literature) and states that linguistic art, in contrast to other forms or uses of language, is untranslatable because it is strictly language specific. 11 examines language as a material of art (e.g. S concludes that race and language need not correspond and that cultural and linguistic boundaries are not identical.įinally, Ch. 10 investigates whether it is correct to link certain languages with certain races and cultures. S provides examples from the level of sound systems and word composition to illustrate the discussion.Ĭh. 9 describes the effect cultural contact can have on a language, focusing on the phenomenon of borrowing and the speakers’ resistance to it. 7 and 8 look at the changes in languages through history at the level of words and sentences (Ch. Rather, S suggests a threefold classification based on the types of concepts a language expresses, its prevailing grammatical technique, and the degree of synthesis in a language.Ĭhs. isolating, agglutinating, polysynthetic, inflective) offers too simplistic a view of the actual language types. S proposes that the traditional classification of languages into strict types (e.g. 6 offers an overview of the existing classifications of language types. The conclusion is, however, that it is not possible to offer an absolute classification of the constituents of a sentence.Ĭh.

5 analyzes an English sentence ( The farmer killed the duckling) and introduces grammatical concepts such as constituency. parts that carry the lexical meaning of a word), affixation, vocalic and consonantal change, and the grammatical functions of stress and pitch.Ĭh. 4 discusses grammatical processes in languages such as word order, compounding of radical elements (i.e. ‘The elements of speech’ focuses on word types and significant parts of words, whereas ‘The sounds of language’ sketches the possible sounds, the production of consonants and vowels, the phonetic patterns of languages, and the organs of speech production.Ĭh. The next two chapters deal with the micro level of language. S also discusses whether language is an innate or an acquired skill. Edward Sapir provides insight into the psychological and physical basis for speech-that is, the connection between words and their meaning as well as the relationship between thought and language. The book begins with a reflection on the nature of human language.

A general introduction to the study of language, the topics covered are accessible to both general readers and students of linguistics since the field-specific terminology is kept to a minimum. This 2004 reissue is an unabridged republication of the original book first published in 1921. Reviewed by Katrin Hiietam, Manchester, UK

Language: An introduction to the study of speech.

Language by Edward Sapir