Language Unlimited: The Science Behind Our Most Creative Power

by David Adger

All humans, but no other species, have the capacity to create and understand language. It provides structure to our thoughts, allowing us to plan, communicate, and create new ideas, without limit. Yet we have only finite experiences, and our languages have finite stores of words. Where does our linguistic creativity come from? How does the endless scope of language emerge from our limited selves?

Drawing on research from neuroscience, psychology, and linguistics, David Adger takes the reader on a journey to the hidden structure behind all we say (or sign) and understand. Along the way you'll meet children who created language out of almost nothing, and find out how new languages emerge using structures found in languages spoken continents away. David Adger will show you how the more than 7000 languages in the world appear to obey the same deep scientific laws, how to invent a language that breaks these, and how our brains go crazy when we try to learn languages that just aren't possible. You'll discover why rats are better than we are at picking up certain language patterns, why apes are far worse at others, and how artificial intelligences, such as those behind Alexa and Siri , understand language in a very un-human way.

Language Unlimited explores the many mysteries about our capacity for language and reveals the source of its endless creativity.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Science, History, Writing, Microhistory

1 pages, Audio CD

Published March 1, 2021

Reviews

[Imme [trying to crawl out of hiatus] van Gorp · Rating 3 out of 5]

|| 3.0 stars ||

This is a book that attempts to explain why language exists the way it does and why humans are the only species (on Earth) capable of a high-functioning language.

Its explanation comes in the form of a Universal Grammar, which is described as an innate hierarchical linguistic structure, governed by the Laws of Language, functioning through nature’s self-similarity.

Obviously this is quite a mouth full, but the book itself is concise and clear: It describes the relevant theory and also gives scientific examples from previous research.
The book provides logical analogies and conclusions that do not leave much room to do anything but agree with what the author is telling us. Overall, it was quite persuasive, even if a bit drawn out.

[Bart · Rating 3 out of 5]

All and all a strong defence of an innate Universal Grammar & the recursive Merge rule. Still, there will not be that much new for people with an academic background in linguistics.

The book is an introduction for a more or less general audience with a firm theoretical interest, and the Merge rule Noam Chomsky described first is not the focal point: general observations about the importance of syntax for the uniqueness of human language are. This is first and foremost a syntax book.

Adger starts from scratch, and gives a nice enough run through the nature of symbols, emoij, Kanzi the bonobo, AI languages, machine translation, and the likes. There's numerous examples from lots of different languages throughout the book.

In two or three cases I didn't think he was fully convincing - I don't think you need Merge to get to an endless possessive structure (like My sister's cat's food's bacteria's DNA's proteins' ect.), why wouldn't "Chunking" do, coupled with the power to extrapolate that is? - but overall I think the evidence points to Chomsky being right. Especially Adger's description of home signers (deaf children from hearing parents that grow up with other deaf children and invent their own sign language from scratch) is a powerful indication.

What was most interesting to me was the final chapter, on language and culture. It focussed on the distinction between grammar operating with distinct changes between things (words, word order) and generating meaning as such, and other ways of generating (social) meaning relying on aspects of language that rely on continuous changes, like the way a vowel is expressed by certain subcultures, or the slightly different way the s-sound is formed - overal - by gay men & how that even relates to their particular social context.

The book is clear and self-contained. I would have liked 100 pages more though, with more detail about the various arguments in the linguistic field, and more of the final chapter - but that's because I did linguistic 20 years ago and it would have been nice to have had a bit more of a thorough update of the state of the field today.

One final remark: at times there's something wrong with Adger's prose. I can't put my finger on it, but the writing feels a bit clunky, a bit wooden, and overtly repetitive at times. He writes in a kind of popular science mode, but doesn't seem to pull it off neatly.

More book reviews on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It

[DiogenesCFG · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Adger makes an extensive, thou accesible review on what we know about language and how we've come to know it. From the ancient idea of a natural original language, to Chomsky's notion of "merge". This book toaught me how we understand language. How can we make sense of a sentense despite never having read or listened to that exact same sentence, word by word?

