Imprisoned in English by Wierzbicka, Anna;

The Hazards of English as a Default Language

GET 10% OFF
The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.

Publisher's listprice GBP 145.00
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

69 273 Ft (65 975 Ft + 5% VAT)
Discount 10% (cc. 6 927 Ft off)
Discounted price 62 346 Ft (59 378 Ft + 5% VAT)

69 273 Ft

Availability

printed on demand

Product details:

Publisher OUP USA
Date of Publication 12 December 2013

ISBN 9780199321490
Binding Hardback
No. of pages304 pages
Size 163x239x20 mm
Weight 641 g
Language English

Short description:

Imprisoned in English argues that in the present English-dominated world, social sciences and the humanities are locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English and that scholars need to break away from this framework to reach a more universal, culture-independent perspective on things human

Long description:

Imprisoned in English argues 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, culture-independent 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, etc.
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.

Imprisoned in English is an heroic attempt to truly understand 'others' as subjects rather than objects without assimilating their understandings to one's own. The book summarizes the author's influential and monumental plan for a great escape from ethnocentrism and conceptual parochialism in the humanities and social sciences.

PART I: Every language draws a circle ...
Chapter 1. Introduction: Recognising the contingency of one's own language
Chapter 2. Naming the world or construing the world?
Chapter 3. The givens of human life
Chapter 4. Universal words, semantic atoms and semantic molecules
Chapter 5. Human bodies and human minds: what is visible and what is invisible
PART II: Emotions and values
Chapter 6. Anglo values vs. Human values: Talking about values in a global world
Chapter 7. Human emotions and English words: Are anger and disgust universal?
PART III: 'Politeness' and 'cooperation'
Chapter 8. Talking to other people: 'Politeness' and cultural scripts
Chapter 9. Doing things with other people: 'cooperation', 'interaction' and 'obš?enie'
PART IV: Entering other minds
Chapter 10. Grammar and social cognition: the Hawaiians, the Dalabons, and the Anglos
Chapter 11. Endangered languages, endangered meanings
Chapter 12. Thinking about 'things' in Yucatec and in English
Chapter 13. Chimpanzees and the evolution of human cognition
PART V: Breaking down the walls of the prison
Chapter 14. From ordinary (Anglo) English to Minimal English
PART VI: kindred thinking across disciplines
Preliminary remarks
Chapter 15. Anthropology, Psychology, Psychiatry
Chapter 16. Philosophy, Theology, Politics
Chapter 17. Linguistics: Cognitive and cultural approaches
Chapter 18. Bilingualism, Life writing, Translation
Final remarks
References
Index