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Title: The Search for the Perfect Language (The Making of Europe) by Umberto Eco, James Fentress ISBN: 0-631-20510-1 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent short review that is true to its title
Comment: This is an excellent short review of European quest for a language to unite its disparate nations with each other and the rest of the world. I thought that the book did an excellent job of staying on the subject and illustrating the progression of thought in this area. It does confine itself to Europe and time period as defined in the beginning of the book. That is excellent, there is simply no other way to cover as much ground as the book attempts to do, and I feel that it does suceed admirably. As usual, Eco's erudition and research are amazing. This book is published in the context of a European series of books about Europe and I wish there was a similar book series that would cover this ground for Far East and India as well. I am sure people there worked on the same kind of problems. Some of the problems with languages and methods described seem so obvious that one has to wonder what the authors themselves thought about them. Of course, this is a whole other book series. I wish there was a 4 1/2 rating as I do not think this is truly a masterpiece, but certainly a very very good book from a very very good author of fiction and non-fiction. A bonus for fans of Focault's Pendulum -- a lot of data in that fiction book refers to work discussed in this non-fiction work. Great fun!
Rating: 4
Summary: An extraordinary view of language
Comment: This is an amazing book. My only complaint is that it is about a topic with no resolution - it is a catalogue of attempts that have all met with failure. But it is instructive that so many have tried to create the perfect language, and are still trying. Perhaps it is the hand of God from the moment of the tower of Babel that is blocking success.
When I first started reading linguistics (triggered by an SF novel by Sam Delany called 'Babel 7') I soon learned that the origins of language were taboo. Linguists had decided the topic had been subject to so much questionable and unsuccessful research that they would concentrate their work elsewhere. But in this book Mr Eco explores these early searches for the pre-Adamic language that all human kind were supposed to have evolved with (provided evolution was allowed anyway). Of course Hebrew was THE candidate in the West, but even Chinese was considered by some.
When this line of investigation petered out the philosophers tried to develop generic languages that could be understood by all people and to do this they had to think carefully about the logic of naming things and the logic of the grammar that connects ideas. The categories of knowledge and the development of encyclopedias were triggered by these endeavours. As I read this book, gradually I could see forming in the corners of my mind just what these people were doing, just what they were trying to create. And I suspect it could be successful if we were taught with it, grew up with it. But it is such a daunting task and always the expressiveness of natural language - what we have grown up with and what has grown with us as need has required - makes it seem a thankless task.
I guess this type of perfect language - unambiguous and universal - has never cemeted itself in anyone's mind - it has always been a dimly glowing ideal on the periphery of understanding. Perhaps we are not genetically equipped for this type of language. I value the effort Mr Eco has put into sharing these ideas with us, and value the time I have spent trying to grasp them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Points out a secret myth of Western culture
Comment: This book traces a pesky idea that's been bumping around Western culture for centuries: the idea that a language (or language-like formalism) is possible (which either existed, or which we can devise) which is somehow truer than our mundane languages. Eco traces this idea starting from its roots in ancient times, and he goes into fine detail in discussing the "philosophical languages" of the Renaissance, before discussing more recent constructed languages (Esperanto and the like).
The prose is very clear and straightforward, and the subject full of interesting nooks and crannies.
The book is most valuable in that, once you've read it, you will start recognizing the "perfect language" idea popping up everywhere -- the idea that if we just stick to a really rigid formalism (which we're /almost/ finished coming up with!), then we can get everything right. This idea appears in everything from formalist linguistics ("since the framework is perfect, you just plug in the right parameters for your language, and it works!"), to the voodoo equations of quantitative political science ("and this formula /explains/ why the Sino-Japanese war happened!"), to American law ("I don't care if this law is just -- I'm talking about whether, formally, it's Constitutional; because that's what really matters!"), to the endless wars over which is the best programming language ("Python is better than Perl because it's based on objects, and if you don't understand why that's important, you need to learn more lambda calculus, and indent your code more /correctly/!").
It'll make you think twice about anything that needlessly uses a formalism for expressing what could be said just fine in one of these mundane languages we speak!
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Title: Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0156007517 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition by Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen ISBN: 015601159X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 09 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0253203988 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: July, 1986 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0345368754 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 13 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0156001314 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 28 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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