LINGUAPHILE

A remarkable book about how language is an essential trait of human beings—and also one of the most mysterious.

In her fourth book, Sedivy, a Canadian academic specializing in linguistics and psychology and the author of Memory Speaks and Language in Mind, takes a personal tack, recounting how her life has been focused on the search for the essence of language. She grew up speaking several different tongues, which made her particularly sensitive to the twists and turns of language and how words connect to social conventions and the formation of identities. Eventually, “English would come to dominate all the others, jostling its way to the front of everything.” She cites research investigating why certain sounds, such as l and m, seem to make words more attractive, while t and d have the opposite effect. Our understanding of language changes over the course of our lives, starting with infants struggling to knit the words together. Sedivy notes that her own grasp of meaning has become richer as she has entered middle age, even as she occasionally forgets a word or two. Along the way, the author explains how poets and novelists think about language in unusual ways, the differences between spoken and written language, and how deaf people have developed a complex syntax and vocabulary for signing. Throughout the text, Sedivy interweaves her professional observations with recollections of how she communicated, or failed to communicate, with important figures in her life. In the end, she discovers the answers she has been searching for, realizing the simplicity and necessity of saying the right words to draw us together. Her love of her subject shines through in her graceful writing, resulting in a pleasing, sometimes beguiling read.

Sedivy blends a tender memoir with a fascinating study of how language defines the human condition.