《语言论》:An Introduction to the Study of Speech Language and culture,Sapir contends,are separate from each other,Contrary to conventional belief,language is not an expression of "national temperament,"or of racial or geograhic influences,and is not an inherited skill.

Against thisgeneral background,Professor Sapir analyzes,for student and common reader,the elements of language.

Among these are the units of language (i.e.,the word with its "radical" and "grammatical" parts),grammatical concepts and their origins,how languages differ and resemble one another,and the history of the growth of representative languages.

Written more than fifty years ago,language stands as one of the clearest and most comprehensive surveys of its subject in English.