Ben Waber reviewed The Language Game by Morten H. Christiansen
A Masterful, Illuminating Tour of Linguistic Evolutionary Theory
5 stars
If you want to get fired up about language and linguistics, this is the book for you. Covering the neurological underpinnings of language production and comprehension, linguistic theory, and the philosophy of language with scientific rigor and an engaging narrative, Christiansen and Chater methodically work through how language is a fundamental part of the human experience. There are also a variety of illuminating case studies sprinkled throughout, from languages that illustrate extremes to the incredible example of Laura Bridgman, who essentially learned how to spell before learning language. This book was also mercifully written before the rise of LLMs (although there's an unfortunate epilogue chapter that goes a bit over the rails). Highly recommend
If you want to get fired up about language and linguistics, this is the book for you. Covering the neurological underpinnings of language production and comprehension, linguistic theory, and the philosophy of language with scientific rigor and an engaging narrative, Christiansen and Chater methodically work through how language is a fundamental part of the human experience. There are also a variety of illuminating case studies sprinkled throughout, from languages that illustrate extremes to the incredible example of Laura Bridgman, who essentially learned how to spell before learning language. This book was also mercifully written before the rise of LLMs (although there's an unfortunate epilogue chapter that goes a bit over the rails). Highly recommend