Imprisoned in English

Transcription

1 Oxford Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 19 items for: keywords : Manilius linsem lineng Imprisoned in English Item type: book acprof:oso/ Imprisoned in English is intended for educated readers in general, as well as scholars across a broad range of disciplines. The main idea, reflected in the title, is that in the present English-dominated world, social sciences and the humanities are locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English and that most scholars in these fields are not aware of the need to break away from this framework to reach a more universal, cultureindependent perspective on things human. Indeed, they are typically not aware that any problem exists, and resistant to its being pointed out. The book engages with current debates across a range of disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary science, psychology, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics. The topics include values, emotions, social cognition, intercultural communication, endangered languages, human universals vs. human diversity, the evolution of consciousness, and so on. It is a book dedicated to one central idea: the blind spot in contemporary social sciences and the prevailing global discourse on values, the human condition, human relations, and so on, which results from the invisibility of English as an increasingly globalized way of thinking and talking. Recognizing the Contingency of One s Own Language acprof:oso/ This chapter takes as its point of departure British writer Zadie Smith s definition of language as shared words that fit the world as you believe it to be and illustrates its aptness with examples from English and the Page 1 of 6

2 Australian language Warlpiri. Each language offers its speakers a set of words that appear to fit the world as it is but that in fact derive from the speakers own culture, history, interests, and needs. The chapter shows how this insight applies to the domain of color and how English color words have been reified in the successive versions of the Berlin and Kay popular theory of basic color words. It also discusses the different conceptualization of landscape in English (British and Australian), drawing on Australian historian Jay Arthur s observation that Australians are trapped in the language of the Default Country (England). Naming the World or Construing the World? acprof:oso/ This chapter addresses the widespread illusion that the structure of reality can be discussed in English in a way independent of the structure of the English language itself. It also discusses various methodologies that have been put forward in an attempt to bypass language in the description of reality and to find a neutral framework in external reality alone. A classic example here is the use of commercially produced Munsell color samples as a basis for cross-linguistic semantics of color. The chapter shows that such external stimuli are not independent from language but have English meanings embedded in them. The chapter contrasts the illusion that languages simply name aspects of the world with the view that through their vocabulary, languages construe the world; and it shows how different languages can construe different worlds. The Givens of Human Life acprof:oso/ In his widely read book The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen (1991) sums up anthropology s main message as beware the solid truths of your own culture. This chapter shows how this warning applies to the Page 2 of 6

3 truths of Anglo culture such as people can be divided into male and female, sex is a given of human life, pain is a human universal, and in all countries people can have brothers and sisters, and it shows that concepts such as male, female, sex, pain, brother, and sister are socially constructed and lack exact equivalents in many languages of the world. At the same time, the chapter shows how the universal human story can be told from a universal point of view, independent of English and Anglo culture. Universal Words, Semantic Atoms, and Semantic Molecules acprof:oso/ Starting from the premise that most words don t match in meaning across language boundaries, this chapter introduces the idea that as empirical cross-linguistic investigations have established, some words in fact do match. As this chapter shows, there are two kinds of such universal words, comparable to atoms and molecules in chemistry. Semantic atoms are words like see, hear, and know, which occur in all languages and which are so simple in meaning that they cannot be defined through other words (at least not without circularity). Semantic molecules are words like mother, father, water, fire, and hands, which also occur in all languages but which are complex in meaning and can be defined through semantic atoms. This chapter introduces the idea of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, based on universal words of both types, and illustrates it with examples from the domain of kinship. Human Bodies and Human Minds: What is Visible and What is Invisible acprof:oso/ This chapter builds on Sapir s insight that vocabulary is a very sensitive index of the culture of a people. It argues that the meanings of words Page 3 of 6

4 reflect the speakers ways of thinking and can only be identified through conceptual analysis, and not through external methods such as videoclipping, favored, in particular, by the influential Nijmegen Language and Cognition Group. The chapter illustrates the limitations of extensionalist semantics based on video-clipping and stimulus methodologies with examples from the areas of body parts and social interaction, and shows that meanings reflect human construals (shared within particular languages and cultures, and not some observable partitions and discontinuities in the world. The chapter discusses Richard Shweder s critique of neo-behaviorism in anthropology and psychology and shows that it applies also to stimulus-based methodologies in linguistics, which substitute observable objects and pictures for meanings in the speakers minds. Anglo Values vs. Human Values: Talking about Values in a Global World acprof:oso/ Scholars and political leaders agree that in the contemporary world where the tempo and intensity of international and intercultural contacts is continually growing, communication about values has become increasingly crucial. But in what conceptual language can people and peoples across the world communicate about values? As this chapter illustrates, currently, questions about values tend to be asked in the conceptual vocabulary of English, with English value words such as fairness, honesty, violence, and cooperation playing a crucial role. The chapter illustrates the Anglocentrism of current global discourse about values with examples drawn from recent books by Steven Pinker, Daniel Everett, and Marc Hauser and it shows how global conversation about values can be conducted more meaningfully on the basis of universal human concepts (such as GOOD and BAD) and how it can be freed from its conceptual dependence on English words and Anglocentric assumptions. Page 4 of 6

5 Human Emotions and English Words: Are Anger and Disgust Universal? acprof:oso/ A keen interest in human emotions emerged in modern psychology rather suddenly, in the late 1960s and 1970s and it spread like wildfire to anthropology, sociology, and other human sciences. Since then, the topic has become the subject of intense interdisciplinary debate, which can, with justice, be called emotion wars. This chapter surveys the history of these wars. In particular, it discusses the role that the focus on English emotion words has played in the theory of basic emotions, which has tended to dominate the field for decades and in many ways continues to do so. The chapter, which builds on the author s 1999 book Emotions Across Languages and Cultures and many other related publications, argues that English emotion terms embody certain interpretive schemes that are neither unchangeable through times nor constant across different cultures; and it shows how the Anglocentrism still prevalent in the psychology of emotions can be overcome with the help of universal human concepts. Talking to Other People: Politeness and Cultural Scripts acprof:oso/ Speech practices and tacit assumptions associated with them vary a great deal across languages and cultures. Yet in Anglophone social science such diversity is often ignored and Anglo/English ways of speaking are mistaken for the human norm. A particularly striking example of such absolutization of Anglo norms is presented by an influential article by the American philosopher H. P. Grice (1975). Grice s basic ideas were transplanted onto the ground of linguistics by linguists Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson and continue to exercise considerable influence in language studies. This chapter discusses in detail the Anglocentrism of Grice s Cooperative Principle and of the linguistic theories based on it, and offers an alternative: the theory of Page 5 of 6

6 cultural scripts. The explanatory power of this theory and its languageindependent character are illustrated with many cultural scripts, some of which are formulated not only in English but also in Chinese. Doing Things with Other People: Cooperation, Interaction and Obščenie acprof:oso/ The word cooperation plays a key role in contemporary writings on human social life, human evolution, human uniqueness, and human communication. As this chapter shows, however, it is used in many different senses and these senses are never defined (in words that are simple and clear). Furthermore, since cooperation is an English word without exact equivalents in other languages, many theories that heavily rely on this word are locked in English, as well as being shaped by English. The chapter shows how the important issues linked in the literature with this vague, protean, and English-specific word can be clarified and sharpened by the use of the mini-english that is NSM English. The chapter concludes by invoking John Locke s seminal ideas on the abuse of language and shows their relevance to the terminological Anglocentrism prevailing in many areas of contemporary social science. Page 6 of 6