A Little Book of Language经典读后感有感

《A Little Book of Language》是一本关于语言的小书，作者提出了关于语言的有趣事实和观点。通过简洁清晰的文字和幽默风趣的插图，读者可以轻松地了解语言的起源、发展和变化。这本书不仅增加了我们对语言的认识，也让我们对语言的奇妙之处有了更深的理解。

《A Little Book of Language》读后感(篇一)

整本书基本不使用大词、难词、长句、难句，适合国内初三或高一学生读，对提高英语水平大有帮助，大人也可以读此书当作消遣。

写作风格风趣幽默，逻辑清晰，比此系列另外一本：A little history of philosophy要好得多，但在语言优美方面比：A little history of the world要差些。

《A Little Book of Language》读后感(篇二)

这本书的确很不错，虽然是关于英语语言的，可是看起来一点都不会觉得很枯燥或者高深。作者本身就是一个很有名的语言学家，国外的专家说话不会像国内的一些砖家叫兽专拣大家不懂的说，以此来显示自己的学问有多高深。是耶鲁大学出版社出版的，作者的名望也就不言而喻了。

看这本书的时候你不会觉得自己只是在看书而已，你会觉得是一位真正的学者在给你上课，从他自己的视角结合他的生活中的一些小事，让你觉得语言并不一定是很枯燥的。估计真正的大师就是这样的吧。

《A Little Book of Language》读后感(篇三)

这本书花了大概一个月看完，中间过年期间没好好看～原版的文字并不难，用词也很平实易懂（但还是学到了很多漂亮的表达法），最主要的是直接读作者母语写作的文字很容易跟上思路和逻辑，这一点也是读原文比读中译本更顺畅的原因之一。

最后一章作者提出了六点希望，其中一条就是希望大家有机会能够学更多的语言，不一定要流利的程度，而是为了培养一种“multilingual personality”，也就是“可以享受世界上多种多样的语言”，真是说到了心里去～

读到79页的时候去学了波兰语，今天是学习波兰语的第13天，发音，基础语法都过了一遍，现在在积累词汇和表达法，近期目标是两个月后可以借助词典读一下辛波丝卡（波英双语的诗集已经在路上了）

之所以选波兰语，一方面是以前有俄语基础，想再提升一下斯拉夫语技能，另一方面更主要的原因是几年前读过辛波丝卡诗集（当然是中译本了），前段时间看到一个对译者的访谈，里面问到是不是从波兰语直接翻译的，按理来说这种一般疑问句只需要回答“是”/“不是”就好，然而译者拉拉杂杂扯了一堆，大意就是“虽然我不懂波兰语但我们这个英译本子是得到认可的，我翻译成中文可以保证作者原汁原味……”（你信吗）

她也提到米沃什了，学了波兰语才发现米沃什的名字很像波兰语的爱，想查一下有没有什么关系的时候发现米沃什还写了一首名叫爱的诗，好玩～

Miłość

Czesław Miłosz

◦ Miłość to znaczy popatrzeć na siebie,

◦ Tak jak się patrzy na obce nam rzeczy,

◦ Bo jesteś tylko jedną z rzeczy wielu.

◦ A kto tak patrzy, choć sam o tym nie wie,

◦ Ze zmartwień różnych swoje serce leczy,

◦ Ptak mu i drzewo mówią: przyjacielu. Wtedy i siebie, i rzeczy chce użyć,

◦ Żeby stanęły w wypełnienia łunie.

◦ To nic, że czasem nie wie, czemu służyć:

◦ Nie ten najlepiej służy, kto rozumie.

Ocalenie, 1945

《A Little Book of Language》读后感(篇四)

C14

The languages of the world.

1. The essential difference between a dialect or a language is that When people speak different languages, they don’t understand each other (A language is made up of many dialects, and the people who speak those dialects generally understand each other).

2. Languages from families. To tell, The best evidence is if they look or sound like each other. When we see this kind of similarity, we can draw the obvious conclusion. All these words must have a common origin. It took several hundred years to develop a daughter language (sister languages) from a parent language(Latin). But once they do, we end up with a family of languages. The problem is that in many parts of the world there are no historical facts to help us group languages into families. Here are the names of some families of Europe because of the documentary left.

a) the Latin language, spoken by the Romans.

b) the Germanic family of languages.

c) the Celtic family of languages.

d) the Slavic family.

