Language, our primary tool of thought and perception, is at the heart of who we are as individuals. Languages are constantly changing, sometimes into entirely new varieties of speech, leading to subtle differences in how we present ourselves to others. This revealing account brings together eleven leading specialists from the fields of linguistics, anthropology, philosophy and psychology, to explore the fascinating relationship between language, culture, and social interaction. A range of major questions are discussed: How does language influence our perception of the world? How do new languages emerge? How do children learn to use language appropriately? What factors determine language choice in bi- and multilingual communities? How far does language contribute to the formation of our personalities? And finally, in what ways does language make us human? Language, Culture and Society will be essential reading for all those interested in language and its crucial role in our social lives.
Author(s): Christine Jourdan, Kevin Tuite
Series: Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language
Edition: 1
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 325
HALF-TITLE......Page 3
SERIES-TITLE......Page 4
TITLE......Page 5
COPYRIGHT......Page 6
DEDICATION......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 9
TABLES......Page 11
CONTRIBUTORS......Page 12
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 13
INTRODUCTION:
WALKING THROUGH WALLS......Page 15
The ethnolinguistic perspective......Page 17
Linguistic relativity......Page 19
Language contact......Page 23
Language socialization......Page 25
Translation and hermeneutics......Page 27
Variation and change......Page 28
1
AN ISSUE ABOUT LANGUAGE......Page 30
Universals, particulars, and relativity......Page 61
Before Boas: a universe of laws or a multiverse of essences......Page 63
Romanticism......Page 64
Boasian principles......Page 69
Boas, science, and linguistics......Page 71
Sapir, Lee, Whorf......Page 76
Sapir, Whorf, and Einstein......Page 80
Beside Boas: structuralism and Neoromanticism......Page 82
After Boas: the near-death and rebirth of linguistic relativity......Page 84
Returns of relativity......Page 89
Conclusion......Page 92
3
BENJAMIN LEE WHORF AND THE
BOASIAN FOUNDATIONS OF
CONTEMPORARY ETHNOLINGUISTICS......Page 96
Whorf as a linguist among his peers......Page 101
Whorf and cognitive science......Page 105
Cognitive anthropology across four decades......Page 110
Ethnoscience and "the new ethnography"......Page 112
Cultural models......Page 114
Linguistic relativity......Page 117
The rehabilitation of Sapir and Whorf......Page 118
Spatial language and spatial thinking across cultures......Page 121
Conclusions: The coming of age of cognitive anthropology......Page 126
5
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN
CROSS-LANGUAGE COLOR NAMING......Page 129
Response to Lucy's point 1......Page 134
Response to Lucy's point 2......Page 140
Response to Lucy's point 3......Page 143
Conclusion......Page 148
6
PIDGINS AND CREOLES GENESIS:
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL OFFERING......Page 149
Pidgins and creoles: the state of play......Page 151
Culture in pidgin and creole genesis......Page 153
Power, knowledge, and resistance......Page 161
Cognition, substrates, and universals......Page 166
Conclusion......Page 168
Why worry about bilingualism?......Page 170
Bilingualism as a test for linguistic theory......Page 173
Bilingualism, culture and society......Page 175
Bilingualism in social interaction......Page 178
Critical approaches to the study of bilingualism and society:
community, identity, language......Page 179
An offer......Page 182
Cultural organizations of talk to children (addressees)......Page 185
Cultural organizations of talk by children (speakers)......Page 189
Grammatical form as frequent but inappropriate for child use......Page 194
Grammatical form as infrequent but appropriate for child use......Page 196
The cultural milieu of children's code of choice......Page 198
Steps to a cultural ecology of grammatical development......Page 201
Loco motion......Page 204
"Might be girl": the linguistic emergence of gender and sexuality......Page 207
The subject of language......Page 213
10
MAXIMIZING ETHNOPOETICS:
FINE-TUNING ANTHROPOLOGICAL
EXPERIENCE......Page 221
Ethnopoetic poetry......Page 222
Ethnopoetic translation......Page 225
Linguistic Ethnopoetics, or Linguapoetics......Page 228
Ethnographic or cultural ethnopoetics......Page 231
Ethnopoetic cum anthropological theory......Page 234
Metapoetics and poetic revolution......Page 237
Final problem: political ethnopoetics......Page 238
Why ethnopoetics?......Page 241
11
INTERPRETING LANGUAGE
VARIATION AND CHANGE......Page 243
Etymology and comparative grammar......Page 244
The Neo-grammarians and the doctrine of the "exceptionless
sound law"......Page 251
The etymology of "trouver"......Page 253
Etymologies, fossils, and narratives......Page 256
Research on variation and change since Saussure......Page 265
REFERENCES......Page 271
INDEX......Page 315
