Imprisoned in English : the hazards of English as a default language Anna Wierzbicka.

By: Wierzbicka, AnnaMaterial type: TextTextPublication details: Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014Description: xii, 287 pagesISBN: 9780199321506 (pbk. : alk. paper); 9780199321490 (hardcover : alk. paper)Subject(s): English language | Multilingualism | Language and languagesDDC classification: 306.44
Contents:
Recognizing the contingency of one's own language -- Naming the world or construing the world? -- The givens of human life -- Universal words, semantic atoms and semantic molecules -- Human bodies and human minds: what is visible and what is invisible -- Anglo values vs. human values: talking about values in a global world -- Human emotions and English words: are anger and disgust universal? -- Taking to other people: "politeness" and cultural scripts -- Doing things with other people: "cooperation," "interaction" and "obščenie" -- Grammar and social cognition: the Hawaiians, the Dalabons, and the Anglos -- Thinking about "things" in Yucatec and in English -- Endangered languages, endangered meanings -- Chimpanzees and the evolution of human cognition -- From ordinary (Anglo) English to Minimal English -- Anthropology, psychology, psychiatry -- Philosophy, theology, politics -- Linguistics: cognitive and cultural approaches -- Bilingualism, life writing, translation.
Summary: In Imprisoned in English, Anna Wierzbicka argues that in the present English-dominated world, millions of people - including academics, lawyers, diplomats, and writers - can become "prisoners of English", unable to think outside English. In particular, social sciences and the humanities are now increasingly locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English. To most scholars in these fields, treating English as a default language seems a natural thing to do. The book's approach is interdisciplinary, and its themes range over areas of central interest to anthropology, psychology, and sociology, among others. The linguistic material is drawn from languages of America, Australia, the Pacific, South-East Asia and Europe. Wierzbicka argues that it is time for human sciences to take advantage of English as a global lingua franca while at the same time transcending the limitations of the historically-shaped conceptual vocabulary of English. And she shows how this can be done.
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Includes index

Recognizing the contingency of one's own language --
Naming the world or construing the world? --
The givens of human life --
Universal words, semantic atoms and semantic molecules --
Human bodies and human minds: what is visible and what is invisible --
Anglo values vs. human values: talking about values in a global world --
Human emotions and English words: are anger and disgust universal? --
Taking to other people: "politeness" and cultural scripts --
Doing things with other people: "cooperation," "interaction" and "obščenie" --
Grammar and social cognition: the Hawaiians, the Dalabons, and the Anglos --
Thinking about "things" in Yucatec and in English --
Endangered languages, endangered meanings --
Chimpanzees and the evolution of human cognition --
From ordinary (Anglo) English to Minimal English --
Anthropology, psychology, psychiatry --
Philosophy, theology, politics --
Linguistics: cognitive and cultural approaches --
Bilingualism, life writing, translation.

In Imprisoned in English, Anna Wierzbicka argues that in the present English-dominated world, millions of people - including academics, lawyers, diplomats, and writers - can become "prisoners of English", unable to think outside English. In particular, social sciences and the humanities are now increasingly locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English. To most scholars in these fields, treating English as a default language seems a natural thing to do. The book's approach is interdisciplinary, and its themes range over areas of central interest to anthropology, psychology, and sociology, among others. The linguistic material is drawn from languages of America, Australia, the Pacific, South-East Asia and Europe. Wierzbicka argues that it is time for human sciences to take advantage of English as a global lingua franca while at the same time transcending the limitations of the historically-shaped conceptual vocabulary of English. And she shows how this can be done.

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