Jean Aitchison (1) (1938–)

This book oscillated between interesting and interesting-yet-outdated. It was a quick and entertaining read, but on the whole it could do with a thorough update and with a little more precision.

Like most of Aitchison's popular science books about language and linguistics, this book was written quite some time ago, and subsequent editions have been revised only slightly to reflect advances in the field. Most of the references are to studies from the sixties and the eighties, which is frankly show more unacceptable from an introductory textbook in psycholinguistics (or any of the cognitive sciences). To take a particular egregious example, much of the discussion on Chomsky's views and chomskyan theories take the Standard Theory as a starting point -- which was formulated in 1965, and which has been more or less abandoned a long time ago.

Another irritable trait of Aitchison's is to start a chapter off with a retorical question: 'Is this matter best explainable by Theory Ultra-White or by Theory Extremely Black?', only to end on a predictable golden middle discussion of "neither though possibly both". Many of the chapters in this book are organised in this way, and it gets old pretty quick.

Aside from these complaints, I've got to admit that Aitchison takes pains to present matters straightforwardly and accessably. In a field riddled with controversies and unsettled debates about some pretty basic problems, that is a big plus.

In short: this book provides a basic and a simplistic look at some of the issues under discussion in the field of psycholinguistics. If you're looking for something quick and dirty and something accessible, this is the book for you. If you want something meaty, avoid this one. show less

More in depth than what I had expected, which makes it even more fascinating. Starting with defining and describing grammar, the author goes on to discuss what language in animals can teach us, heading then straight into how children acquire speech, and, finally, rounding it all up with a journey into neurosciences. 'Talking' animals, children's language development, brain science... It all revolves around Chomsky's ideas (displaying not only his, but some of his detractors as well) in a show more very articulate and engaging way. Here's an excellent introduction to psycholinguistics. show less

According to its author, The Seeds of Speech was written as a basic introduction summarising modern research into the origins of human language. Unfortunately, while it is at times an interesting read, I find myself unable to wholeheartedly recommend it for the following reasons.

First is the prose. Aitchinson certainly has a tin ear for someone writing about language. She favors a single sentence pattern, involving the use of short clauses, never varying in length, linked together with show more commas, which she constantly employs, over and over, paragraph after paragraph, page after page.

Now, imagine reading a whole book of sentences like the one in the paragraph above. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting.

Then there is the quality of the research. Aitchinson essentially set out to write a book-length literature review, but good literature reviews actually summarise the literature instead of merely stating, “Author A wrote B about Subject C. Author D disagrees with him,” which is what Aitchinson does all too frequently, without really explaining what Subject C, let alone Topic B, are about. In other words, simply knowing that Chomsky has written about sentence structure does readers no good unless they also know what he wrote about it. And as a corollary, if I pick up an introductory text on linguistics, I want quotations from actual linguists on the points in question, not passages from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or other popular fiction.

Finally, there are the chapter “summaries,” which, judging from the disjointed wording and disjunction between the actual content of the chapter and the content of the summary, appear to have been compiled with the eponymous MS Word function. I don’t necessarily regret reading The Sounds of Speech, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’d have learned more about basic linguistics by reading relevant Wikipedia articles instead. show less

[Review by a non-professional with a strong interest in historical linguistics]. This is an illuminating survey of language change, looking at how languages change and whether or not this is the "bad thing" that so many believe it to be. It spends a lot of time looking at current examples of change (mostly in American and British English, but also in other languages) which I at least find far more interesting than the usual focus on past changes. As to why languages change, the author has no show more firm answers, but who does? This book helped me in my intellectual progress from a stance that says "good English is under attack" to one that says "language is a living thing". Many thanks to the author. show less