Impossible Languages

by Andrea Moro

Can there be such a thing as an impossible human language? A biologist could describe an impossible animal as one that goes against the physical laws of nature (entropy, for example, or gravity). Are there any such laws that constrain languages? In this book, Andrea Moro -- a distinguished linguist and neuroscientist -- investigates the possibility of impossible languages, searching, as he does so, for the indelible "fingerprint" of human language.Moro shows how the very notion of impossible languages has helped shape research on the ultimate aim of linguistics: to define the class of possible human languages. He takes us beyond the boundaries of Babel, to the set of properties that, despite appearances, all languages share, and explores the sources of that order, drawing on scientific experiments he himself helped design. Moro compares syntax to the reverse side of a tapestry revealing a hidden and apparently intricate structure. He describes the brain as a sieve, considers the reality of (linguistic) trees, and listens for the sound of thought by recording electrical activity in the brain. Words and sentences, he tells us, are like symphonies and constellations: they have no content of their own; they exist because we listen to them and look at them. We are part of the data.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, Science, Neuroscience

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2016

Reviews

[Brent Woo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every linguist should read Moro. Especially those linguists who proudly crow "I hate syntax!" or "Syntax is dumb". Moro makes it clear here the questions of syntax are questions about possible and impossible languages, and ultimately questions about being human. As with The Boundaries of Babel. The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages, you're not going to get a laundry list of "here are the impossible languages". Rather, he manages in 150-pages to discuss how to think about the concept of "what are possible and impossible languages". Which are not a trivial questions at all.

Moro shows how philosophers and philosophic thinkers have addressed questions of languages throughout the centuries—he cites Emil du Bois-Reymond, Descartes, Juan Caramuel y Lobkowits, Leibniz, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, and discusses Aristotle and Plato. Moro is a true interdisciplinary scholar: drawing deeply on neurobiology and linguistics, rather than just independently dipping into those separate fields, he's able to actually make something of that interaction, analogizing from brain studies to language studies and vice versa, and showing how he places his research at the meeting between the two disciplines. The main value is here for linguists: most of the material about a potentially genetically encoded grammar is well-known to linguists, but Moro talks about the difficulties and strategies used in neurobiology, and how fMRIs and subtraction work. He's the guy to go to for questions like "is there a language center of the brain?" and if you're bugged at "why don't we at this point have the technology or methods to see syntax in the brain?"

His main points are mostly repeated from The Boundaries of Babel. The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages (and plugs for Dynamic Antisymmetry), but this is a much slimmer volume with more popular appeal. I'd recommend this to any friend interested in learning about linguistics, or grad students from other departments, although I'd say it's a step up in difficulty from your typical trade non-fiction. Whereas Boundaries of Babel is more rigorous and really more suited for linguists or neurobiologists in particular looking to learn about the other field. Moro is quickly becoming my favorite linguist qua writer, he definitely has a gift for beautiful but also rigorous language. It's written with poetic analogies throughout, and it always seems like he wants to actually write a novel, but has to rein in his creative writing because it's serious non-fiction (Turns out he did actually just release his first novel in Italy, Il segreto di Pietramala).

[Nat]

More short books like this please! This is an elegant discourse on big-picture questions about syntax and the nature of human language that at times could be the kind of thing a character in a Neal Stephenson novel could be monologuing about: parallels between human language, math, music, and speculating about the underlying material of internal and external languages being *waves* (electric and acoustic), plus light-touch summaries of some pretty wild sounding neurolinguistic experiments, including "awake surgery" experiments where participants were asked to read, aloud and silently, sentences while they were undergoing open-skull brain surgery.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Ifigenio72 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al lettore non arriva chiara la collocazione di queste pagine: si tratta di un saggio tecnico o di un testo per un primo approccio alla materia? Moro oscilla tra i due estremi, e sebbene affermi di aver condensato il più possibile i riferimenti bibliografici onde non appesantire la lettura, riporta titoli specialistici che non servono di certo al lettore "che vuole farsi un'idea". Tra questi, forse una parte eccessiva sono suoi lavori, ciò che farebbe pensare più a un compendio del Moro pensiero che a un approccio generale alla materia.
Nei primi capitoli, quelli ricchi di frasi esemplificative, il testo soffre di una traduzione traballante, che avrebbe dovuto avere miglior cura visto che inglese e italiano molto distano rispetto a diverse tematiche affrontate nel libro.
Il fil rouge de _Le lingue impossibili_ non è in definitiva molto chiaro, ed è giusto sollevato da qualche passaggio più curioso. A suo pregio, lascia la curiosità di approfondire alcuni degli aspetti trattati con altre letture, non per forza quelle suggerite da Moro (chissà perché).

[Luigi Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrea Moro's Impossible Languages takes you into the uncharted territories of linguistic theory and cognitive science. He challenges readers to explore the boundaries of human language by posing an intriguing question: are there languages that are impossible for the human brain to comprehend or produce?

[Carmelo Valone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book on both how languages are created and both decipered and a perfect companion book to 'Alien Languages' also released by MIT press. Real science and not some History channel kookery....

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molto interessante, difficile e a tratti difficilissimo per chi come me, non conosce la linguistica e nemmeno di cosa si occupa. Ora lo so e devo dire che la parte sugli esperimenti mi é piaciuta piú di tutte.

[Othman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book!

[Emanuel Hritcu · Rating 4 out of 5]

un libro che chiude in bellezza
ben scritto, i concetti poi sono esposti nella maniera più chiara possibile grazie all’utilizzo di un linguaggio molto curato

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Extremely dry and academic, with a massive number of citations. Obviously meant for other researchers rather than curious laypeople.

[Andy Schwartz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t find the words