A review by kim_koriander
Sprache und Sein by Kübra Gümüşay

3.0

I feel slightly torn about the rating of this book. I absolutely loved the later chapters and found them so insightful, particularly those dealing with der Agenda der Rechten and dem Absolutheitsglauben (although the other later ones are great too). The reason I'm reluctant to give it a higher rating is that the book and I really got off on the wrong foot. The first chapter, Die Macht der Sprache, addresses the power of language, although sadly with many false claims about language and linguistics itself (e.g. that there are no gendered pronouns in Japanese, the study about bridges being perceived as more masculine or feminine depending on the gendered article it has in various languages, etc). It made me quite skeptical of what was to come. That being said, all the socio-political points were insightful, such that I feel that if the title weren't *Sprache* und Sein, I would have rather enjoyed it. Not to say that this book does not meaningfully contribute to the power structures that can, and are, established throughout language use, but this was personally the weakest point for me.