[Owlseyes]

https://theconversation.com/how-the-l...


http://m.nautil.us/issue/76/language/...

[Gustavo Leite · Rating 4 out of 5]

David presents the two main existing theories as to how humans learn languages. The first one states that children learn languages simply by exposure, abstracting the details away the more they hear. However, Adger provides some compelling arguments to an alternative theory: that our brains are specialized to learn and use language. The author gives a few examples showing that some patterns in languages would be impossible to abstract when learning only through exposure. David also shows that some patterns never happen despite the limitless ways a language could manifest itself, which further reinforces the argument that our brains have hardwired logic for this purpose. Finally, the author presents the Merge method, an extremely simple process used to organize words in a sentence in a hierarchical way, allowing linguists to classify virtually any known language in well defined classes.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, this was the textbook for a non majors linguistics class I took in 2020 which naturally I never read at the time lol. It’s definitely very introductory which makes sense for a non majors class and does a good job explaining things for people who have never learned this before, but personally I was hoping for a bit more. The last chapter on grammar and culture was the most interesting and I wished it was longer

[Blakepatterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book I had to read for class. I will say the reason for the four-star rating is due to reading the chapters over a semester rather than a brief period. In other words, the dryness of returning to it randomly may have affected my opinion.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5*

[kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

alright i guess. not fully convinced with some points that are made though.

[Aleya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advanced listening copy of this book. It was... dense. I had trouble listening to it because a lot of the examples of language are things he meant for the reader to see laid out on the page. Listening to it made it a little confusing at times. It was a fascinating topic, but I recommend readers pick up the print copy instead of the audio.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not always intellectually and empirically honest, and a little further up Chomsky’s ass than I am personally comfortable with. Still, an enjoyable read.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book about language that is also (likely) accessible for those without a linguistics background.

[BranPap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before digging into this, I think I should preface this review by saying that I am a Linguistics student and have a vested interest in the field. I also happen to know that David is a lovely dude and that these opinions might colour this review. However, I don't think they detract from the following sentiments; if anything, I think they bolster them. With that out of the way, let's get cracking.

This is probably the best pop linguistics book I have read since I discovered the field at the age of 14 (my other favourites being Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language and Language Death). Whilst it's principally a book concerned with how generative syntax and Universal Grammar can account for the constrained yet vast variation across the world's languages, Adger does not forget to deal with other areas of linguistics, too. He incorporates child language acquisition, animal communication, and sociolingusitics, amongst other subfields, beautifully into the main point of the book. This diversity serves to strengthen his arguments and also cover his bases in terms of potential criticism- you certainly can't say he left out any major issues! Minor ones, maybe, but he acknowledges them and states that they are outwith the scope of the present book, which is a fair and valid thing to do.

As far as his arguments actually go, it's hard to walk away this book not a little bit infatuated with the idea of UG and Merge and the powers they wield in the realm of language. Maybe that's compounded by the fact that I'm currently taking a syntax course focusing on Minimalist Syntax with a textbook that Adger literally wrote, but I don't think so. His arguments are genuinely compelling, and easy to follow (more on that later). He draws on evidence from a wide array of the world's languages, not falling into the traps that many other linguists have over the years whereby the focus on a Eurocentric sample.

The other avoidance Adger makes is one I'm very grateful for, and that's the inclusion of a particular individual with regard to what happens when humans are raised without linguistic input. He instead opts to use examples from emergent sign languages, which exhibit more compelling evidences for his arguments anyways. This also avoids the odd fetishisation that some linguists have engaged in with regard to the children and adults who have faced lots of experimentation and scrutiny after being raised with little to no linguistic input. I have no idea if this was intentional, but it's refreshing nonetheless.

One of the best things about this book is how damn accessible it is. Adger describes everything in very plain language, even going so far as to rename linguistic principles that we are familiar with to have less threatening titles, e.g. The Pronoun Law (side note if anyone from that new forensic linguistics tv show is reading, the Pronoun Law or the Binding Principle would both make fabulous episode names...). Everything is fully explained and laid out clearly, and I found myself rereading paragraphs to understand much less frequently than I have in other pop linguistics pop. I think this accessibility is the main selling point of the book.

