Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and other Vocalizations

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Description

Aristotle defined voice as "a particular sound made by something with asoul; for nothing which does not have a soul has a voice". Beyond Wordsencompasses human language outside words, the realm of the sounds ofthe mouth, controlled and automatic, which bring depth, meaning andconfusion in equal measure to our communication as humans. StevenConnor takes in the phantasmal life of excitements, identifications andrecoils associated with particular groups of vocal utterances the guttural,the dental, the fricative and the sibilant and reveals our beliefs, mythsand responses to the growls, stutters, ums and ahs of everyday languageand exchange.

Reviews

The functions and dysfunctions of vocal utterances are enjoyably treated here with full professional linguistic snap, crackle and pop by a soul-searching connoisseur of the myths, beliefs, literature, history and philosophy of spoken language. * The Times *
Beyond Words is a high-wire performance by a writer with a prodigious feel for language, both in its popular, everyday uses, and in the more recondite corner of English literature, old and new. * TLS *

Author Bio

Steven Connor is Professor of English and Director of Research at the Digital Futures Institute, Kings College London. He is the author of eighteen books, most recently The Madness of Knowledge: On Wisdom, Ignorance and Fantasies of Knowing (2019).