The best books about how human language works

This book is why I decided to become a professional linguist! It’s a classic: it set the bar high for writing about language in a way that’s scientifically accurate yet gripping.

I was utterly mesmerized by a myriad of things Pinker talks about, like Nicaraguan Sign Language, Broca’s area in the brain, and the workings of words like “riff-raff” and “ding-dong” (and why we don’t say “raff-riff” or “dong-ding”). I also love the author’s fascination with, and admiration for, the beauty and complexity of human language and of the human mind. 

I must admit that I’m somewhat biased here, as Mark Baker was one of my professors in graduate school, but I love this book on its merits!

It’s very easy to think of languages as endlessly dissimilar from each other: what do English and Edo (one of the many languages in Nigeria) have in common? Or Navajo and Japanese? Or Tsotsil (spoken in Mexico) and Malagasy (spoken in Madagascar)?

It blew my mind how Baker takes a seemingly far-fetched parallel between language and chemistry and manages to show that the state-of-the-art linguistic theory allows us to find order and logic in the ostensibly chaotic variety of human languages, much like Mendeleev’s Periodic Table provides a structured way to see the tangible world around us.

Any book on language by John McWhorter is a worthwhile read, but this one, I think, is his all-time best! Who knew that a book that starts with a discussion of verb conjugation in Persian can be a page-turner, right?

I was struck by McWhorter’s appreciation for what lesser-known languages, like Ket in Siberia or Twi in Ghana, show us about how the human mind works. But the most mind-blowing thing about this book, in my opinion, is how well McWhorter succeeds in describing how complex every human idiom is in a way that is clear and engaging without being lost in the disheveled intricacies of Fongbe or Navajo. 

I couldn’t put down this book from the very first pages that tell the story of Monsieur Leborgne and how Doctor Broca, who treated him, made the vital linguistic discovery that immortalized his name.

I learned that some groundbreaking linguistic discoveries are still made in hospitals, but one no longer needs to have a brain injury to be of interest to neurolinguistic science.

I also loved discovering how clever experiments are designed and how MRI gives us a window into how language works in the brain in real-time. 

A whirlwind tour of what state-of-the-art linguistic science has to offer!

Even after 25 years of working in the field, I learned many new things from this book, ranging from how children acquire sign languages of the deaf to experiments trying to teach apes human language. I particularly liked the many clearly-presented examples from English and other languages.

But what was especially fun for me was a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how Adger designed an alien language for a TV show. It made me wonder how I would have done it differently and how our personal experiences influence us as scientists.