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Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language
"As an introduction to linguistic science, this course's main goal is to show that speaking is more than a matter of knowing words and putting them in order. Linguists have discovered that language is an intricate hierarchy of systems, ever changing in surface appearance but ever consistent in organizational essence"--Course guidebook.
This is a series of 36 lectures by Prof. John McWhorter and includes a printed guidebook.
This is a series of 36 lectures by Prof. John McWhorter and includes a printed guidebook.
Audio CD
Published January 1, 2008
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About the author
John McWhorter
47 books1,715 followersJohn Hamilton McWhorter (Professor McWhorter uses neither his title nor his middle initial as an author) is an American academic and linguist who is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music history. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His research specializes on how creole languages form, and how language grammars change as the result of sociohistorical phenomena.
A popular writer, McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, City Journal, The New Yorker, among others; he is also contributing editor at The Atlantic and hosts Slate's Lexicon Valley podcas
A popular writer, McWhorter has written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Politico, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, City Journal, The New Yorker, among others; he is also contributing editor at The Atlantic and hosts Slate's Lexicon Valley podcas
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 17, 2018
This wasn't what I thought at all. It seems I have an enthusiasm for language but not at all for linguistics. It is words I like, not the production of the sounds that make them. I have no interest at all in whether a sound is a fricative, a labial, or even the voiceless unaspirated stops - t, p and k to you and me. Not even the very clever and entertaining lecturer, who is also the narrator, could keep my concentration on what he was saying.
He did give away some personal political feelings at one point in quite an amusing way. He was speaking about the origins of Indo-European, pointing out that he didn't believe it was, as some scholars thought, originally from Turkey, but definitely from the Caucasus, as the DNA evidence suggested. ( So anyway, McWhorter says it is at least clear the original speakers of PIE were not from the Mediterranean or any area with a decent climate, healthy food and good-looking brown people. McWhorter is himself a very good-looking brown skin man who has written Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. That gave me a 5-star smile, thinking of these people shivering up in the cold steppes, their bodies wrapped in furry animal skins and not getting any fresh fruit for at least half the year. No wonder they migrated!
Ket, a Siberian language that is the sole survivor of its language group, is related to the Na-Dene language group of the Native Americans of New Mexico, Arizona etc. 15-20,000 years ago these cold Siberians must have crossing the Bering Strait land bridge and eventually found themselves in a lovely warm climte and never gone home. Or not often, and just to trade and tell the family come on over, it's so much nicer over there.
Anyway, I've put the book to one side for now. I don't know if I'll ever get back to it.
Written with great enthusiasm before starting the book.
He did give away some personal political feelings at one point in quite an amusing way. He was speaking about the origins of Indo-European, pointing out that he didn't believe it was, as some scholars thought, originally from Turkey, but definitely from the Caucasus, as the DNA evidence suggested. ( So anyway, McWhorter says it is at least clear the original speakers of PIE were not from the Mediterranean or any area with a decent climate, healthy food and good-looking brown people. McWhorter is himself a very good-looking brown skin man who has written Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. That gave me a 5-star smile, thinking of these people shivering up in the cold steppes, their bodies wrapped in furry animal skins and not getting any fresh fruit for at least half the year. No wonder they migrated!
Ket, a Siberian language that is the sole survivor of its language group, is related to the Na-Dene language group of the Native Americans of New Mexico, Arizona etc. 15-20,000 years ago these cold Siberians must have crossing the Bering Strait land bridge and eventually found themselves in a lovely warm climte and never gone home. Or not often, and just to trade and tell the family come on over, it's so much nicer over there.
Anyway, I've put the book to one side for now. I don't know if I'll ever get back to it.
Written with great enthusiasm before starting the book.
September 11, 2015
There's a lot to absorb here. It starts from scratch to give you a firm grounding across the entire field of linguistics. McWhorter is highly knowledgeable and energetic throughout. Firmly recommended for anyone with an interest in the topic.
August 22, 2023
Incredible book - great introduction to the somewhat complex field of linguistics. The author laces the work with a great deal of humor to spice up an erstwhile dry subject. Chapter 19 deals with Urdu, and chapter 26 deals with the Kun tribe, who sing away their hunger and 'argue' through a unique register (akin to couples' therapy).
January 7, 2011
An excellent and well organized linguistics course.
