A01=Julie Sedivy
Author_Julie Sedivy
Category=CBX
Category=DNC
Category=GTC
communication
cultural commentary
English language
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
language
linguist
memoir
motherhood
words
Product details
- ISBN 9781250397553
- Weight: 292g
- Dimensions: 138 x 213mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2025
- Publisher: St Martin's Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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If there is one feature that defines the human condition, it is language: written, spoken, signed, understood and misunderstood, in all its infinite glory. In this ingenious, lyrical exploration, Julie Sedivy draws on years of experience in the lab and a lifetime of linguistic love to bring the discoveries of the field home, to the place where language itself lives: within the yearnings of the heart and amid the complex social bonds that it makes possible.
Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love follows the path that language takes through a human life—from an infant’s first attempts at sense-making to the vulnerabilities and losses that accompany aging. As Sedivy shows, language and life are inextricable, and here she offers them together: a childish misunderstanding of her mother’s meaning reveals the difficulty of relating to others; frustration with “professional” communication styles exposes the labyrinth of standards that define success; the first signs of hearing loss lead to a meditation on society’s discomfort with physical and mental limitations.
Part memoir, part scientific exploration, and part cultural commentary, this book epitomizes the thrills of a life steeped in the aesthetic delights of language and the joys of its scientific scrutiny.
Julie Sedivy has taught linguistics and psychology at Brown University and the University of Calgary. She is the author of Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self and Language in Mind: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics, as well as the coauthor of Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You and What This Says About You. She lives in Calgary, Canada.
