A Myriad of Tongues
How Languages Reveal Differences in How We Think
Seiten
2026
Harvard University Press (Verlag)
978-0-674-30346-1 (ISBN)
Harvard University Press (Verlag)
978-0-674-30346-1 (ISBN)
- Noch nicht erschienen (ca. April 2026)
- Portofrei ab CHF 40
- Auch auf Rechnung
- Artikel merken
Exploring breakthroughs in language and cognition research, Caleb Everett finds that fundamentals of human perception are culturally encoded by the words and sentences we use. The experience of time, space, color, odor, and taste is substantially influenced by language, so that basic interactions with the world vary greatly across peoples.
An award-winning look at the relationship between the language we speak and our perception of such fundamentals of experience as time, space, color, and smells.
We tend to assume that all languages categorize ideas and objects similarly, reflecting our common human experience. But in fact many basic concepts are not universal. Speakers of different languages literally see and think about the world differently.
Caleb Everett takes readers around the globe, explaining what linguistic diversity shows us about human culture. For instance, though we may think that everybody refers to time in spatial terms—in English, it “passes us by”—speakers of the Amazonian language Tupi Kawahib never do. In fact, Tupi Kawahib has no word for “time” at all. And while it has long been understood that languages categorize colors that speakers regularly encounter, evidence also suggests that the color words at our disposal affect how we actually perceive colors. Similarly, the terms available to us affect the range of smells we can identify.
Why do some cultures talk anthropocentrically about things being to one’s “left” or “right,” while others use geocentric words like “east” and “west”? What is the connection between what we eat and the sounds we make? A Myriad of Tongues answers these and other questions, yielding profound insights into fundamentals of human communication and experience.
An award-winning look at the relationship between the language we speak and our perception of such fundamentals of experience as time, space, color, and smells.
We tend to assume that all languages categorize ideas and objects similarly, reflecting our common human experience. But in fact many basic concepts are not universal. Speakers of different languages literally see and think about the world differently.
Caleb Everett takes readers around the globe, explaining what linguistic diversity shows us about human culture. For instance, though we may think that everybody refers to time in spatial terms—in English, it “passes us by”—speakers of the Amazonian language Tupi Kawahib never do. In fact, Tupi Kawahib has no word for “time” at all. And while it has long been understood that languages categorize colors that speakers regularly encounter, evidence also suggests that the color words at our disposal affect how we actually perceive colors. Similarly, the terms available to us affect the range of smells we can identify.
Why do some cultures talk anthropocentrically about things being to one’s “left” or “right,” while others use geocentric words like “east” and “west”? What is the connection between what we eat and the sounds we make? A Myriad of Tongues answers these and other questions, yielding profound insights into fundamentals of human communication and experience.
Caleb Everett, Professor of Anthropology and of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Delaware, is the author of Numbers and the Making of Us and Linguistic Relativity: Evidence across Languages and Cognitive Domains.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 7.4.2026 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Cambridge, Mass |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 140 x 210 mm |
| Gewicht | 331 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-674-30346-6 / 0674303466 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-674-30346-1 / 9780674303461 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
Wahrnehmung, Aufmerksamkeit, Denken, Sprache
Buch | Softcover (2025)
Julius Beltz (Verlag)
CHF 39,20