There are some languages which, as it were, never had children. Greek stands all alone, as do the languages of Armenia and Albania.

3. Sir William Jones proposed that actually many of these languages might belong to the same family. The ancient language is called Indo-European. When they travelled all around the world, their language changed dramatically along the way and also, end up with kinds of languages now, like Latin and Germanic.

Response:

There are about 6,000 languages. A language is made up of many dialects, and the people who speak those dialects generally understand each other, but when people speak different languages, they don’t. Languages from families. That’s how they are connected. It took several hundred years to develop a daughter language from a parent language in the travel of language speakers. Besides, some languages never had children. Those are found from documentaries. As for the proposal that languages might belong to the same family, i think it depends on the order of language formation and the travel of ancient people. If language formation first, our families are likely to belong to one family and Vise versa. Actually whether they are or not, different places are certain to raise different people and culture, and that’s why the world is so interesting.

C19

Comparing languages.

1. All the 6,000 or so languages of the world have certain things in common, sentences, nouns and verbs, vowels and consonants, rhythm and intonation.

2. Differences:

a) Sounds

b) Tones (melody)

c) Grammar (the order of words in a sentence, the change in words’ meaning while changing the word endings)

d) Vocabulary (On the surface they seem nice and familiar, but it turns out that we don’t know them at all; words don’t match up in an easy one-to-one sort of way)

e) Conversations themselves can cause problems

Response:

Generally languages are different in sounds, tones, grammar, vocabulary and are also different in conversations. Specifically, the melody of a word, the order of words in a sentence, the word endings and so on can make sense. Actually, i think the differences in languages stem from the cultures, or the different cultures raise different languages. So, it will be helpful to learn a language while also leaning its culture and the development of a word.

C21

Language change

1. All living languages change because people are changing all the time, their language changes too, to keep up with them, New words come into use, Old words go out of use. But the old words never disappear entirely, these words are still there

in the plays.

2. Every part of language changes.

1) Words, Grammar, Pronunciation, The way we talk to each other, spelling and punctuation change. But they do not change at the same rate.

2) Changes

a. Vocabulary is the area where we most often notice the way language changes, mostly relative to internet

b. It takes a while for a change in grammar to spread throughout society.

c. Changes in pronunciation takes a while,too,but faster than grammar.

d. The writing system,which refers to the way we spell, punctuate, and capitalize words, changes most slowly.

e. The change of the way we talk to each other.

3. A new usage arrives when most people in a society decide to use it.They may say they don’t like the new usage. But after a while everyone gets used to the new way of saying something.

Response:

As the author said, Languages change because people are changing all the time, to keep up with them, New words come into use, Old words go out of use. Words, but also Grammar, Pronunciation, The way we talk to each other, spelling and punctuation are all changing. But because of their different features, they do not change at the same rate.Vocabulary is the area where we most often notice the way language changes, mostly relative to internet. And then grammar. The writing system,which refers to the way we spell, punctuate, and capitalize words, changes most slowly. The change of the way we talk to each other. What impressed me most is people’s attitude to the change. It is said that after a while, everyone, even those who don’t like the new usage, will get used to the new way of saying something. It seems that a new usage is depend on the opinion of most people in a society which is like the democracy.

C29

The electronic revolution

1. The computer has changed the nature of our language lives. Because of the internet, we type more, and instant message is popular, which requires us to be instant, so that a new style of writing English is forming.

2. The new style of writing English means that only if what they type can be understood, we do not have to waste time by using extra keystrokes. The changes is the following.

a) internet abbreviations

b) No capital letters

c) Leave punctuation

d) Punctuation marks

e) Recognizable spelling mistakes

f) Sentences split into small chunks

g) strange-looking conversations

3. New ways of communicating and what do they mean to the young and old people. Also, the way we communicate by computer is of many different styles. (some are worrying about the standard English/the word limitation of the face book/...)

C30

Texting

1. Textese: time-The messages are sending information about what’s going on in the world, and asking us for our reactions.

