This Is the Voice by John ColapintoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A very readable book about language and the human voice.
A fellow ESL/English teacher sent me this book out of the blue, and I'm glad she did. It touches on many interests we have in common, especially language acquisition, the science of language in the brain, and the history of language. And it doesn't disappoint--lots of interesting information on these topics. Right up my alley.
The author connects us with a lot of recent research on the topic of voice in particular, sometimes supporting the opinions of linguists and sometimes pushing back. He's pretty hard on Chomsky and Pinker, a little more supportive of McWhorter, and not necessarily right in his arguments--I mean, I dunno for sure--but he has good support for his takes. I think he may be a bit reductive in what he states as Chomsky's position regarding "deep grammar" in the human brain, but it leads to an interesting discussion and leaves room for others to continue the conversation.
Quite a bit of this was utterly new to me and very entertaining, though it's presented more at a popularization of science level than at a professional scientific level, so if that's what you're hoping for, you may not profit much by it. However, for those casual non-fiction readers interested in the topic, along with all those amateur or semi-professional linguists, [clears throat], this is highly recommended. :)
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