Finally, it's so refreshing to have a bit of diversity in the examples in a linguistics textbook! No more violence towards women! Just gays running marathons (or not, sorry Anson) and cats being funny. Plus, the fact that Adger openly talks about his partner and touches on issues of sexuality in sociolinguistics is really nice to see as a young aspiring linguist who also happens to be queer.

In sum- read this book if you have any interest in linguistics at all- or even if you don't! It's compelling, accessible, and above all, fun. 10/10 would merge their eyeballs with the pages again.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

This review is based on an ARC ebook received for free from libro.fm's Librarian ALC program. I am not being paid to review this book and what I write here is my own opinion. My rating scale is below.

review
Since this is an audiobook, it’s important to mention the audio portions. So: the author’s accent and inflection makes this book aurally interesting to listen to, and his tempo was fast enough that I didn’t feel the urge to speed up the recording to 1.25x or 1.5x as I listened. That said, for me, hearing examples given in other languages without being able to read them in print was a little jarring. I had a harder time examining word and sentence structure without the visual cues of having the phrases and words before my eyes.

Once or twice the narration says that a word has been placed in bold, but without being able to see the page, it’s impossible to see which word has been bolded. It is also important to listen closely for the word “diagram” to flip over to the PDF of accompanying diagrams provided by Tantor Media once a password provided in the text is entered.

The text and linguistic principles grow increasingly complex as the book progresses, but Adger does a good job easing a non-linguist readership into the concepts through a combination of clear diagrams, helpful real-world examples, and sensible avoidance of excessive jargon. One of my favorite examples was one the author used wherein he is talking to his hungry, miaowing cat to assure her the food is being opened, and how this exchange of speech and sounds is an instance of nothing being successfully communicated, despite the use of language, because clearly the cat does not understand the inevitable arrival of food from his words (unless that’s what her miaowing means, but the author doesn’t know that either, hence information is not being exchanged).

There were a number of fascinating topics raised throughout the book. Some of my favorites were the discussion of home signers’ development of their own lexicons and syntaxes and an entire chapter dedicated to conlangs (learning that Parseltongue was created for the Harry Potter films by Francis Nolan delighted me). Other aspects were concepts which had not previously occurred to me to consider, despite reading about languages and linguistics for more than a decade: Adger discusses how humans and other animals learn to discern words from the flow of speech, and early on in the book introduces the idea of an emoji-based alphabet and how it might be used to communicate but fails to succeed as language was interesting and put me strongly in mind of the alethiometer from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.

I genuinely enjoyed this book and have few quibbles about the audiobook version. I would have liked to have been able to look at the bibliography and whatever foot- or endnotes existed so that I could do further research, but overall this was a great book that introduced the author’s views and explained them thoroughly and enjoyably. I definitely recommend it, with the caveat that it’s probably not ideal for commuters, who won’t be able to look at the diagrams as they drive.

rating scale
1 star - I was barely able to finish it. I didn't like it.
2 stars - It was okay. I didn't dislike it.
3 stars - It was interesting. I liked it.
4 stars - It was excellent. I really liked it.
5 stars - It was extraordinary. I really hope the author wrote more things.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses language at a very high altitude. The focus is on the questions of where does language come from, and what is it about humans that make us uniquely capable of language. Chomsky's Universal Grammar is discussed, as is the notion that language could be the result of an accretive use of metaphor and analogy. I enjoyed the book, though it felt more like a book of philosophical musings than "the science of our most creative power". This is not to say that there is no science here, there is plenty.

Humans are contrasted with the language and pattern learning capabilities of various animals throughout the book, but the section that caught me the most was the discussion of deaf children who grow up away from a society that has a standardized sign language, who invent their own versions of signs, and the grammatical inventions that result when these children are thrown together with others who have done the same.

Much of the book is about the sources of language discrimination and other physical challenges - things like, as a species, do we pay more attention to vowels or consonants when learning to parse vocal sounds.

