Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"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
Synopsis
Illustrates the new approach to empirical research on the linguistic relativity hypothesis which Lucy develops in a companion volume Language Diversity and Thought.
Synopsis
John Lucy presents an original, empirical study illustrating his approach to the inquiries developed in America in reponse to the ideas of anthropologists Edward Sapir and Benjamin L. Whorf. The author compares the grammar of American English with that of Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language spoken in south-eastern Mexico, focusing on differences in the number marking patterns of the two languages. He goes on to identify patterns of thought relating to these differences, an analysis which involves assessment of memory and classification preferences among speakers of both languages.
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.