About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100195088360

ISBN-139780195088366

eBay Product ID (ePID)553449

Product Key Features

Number of Pages328 Pages

Publication NameUnderstanding Cultures Through Their Key Words : English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1997

SubjectLexicography, Linguistics / Sociolinguistics, Linguistics / General

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLanguage Arts & Disciplines

SeriesOxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight17.9 Oz

Item Length6.1 in

Item Width9.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceCollege Audience

LCCN96-008915

Reviews"There is a lot to be gleaned from just about anything produced by Wierzbicka-the "key words book"... is no exception...The observations are plentiful and fascinating... [Wierzbicka] has done more than anyone else to really "understand cultures through their key words."-- Word. 51 [2000], "There is a lot to be gleaned from just about anything produced byWierzbicka-the "key words book"...is no exception...The observations areplentiful and fascinating...[Wierzbicka] has done more than anyone else toreally "understand cultures through their key words."--Word, "There is a lot to be gleaned from just about anything produced by Wierzbicka-the "key words book"...is no exception...The observations are plentiful and fascinating...[Wierzbicka] has done more than anyone else to really "understand cultures through their key words."--Word, "There is a lot to be gleaned from just about anything produced by Wierzbicka-the "key words book"... is no exception...The observations are plentiful and fascinating... [Wierzbicka] has done more than anyone else to really "understand cultures through their key words."-- Word, 51 [2000]

Dewey Edition20

Series Volume Number8

IllustratedYes

Volume NumberVol. 8

Dewey Decimal306.4/4/089

SynopsisWierzbicka demonstrates that every language has its "key concepts" (expressed in key words) and that these concepts reflect the core values of the culture in question. Examining empirical evidence from five languages, and using her own "natural semantic metalanguage" to provide an analytical framework, she shows that cultures can be revealingly studied, compared, and explained to outsiders through their key concepts., This book develops the dual themes that languages can differ widely in their vocabularies, and are also sensitive indices to the cultures to which they belong. Wierzbicka seeks to demonstrate that every language has "key concepts," expressed in "key words," which reflect the core values of a given culture. She shows that cultures can be revealingly studied, compared, and explained to outsiders through their key concepts, and that the analytical framework necessary for this purpose is provided by the "natural semantic metalanguage," based on lexical universals, that the author and colleagues have developed on the basis of wide-ranging cross-linguistic investigations. Appealing to anthropologists, psychologists, and philosophers as well as linguists, this book demonstrates that cultural patterns can be studied in a verifiable, rigorous, and non-speculative way, on the basis of empirical evidence and in a coherent theoretical framework.

LC Classification NumberP35.W54 1997