The ending of the book seems discordant with the earlier chapters. There is a presentation of "Merge" which probably reads well to students of linguistics, but which I did not find instructive enough. Finally, the chapter on Grammar and Culture, had interesting material in it, but seems to stand on its own rather than summarizing and focusing the materials preceding it.

[IvanOpinion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found parts of this book fascinating and thought provoking, but a fair bit of it was, frankly, a bit of a slog. The book seems to be intended for a general audience; it is not a text book for linguistics scholars. But in that case it really should have been more accessible to someone like me, who has not studied linguistics, but (I like to think) has the intellect to follow some fairly demanding reasoning. By that measure, the book fails, as I confess that I just did not follow a fair bit of it.

Perhaps it is just such a difficult discipline that it cannot be explained to a layman? (The book certainly served to leave me in awe at how cognitively-demanding linguistics seems to be.) But in that case the book should not have been published. Or perhaps Adger is not sufficiently skilled as a writer to make it understandable? (Perhaps this is a topic that could have benefited from having someone from outside the field spend the time to get a good understanding and then explain it in a way that laymen can understand? Like Bill Bryson does in his A Short History of Nearly Everything.) It is difficult to tell.

The only reader for whom this book seems to be suitable would, in my view, be someone who is thinking of starting a course to study linguistics. If such a person read this book and either could not follow it or did not find it fascinating, I suspect they should reconsider whether they want to spend a few years studying linguistics.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An argument in favor of Chomsky’s “universal grammar,” the idea that all human language obeys a universal abstract syntax. I mostly skimmed this book as the arguments get pretty tedious but found it unconvincing. Adger certainly establishes the (self-evident) point that language has structure but what actually constitutes a “universal grammar” seems very under-specified. I can certainly see why this is an idea that has fallen out of favor among linguists.

[Nat]

I'm thinking about new ways of organizing an intro to phil language class and a couple of the chapters in here, especially the chapters on the difference between current machine translation and human language and on Conlanging non-human languages as via negativa ways of revealing what's distinctive about human language, were particularly stimulating.

[Navin Valrani · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that emphasizes on the power of syntax in human language with infinite possibilities. Covers chunking, merge, and other language acquisition concepts with good examples. A tough read but a good one for those that wish to explore linguistics in greater depth.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed and easy read on psycho linguistics of English Language. It talks about how the mind interprets language to how new languages can be made and even how language and communication will prevail, with the close detail attention of deaf people.

[Psygnostic · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of boring, unless you're REALLY into linguistics

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as interesting as I hoped it would be. I was looking forward to it ending for half of the book.

[Said Dbich · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب رائع

[Mario Krapp]

I like languages and have great interest in why they exist, how they are related, and how they work. This book doesn’t connect to any of these points and had therefore not been my thing.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to the subject. I learned quite a few new things- such as the mirative. Wish it had had more subheadings- it would have made it easier to read and follow.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[ixi_liburujalea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have taken classes of linguistics, so I was a little bit disappointed, as the friend that suggested this book to me told me I would learn many new things... But that didn't happen. It was a revision of the subjects I studied, explained them in a more simple way. So, yes, it was a disappointment for me, but that is none of the book's fault. The book is really good. In fact, I would really recommend it to people who doesn't know (nearly) anything about this subject but are interested.

[Meg]

I'm not convinced of the main argument, but I'm also not convinced I completely understood all the arguments so 🤷🏼‍♂️ certainly an interesting discussion of some main arguments in linguistics.

[Srabasti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely write reviews for books but this one was so overwhelming because of the simplicity it employed in explaining the technical bits of formal linguistics that I had to say something about the book. I'm sure it'll prove to be extremely resourceful for all the emprircal data discussed throughout the chapters. But even more so as a trainee syntactician, I found the way it took up theory internal topics like Binding Principle ( dubbed as Name-Pronoun law :D ) and explored them in non-technical terms very fascinating. And there is a fair amount of information for readers whose interest in language is through computational linguistics and AI.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the idea of Universal Grammar, and this book explains it really nicely and goes over a lot of the evidence for it well. I also really like that Adger goes over sign languages as well, and mentions signing at the same time as he mentions speaking when referring to languages.