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Language: The Cultural Tool
Daniel Everett
€ 6.07
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Description for Language: The Cultural Tool
paperback. Fusing adventure, anthropology, linguistics and psychology, and drawing on Everett's pioneering research with the Amazonian Pirahas, this book argues that language is embedded within - and is inseparable from - its specific culture. It presents the controversial idea that language is not an innate component of the brain. Num Pages: 368 pages. BIC Classification: CF. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 198 x 130 x 23. Weight in Grams: 300.
Like other tools, language was invented, can be reinvented or lost, and shows significant variation across cultures. It's as essential to survival as fire - and, like fire, is found in all human societies. Language presents the bold and controversial idea that language is not an innate component of the brain, as has been famously argued by Chomsky and Pinker. Rather, it's a cultural tool which varies much more across different societies than the innateness view suggests. Fusing adventure, anthropology, linguistics and psychology, and drawing on Everett's pioneering research with the Amazonian Pirahãs, Language argues that language is embedded within - and is inseparable from - its specific culture. This book is like a fire that will generate much light. And much heat.
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2013
Publisher
Profile Books
Condition
New
Number of Pages
368
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781846682681
SKU
KHD0000831
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
Ref
99-1
About Daniel Everett
Daniel Everett is Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University in Massachusetts. Previously, he was Chair of the department of languages, literatures and cultures at Illinois State University. He is the author of Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes [9781846680403, Profile].
Reviews for Language: The Cultural Tool
Impressively modest and reasoned ... deserves a serious reading
Economist
Revelatory. There is nothing about humans that is quite as astonishing as language
Guardian
A book whose importance is almost impossible to overstate. This is an intellectual cri de coeur and a profound celebration of human diversity ... A very rich but also very readable book
Sunday Times
The most important - and provocative - anthropological field work ever undertaken
Tom Wolfe Controversial, driven by data from across the sciences, and leavened with wit - Language: The Cultural Tool is the book on language I have been waiting and waiting for. A masterpiece, and then some
Patricia S. Churchland A must-read for anyone having an interest in knowing what makes us human
Patricia S. Churchland The most recent and most eloquent account of a remarkable sea change that is taking place in our understanding of the nature of human language
Michael Corballis This is exciting work. I learned a tremendous amount from it, as will anyone who is concerned with the nature of language and of mind
Robert Brandom Thoughtfully reflecting on the communicative ecologies of the Amazonian peoples among whom he has lived and worked, Dan Everett mounts an impassioned argument that language has adaptively emerged as our species' "tool" for achieving social collectivity via discourse
Michael Silverstein A radical reassessment of the origin and evolution of language....The book eloquently reminds us that the incredible diversity of languages on this planet reflect different ways of thinking and being in the world - a phenomenon that might sadly be on the verge of extinction
Robert Greene A very good read ... a most lively introduction
Times Higher Educational Supplement
Economist
Revelatory. There is nothing about humans that is quite as astonishing as language
Guardian
A book whose importance is almost impossible to overstate. This is an intellectual cri de coeur and a profound celebration of human diversity ... A very rich but also very readable book
Sunday Times
The most important - and provocative - anthropological field work ever undertaken
Tom Wolfe Controversial, driven by data from across the sciences, and leavened with wit - Language: The Cultural Tool is the book on language I have been waiting and waiting for. A masterpiece, and then some
Patricia S. Churchland A must-read for anyone having an interest in knowing what makes us human
Patricia S. Churchland The most recent and most eloquent account of a remarkable sea change that is taking place in our understanding of the nature of human language
Michael Corballis This is exciting work. I learned a tremendous amount from it, as will anyone who is concerned with the nature of language and of mind
Robert Brandom Thoughtfully reflecting on the communicative ecologies of the Amazonian peoples among whom he has lived and worked, Dan Everett mounts an impassioned argument that language has adaptively emerged as our species' "tool" for achieving social collectivity via discourse
Michael Silverstein A radical reassessment of the origin and evolution of language....The book eloquently reminds us that the incredible diversity of languages on this planet reflect different ways of thinking and being in the world - a phenomenon that might sadly be on the verge of extinction
Robert Greene A very good read ... a most lively introduction
Times Higher Educational Supplement