "In the beginning," and a chapter-one introduction to psycholinguistics. Altmann is also plagued the unfortunate "ascent of Babel" metaphor and feels obliged to waxing poetic on it between chapters.
It seems to me that Altmann glosses over controversy, for example as to the origins of the human race and human languages. I was a little surprised that there was no elaboration on what others tell me is not an open-shut case. I get the feeling that Altmann has a limited background on the topic, giving only 7 references in the bibliography for this chapter. Other chapters with sparse bibliography showings note that Altmann couldn't find further general reading, etc., and on average chapters 2 through 13 still have twice that many references, even though they cover much less academic terrain. |
楼主: 帆帆
sycholinguistics" is not an exception to this rule.