Through the language glass: why the world looks different in other languages - guy deutscher

An acclaimed linguist asks if culture influences language--and vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to these questions is--yes.

A New York Times Editors Choice An Economist Best Book of 2010 A Financial Times Best Book of 2010 A Library Journal Best Book of 2010 The debate is ages old: Where does language come from? Is it an artifact of our culture or written in our very DNA? In recent years, the leading linguists have seemingly settled the issue: all languages are fundamentally the same and the particular language we speak does not shape our thinking in any significant way.

Guy Deutscher says theyre wrong.

From Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, and through a strange and dazzling history of the color blue, Deutscher argues that our mother tongues do indeed shape our experiences of the world.

Audacious, delightful, and provocative, Through the Language Glass is destined to become a classic of intellectual discovery.