Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue Book Report
Bryson's work The Mother Tongue provides a formidable and credible overview of the Indo-European origins of English, English words etymology, dialects, grammar, spelling and even swear lexicon. The book observes
linguistic, psychological, cultural, geographical, perceptive, dialectical, prejudicial and other border types particular to the modern languages. Border identity, accordingly, is a product of historic, environmental,
individual, uniting and trust factors contributing to the formation of the nation.
The language borders stand for the dividing obstacles that differentiate one nation from another (Bryson 25). Similarly, they can exist within the nation as a result of cultural, economic, social and other factors. Geographical ones stand for the political boundaries between the states. Linguistic ones prevent one societal group from understanding another. Psychological ones result in misunderstanding owing to the linguistic associations. Cultural appeal to the mentality and attributive differences between the notions. Perceptive can be found as a variant of cultural boundaries within a single country. Dialectical stand for the normative language differences within a single cultural space. Prejudicial ones serve subjective communication obstacles within the language norm.
The border identity contains numerous factors (Bryson 35). Thus, a historic aspect results in notion's association with a particular border/country. The combination of economic and political factors creates a precise understanding of the notion that a border-identically personality shares. Border identity contributes to neighbor's trust originating from the inner perception of a foreign language as a hostile one. Finally, the values create a border-identical individual as a result of living within similar safe livelihood.
To conclude, the border identity is a result of economic, political, cultural and perceptive factors. It is formed through the prolong sharing of the same territory. In addition, language can vary in its borders including psychological, cultural, geographical, prejudicial and other ones.
Works Cited
Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1991. …