John's lectures are entertaining and captivating, enough to make me go through the course twice (DVD then audiobook) and take a keen interest in his other material (interviews and books) even though I have little to no professional interest in the field of linguistics.
John's lectures are entertaining and captivating, enough to make me go through the course twice (DVD then audiobook) and take a keen interest in his other material (interviews and books) even though I have little to no professional interest in the field of linguistics.
August 22, 2020
I find it a tad uncomfortable logging audio books as having been "read", and lectures? Well...they're here and I've listened to them. McWhorter is a fun speaker, quite knowledgeable as all Teaching Company lecturers are, and I enjoyed his The Story of Human Language (twice). I get that he may not appeal to everyone, but I'm not everyone and I'm the only one who counts here, right?! A step higher than Story, this really is about the linguistics. McWhorter talks about the sounds, phonemes, words, morphemes, syntax, grammar, structures, semantics, the devolution of language, evolution of languages, speech, conversation , gender, markers, culture, reflections of thought, writing, and walks the listener/viewer through how a linguist analyzes a language - with two real world examples. Saramaccan, a hybrid language spoken in Suriname, was formed from English, Portuguese, some African languages and some Dutch, all relatively familiar. Kabardian, an "obscure, difficult, and peculiar" language spoken in the Caucasus Mountains.
McWhorter's lectures confirm what I already knew about the science fiction "universal translator" of Star Trek - totally absurd plot device that is all fantasy and no science. And the popular Darmok episode on the spinoff, where a species communicates in a language "built upon metaphors and allegories, in which Tamarians cite incidents from their cultural history, to communicate the emotions they feel, their perceptions of situations, and their wishes and opinions about actions"??? Even more absurd. (Dr. McWhorter makes no mention of this...it's my editorialized observation.)
Now, I have a beef with the use of "they" to refer to a single person, but McWhorter enlightened me as to the origins of the usage, and even The Bard referred to a man as "they", so I must work on my mental processing of that. I still recoil, though, at the Southern American English contraction for all of you...that will never,/i> be acceptable! McWhorter is okay with it, so don't hold me position against him!
Excellent course, and one I'll likely listen to again.
McWhorter's lectures confirm what I already knew about the science fiction "universal translator" of Star Trek - totally absurd plot device that is all fantasy and no science. And the popular Darmok episode on the spinoff, where a species communicates in a language "built upon metaphors and allegories, in which Tamarians cite incidents from their cultural history, to communicate the emotions they feel, their perceptions of situations, and their wishes and opinions about actions"??? Even more absurd. (Dr. McWhorter makes no mention of this...it's my editorialized observation.)
Now, I have a beef with the use of "they" to refer to a single person, but McWhorter enlightened me as to the origins of the usage, and even The Bard referred to a man as "they", so I must work on my mental processing of that. I still recoil, though, at the Southern American English contraction for all of you...that will never,/i> be acceptable! McWhorter is okay with it, so don't hold me position against him!
Excellent course, and one I'll likely listen to again.
February 6, 2016
Its always amusing and enjoyable to know more about human languages. This roughly 18 hours course is often informative and full of aha' moments. However, the language John McWhorter used in the leture series is somewhat an onerous task to catch with my ears since there are a fair amount of technical jargon. It would have been easier to be in the actual lecture to see his examples, writings or whatever shown to aid student's comprehension.
The sections about philosophy of language and socio-linguistics interest me the most. It seems like the game of giving arguement and refutation is everlastingly thought-provoking.
The sections about philosophy of language and socio-linguistics interest me the most. It seems like the game of giving arguement and refutation is everlastingly thought-provoking.
March 5, 2019
As a linguistics major back in the day, I feel oddly authorized to comment on this. It is a great book as an introduction to linguistics. I would recommend this course before reading anything deeper. I am honestly impressed by the structure. Anyone interested in linguistics will benefit from this course, even if you have a background in linguistics this is quite useful.
January 22, 2016
This is one of the best courses I've taken by The Great Courses. It's technical, but well explained. The charts and illustrations provide great support.
August 4, 2013
I can now say that I have some ideas about what linguistics is!
September 17, 2014
This guy is SO charismatic.
May 23, 2022
Exceptional introduction to linguistics. Follows an intuitive path where ideas build on each other and never seems to get dry.
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December 9, 2025Lovely to listen to!
June 14, 2018
A nice introductory course on modern linguistics.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews