I need some books?

Question

I am looking for fiction / science fiction books
in which some linguistic theory is introduced / plays an important part

if anyone knows any titles, please post
thanks

no ebay or amazon answers

Answer 1

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange (futuristic version of anglicized Russian).

My friend read this book and really enjoyed it. I have yet to read it.

Answer 2

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. A large part of the book deals with how a dystopian government tries to control its population by modifying the language they speak in order to limit the thoughts they can have.

Answer 3

Try the davinci code by Dan Brown.It involves alot of puzzles, anagrams, cryptograms, and hidden messages; also some iconography. You may be able to weave some discussion of linguistics from this story. I hope this helps.

Answer 4

Struggled to think of one myself but I agree wholeheartedly with 1984, very good book, the language mentioned in it is Newspeak, it plays a very interesting role in the book.

Answer 5

go to your local library explain what you need they can then help you if the book has what you want you can borrow from the library or get the name and author and do a Internet search for your book good luck hope this helps
and happy new year to you

Answer 6

My Favorite is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson...they way he integrates linguistic theory into the plot...is organic, flows...and is hair-raising in its implications...oneofmy favorite reads...

here's what others have to say...


"The Cure," Lisa Tuttle
The story of a couple raising a child under difficult circumstances. First printed in Light Years and Dark, Michael Bishop, ed.

Linguistic content: medium. The story is very much about language, including its acquisition by children; it explores the way language enhances and inhibits relationships. The contains at least one dubious premise (or perhaps people can function, even think, without having language), but it's not wholly unreasonable. Bonus points for mentioning Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax by name.

Quality: medium-high. This is a difficult story. That isn't necessarily a bad thing; in part, the story is difficult because it is uncomfortable, and good fiction can (indeed, perhaps should) make us uncomfortable. Then again, it's also difficult to read because it's written in the second person, and usually I hate stories written in the second person. ("Story of Your Life" is a notable exception.) In places, it feels a little overwritten, but then in a story about language and writing that can pass as narrative voice. In the end, it's thought-provoking enough to be worth reading.

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"Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation," Raphael Carter
A story about gender and not, in fact, about language. However, it takes as its starting point theories about language and the brain, particularly the idea of a specific grammar module and the evidence for this from aphasia. Moreover, in doing so, this story is the only work of science fiction I know to actually cite an academic work on linguistics (Gopnik, Myrna. 1994. "Impairments of tense in a familial language disorder," Journal of Neurolinguistics, vol. 8, p. 109-133). In Starlight 2, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, ed.

Linguistic content: low (but accurate)

Quality: high. My main objection to the story is that it wavers between being, stylistically, an academic paper and a less formal paper. I wonder if the style is actually properly academic but in a field not my own. Certainly Carter is an avid reader of Nature and other science journals. Otherwise, a wonderful piece; winner of the 1998 Tiptree award.

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"Story of Your Life," Ted Chiang
Also in Starlight 2, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, ed. Two linguistics stories in a single anthology!

Linguistic content: high. Insanely high. This isn't a story with linguistics in it; this is a story crucially, integrally about the linguistics. Not just about the language, but about the linguistic theory as well, and once again a story with a linguist as a protagonist. Moreover, the linguistics is accurate--casual references to center embedding, to syntax and morphology, to writing systems, and all of it correct--and, just for once, it's nice to see the linguistic theory in a science fiction story thrown around as if it's basic, while Fermat's principle of refraction is explained in detail.

Quality: high. Insanely high. It won him the Sturgeon Award and the Nebula for 1999, and justly so. Like all winners of the award given by the writers of science fiction should be, it is exquisitely crafted; and like all winners of the award named for the author of "Slow Sculpture" should be, it is a serious work of science fiction that does not for a moment lose sight of the fact that science fiction is about science, but at the same time science fiction is about people. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

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The Native Tongue Trilogy, Suzette Haden Elgin
This deserves a particular note, because Elgin is in fact a linguist by profession. This series (well, OK, I've only read the first book so far) is seriously linguistic in content. The main characters are linguists, and the plot (at least, one plot) centers around the development of a new language intended to be well-suited to women and their concerns.

Linguistic content: high.

Quality: low-to-medium. I hate to admit it, because Elgin is a terribly nice person (I met her at Minicon in '96), and I feel a certain obligation to enjoy her work. But the initial premise--the 19th Amendment has been revoked--is not only never explained, it's sort of ludicrous. For people who don't like "feminist science fiction," be warned: this is it, and not all that veiled. (I've heard Nicola Griffith's writing, such as Slow River, called feminist. It didn't come close to this one.) Then again, I've met some people who've liked it. So.
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The Lingster series, Sheila Finch
I don't think these are collected yet; they were published over the course of a few years in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. (More to come)

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Hellspark, Janet Kagan
I actually had a lot to say after I read this book. Therefore, I've got a more complete review, written in 1999 or so and edited January 2002. So these comments are brief.

Linguistic content: medium to high. Some of it is anthropological linguistics (or linguistic anthropology), but it is the central focus of the novel. The linguistics isn't impeccable--I peck at it in the above review--but it's certainly there.

Quality: medium to high. I rather liked it, really.

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"Useful Phrases for the Tourist," Joanna Russ
(More to come.)

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"Chalk Talk," Edward Wellen
A short-short story (which can be found in Asimov's anthology 100 Great Short-Short Fantasy Stories) about a linguistics professor teaching transformational grammar.

Linguistic content: medium. The theory is discusses is hardly current any more, nor is it quite accurate. On the other hand, how many science fiction stories mention Noam Chomsky by name? (Some, certainly. The Raphael Carter story mentioned above does, for instance.)

Quality: fairly good. It's a short-short, so you can't expect too much (apologies to Fredric Brown, master of the form), and it does build to a punchline as almost all stories of the form do, but it's not merely a shaggy-dog story, it is cute, and Wellen does some neat things with language in the meantime.


link is as follows....enjoy....

Answer 7

try tom Clancy red storm raising

Answer 8

Ebay

Answer 9

yes

Answer 10

You could try free ebooks at www.e-book.com. Or www.bibliomania.com.