The Book of Babel: Words and the Way We See Things

by Nigel Lewis

A celebration of the confusion surrounding language, which explores the relationship between words and the world. The author examines connections between groups of seemingly unrelated words, traces the origin of words and describes the power of language to pull perception in its wake.

Genres: Linguistics, Language

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Elizabeth Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is essentially a book on etymology. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author talks about the origin and relationship of particular words by grouping them into different metaphorical categories. For example, he touches on a number of different words that are related to pigs. The conceits he uses are a bit laboured and the writing a bit dry. This is balanced out somewhat by the short sections which make it much easier to read in small bites, provided you can remember what the conceit of the chapter was supposed to be.

The second section is a lexicon, something that approaches a dictionary. However, instead of giving the meaning of the word the reader is provided with some interesting examples of how this word is translated into other languages. This probably should have been explained in an introduction to the lexicon. When I first started reading it, I thought that the author was going to give the etymological history of the word in English—how we arrived at the word we use. It took me a couple of entries before I understood what he was doing.

Overall, the structure could have been improved and it wasn’t as personable to read as other books on language I’ve encountered, such as David Crystal’s By Hook or By Crook. You need to have an interest in the subject matter.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable for anyone interested in the organic nature of words. It's hard to follow at times and lacks structure overall. Before turning to the lexicon which accounts for the full second half of the book, the author closes by going on a strange and only slightly related tirade against religion generally and Christianity specifically. I found those pages tiresome, especially in that he didn't even seem to have a point beyond some personal vendetta. That being said, I did enjoy what I learned from this book about how language grows out of life.

[cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm still reading it, but so far very interesting, although heady and hard to get through much in one sitting. It talks about metaphor alot, where certain common ones came from, the difference and commonality in languages, whether sometimes metaphors engrained in us regarding certain things, like clouds or the ocean, might hurt our ability to see them clearly.
Then there's a whole dictionary in the second half that tells where words originated and their history. It's cool.

[Don LaVange]

I found this book difficult to finish. Many of the word movements that were alleged seemed hard for me to follow. I'm fascinated with the topic of etymology, this book argues for a more organic path that words take that exists outside of strict etymological heritability.

I don't know. I'm going to start again.