2. Who- it’s different when different people use it, or for different purposes. (old/young, weather station/campaign office)

3. The text:

a) Only a small proportion of the words in a collection of texts are actually textisms.

b) The so-called ‘new’ abbreviations had been used over 200 years ago- rebus games

Very few are brand new

4. Why:

a) Save time and energy

b) Good fun

5. The best texters are the best spellers. They have to know how to spell before we can text well and how to relate letters to sounds. Also, be quite creative (text-message poems within very strict limits).

Response:

Internet enables us the ability to keep in touch with others beyond the time and space. New ways of communicating, like blog and twitter, and computer typing are created and promote the formation of new styles of writing English. And these styles are different from one another. For example, instant message requires us to be instant, it means that only if what they type can be understood, we do not have to waste time by using extra keystrokes. Thus, they choose to use internet abbreviations, not to capital letters, leave punctuation, and they create punctuation marks, allow recognizable spelling mistakes, plit sentences into small chunks and so on, which seems that new language is created. However, some so-called ‘new’ abbreviations had been used over 200 years ago, known as rebus games. Also, the proportion of the testisms is very small. But there are still something fun being created, like text-message poems. Also, good texters need to master the word well, maybe it even encourage people to strengthen the standard English. For the creative fun and the probability, i think the change is all right.

C12

Accents and dialects

1. A dialect is a way of talking that belongs to a particular part of a country.

a) We can tell where they their hometown is from their dialect. There are more English dialects per square mile in Britain than in any other part of the English-speaking world because Britain has such a varied history. But all countries have accents and dialects.

b) Some dialects have hundreds of local words; Dialects also have distinctive patterns of grammar; Dialects are always changing.[vocabulary/grammar]

c) In some degree, we can say that language is dialect on a grand scale.

2. Accents are only to do with pronunciation.

a) Like dialects, they tell us which part of a country, or which country, someone comes from. All the dialects have an accent.

b) To be more precise, There’s no such thing as a country with just one accent.

c) There’s no such thing a person with just one accent. One’s accent is a mixture of sounds from where he has lived; One’s accent changes, also, depending on the kind of occasion. Everyone will unconsciously slip into other accents.

d) Accents can also tell others about the kind of social background we have or the kind of job we do.

i. neutral accent, their accent could be from anywhere, is called Received Pronunciation to keep their distance from the lower classes.

ii. Thus, a new kind of accent came into being. Before long, that accent was the ‘voice of Britain’(posh/cultured accents).

iii. It was never spoken by huge numbers but it was the accent that people associated with someone who was from the higher social classes or who had received the best education.

iv. The division between upper and lower classes isn’t as sharp as it used to be; And some accents, such as those from Birmingham or Newcastle, were hardly used at all.

v. People have strong feelings about accents.

Response:

One’s Accents and dialects can tell us where he/she is come from. The difference between accents and dialects is whether it is related with pronunciation or with grammar and vocabulary. All countries have accents and dialects. To some degree, we can say that language is a dialect on a grand scale. A country has different accents and a person’s accent is a mixture of different places. Also, the change in occasion leads to the accent change. What’s more, Accents can also tell others about our social background or our job. Neutral accent, to keep their distance between higher and lower classes when created, is called received pronunciation. With the class mobility, it becomes a new kind of accent, cultured accent, like mandarin in China. In addition, people have different feelings about accents.

C22

Language variation

Ways:

a) accents and dialects

b) Age (tell how old they are from the voice: the sound quality of the voice; from vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar they use);

c) Sexes (voice; expressions);

d) Ethnic (not usages which signal regional dialects);

e) Social class;

f) the relationships people have with each other (friend/stranger);

g) the actual situation (Time zone).

Response:

The author said that Ways of Language variation can be accents and dialects: Age; Sexes; Ethnicity; Social class; the relationships people have with each other ; the actual situation. But not definitely. When we hear someone talking, we get the sound quality and the expression. We can tell people’s age and sex from both their voice and their expressions. The usages of regional dialects show us the ethnicity. So as Social class. The relationships also influence the expression we use. It will be different when we talk to a friend or stranger. The same, to suit actual situation, people speak differently.

