On the way, he covers the most up-to-date language science in an accessible way (the book came out in 2020, so it’s one of the newest there is).

But in Don’t Believe a Word, linguist David Shariatmadari looks at nine common myths and the truth hiding behind them. The 12 Best Linguistics Books By Topic For A Good Overview: Don’t Believe A Word By David ShariatmadariĮveryone uses language, and so it makes sense that everyone has some preconceived notions about how it works. Whether you’re into history, science or fantasy, there’s a compendium about communication or a book about babble out there for you. We rounded up some of the best linguistics books we’ve read that cover a wide range of topics. Good news for you: There are countless options out there. Reading linguistics books is a great way to dive deeper into the world of the word.

But finding out more about how language works can teach you a lot: about human nature, about the brain, about history and more.

Fortunately, you can learn to speak a language without learning all the details of how it works - and to be honest, we don’t have a full grasp of that anyway.

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This post was republished and archived on June 28, 2017.

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