Lila Gleitman
The current status of the linguistic relativity debate is laid out in this volume, in a series of position papers and experimental demonstrations, by some of the most interesting and theoretically diverse investigators working in this area today. The book presents strong arguments on both sides. It aims to stimulate enlightened debate rather than to settle the matter. Definitely required reading for both psychologists and linguists interested in whether and how a language influences the way its users think.
Endorsement
The current status of the linguistic relativity debate is laid out in this volume, in a series of position papers and experimental demonstrations, by some of the most interesting and theoretically diverse investigators working in this area today. The book presents strong arguments on both sides. It aims to stimulate enlightened debate rather than to settle the matter. Definitely required reading for both psychologists and linguists interested in whether and how a language influences the way its users think.
—
Lila Gleitman, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
From the Publisher
Remember the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis—the idea that the language you speak shapes the way you think? It's been pronounced dead a number of times in the past fifty years, and yet it just won't go away. To understand why not, read Language in Mind. There the leading scholars in the field take a fresh look at Sapir-Whorf and offer intriguing new evidence for it. But they do more than just revive the hypothesis. They rework it and give it a genuinely new shape as they show how it bears on a range of new issues in language and thinking. It is this revised perspective that will inspire the next generation of thinking and research on the way language affects thought.
—
Herbert H. Clark, Department of Psychology, Stanford University
The current status of the linguistic relativity debate is laid out in this volume, in a series of position papers and experimental demonstrations, by some of the most interesting and theoretically diverse investigators working in this area today. The book presents strong arguments on both sides. It aims to stimulate enlightened debate rather than to settle the matter. Definitely required reading for both psychologists and linguists interested in whether and how a language influences the way its users think.
—
Lila Gleitman, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Herbert H. Clark
Remember the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis — the idea that the language you speak shapes the way you think? It's been pronounced dead a number of times in the past fifty years, and yet it just won't go away. To understand why not, read Language in Mind. There the leading scholars in the field take a fresh look at Sapir-Whorf and offer intriguing new evidence for it. But they do more than just revive the hypothesis. They rework it and give it a genuinely new shape as they show how it bears on a range of new issues in language and thinking. It is this revised perspective that will inspire the next generation of thinking and research on the way language affects thought.
