Grammatical Categories and Cognition
Grammatical Categories and Cognition
CAD$68.95
John Lucy uses original, empirical data to examine the Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis: the proposal that the grammar of the particular language that we speak affects the way we think about reality. The author compares the grammar of American English with that of the Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language spoken in Southeastern Mexico, focusing on differences in the number marking patterns of the two languages. He then identifies distinctive patterns of thought relating to these differences by means of a systematic assessment of memory and classification preferences among speakers of both languages.
- Illustrates the new approach to empirical research on the linguistic reltivy hypothesis
- Highly acclaimed study, now available in paperback for the first time
- Well known and highly resoected author
Reviews & endorsements
"This is a thorough, well-conceived study which clearly improves on previous studies of this nature. This book is important reading for anyone interested in the relations between language and cognition." Language
"...worth reading for [its] thorough analysis and synthesis of scholarship on the linguistic relativity hypothesis and to appreciate the interrelationship of thought and language." Studies in Second Language Aquisition
"The overall achievement of Lucy's studies is very high....In sum, Lucy's experiments are the best support for the Whorfian hypothesis to date, because they concern a central aspect of language meaning, cover a variety of cognitive tasks, and have many methodological strengths." J. Peter Denny, Anthropological Linguistics
Product details
June 1996Paperback
9780521566209
228 pages
229 × 152 × 13 mm
0.32kg
45 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Background of the comparative research in Yucatan, Mexico
- 2. Comparison of grammatical categories: nominal number in English and Yucatec
- 3. Cognitive assessment
- 4. Conclusions
- Appendices
- Notes
- References
- Index.
