The Language Impact is a transdisciplinary book which looks at language
from the point of view of its effect on the world. The appearance of
language on our planet is compared by the author to a natural event with
far-reaching consequences which are still gaining in importance. This
'impact' of language on the earth is located in the book at three
levels: The evolution of the human species; The language system;
Discourse. The book is accordingly divided into three parts: each part
shows in detail and with many examples to what extent language has had
and still has a strong effect on individuals, societies and the earth in
general. The book is a scholarly survey of the effects of language and
discourse, which range from the first bonding talk 30,000 years ago to
the effects of the internet in the 21st century A.D. The book covers a
wide variety of topics. These include the phylogeny of language,
Linguistic Relativity (Sapir/Whorf) and Linguistic Constructivism,
Cognitive Linguistics as well as Critical Discourse Analysis and
Discourse Strategies. All in all, 20 different topic areas are looked at
from the point of view of language impact. The book could become the
basic textbook for 'impact linguistics', a new branch of the study of
language in which all the effects are explored which language and
discourse have had so far, are having now and will have in the future.