C31

Language play

1. Play with many different ways:

a) Texting

b) Especially play with sounds and letters

2. Sounds:

a) Putting on funny voice

b) Making puns: A pun happens when we take a word that has one meaning and replace it by another word sounding the same (sometimes not exactly the same sounds) but with a different meaning.

3. Letters:

a) Scrabble:

i. Palindromes: Make words or sentences which read the same way in both directions

ii. Anagrams: Make words where the letters are changed around to make a new word with a related meaning

iii. Lipograms: Make sentences where no use is made of a particular letter, such as ‘e’, the most frequent letter in the English alphabet

iv. Univocalics: Make sentences where every word contains the same vowel

v. crossword puzzles

vi. letter-squares containing hidden words

vii. Rhymes: children’ songs; poems. (There are thousands of them. Each generation uses some of the old ones, and makes up new ones.)

4. Why: For fun & Serious purpose. Everyone around us are playing language after we are born. In some degree, language itself is a kind of play.

Response:

Usually we learn a language by playing with it when we’re babies. There are hundreds of ways for playing. But people tend to play with sounds and letters especially. For sounds, putting on funny sounds and making puns are popular. For letters, there are various way to have fun, such as palindromes, anagrams and rhymes. Not only English, Chinese and other languages also can be played. Many ancient Chinese poems have their own rules and rhymes which make our expression aesthetically beautiful or bring us fun. Why not just consider language use itself as a play？ We create our systems for serious and daily usage of language just like we make rules for some language games.

C34

Political correctness

1. To find the best way of describing people who are different in any way from most others in society without suggesting any negative connotations (this name is supposed to give no offence to the people it refers to), Governments, employers, and other social groups sometimes try to sort out the problem by favouring one name and banning another. We say that the name is politically correct,which is the official name for something.

E.g. Cripple - disabled/handicapped - differently abled/physically changed

Negro - the blacks - African American

Waiter - waiter/waitress

2. Problems:

a) It is still difficult because each person has different feelings and understandings to the same words so that it’s hard to say a word is not offensive at all.

b) People are actually too sensitive to the words. We should pay attention that the different is just one aspect of a whole picture. The so called ‘PC’ does prevent people from offending others. It is the way most of us look at the difference that eliminate the offending and even promote the diversity.

Response:

To find the best way of describing people who are different in any way from most others in society without suggesting any negative connotations, Governments, employers, and other social groups try to use one official name and ban another. We say the name is politically correct. However, since each person has different feelings and understandings to the same words, so it’s hard to say a word is not offensive at all. People are actually too sensitive to words. We should pay attention that the difference is just one aspect of a whole picture. The so called ‘PC’ does prevent people from offending others. It is the way most of us look at the difference that eliminate the offending and even promote the diversity.

C38

Linguistics

1. Linguistics is the science of language. Linguists are the people who study language in this way or who are fluent in several foreign languages.

2. The difference between ‘language’ and ‘languages’. One can study language without needing to be fluent in lots of languages.

3. The thing Linguists do is to hunt for the wonderful sounds, words, and sentence patterns that aren’t found so far. Since the accents and dialects are of many varieties, the languages change constantly, and the internet promotes the fresh ways of language use, linguists always have things to do. They concentrate on some specific era, doing researches and making discoveries.

4. These discoveries are not only interesting but also useful.

C39

Applied linguistics

1. When linguistics is used to solve problems of how language works and how it is learned and used, it’s called applied linguistics. Applied Linguists use their special knowledge to help people improve their services in several fields where language is a central concern. The field of foreign language teaching and learning was a particularly important area.

2. The sorts of questions which applied linguists explore:

a) Speech therapy

b) The dying language

c) The language printed on things we buy in the shops

d) Crime detection (Forensic linguists)

e) To help people use the internet better

f) to analyse the language of the Web page to establish exactly what it is talking about, and then match the page to advertisements that are more suitable

3. As the society develops, the new ways of language use will come up, and some fresh discoveries or eras to study appear as well. However, we don’t know what the change will be. Sill the study of languages continues and we’ll handle the changes as usual.