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aidaninasia's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing book that beautifully illustrates the symbiotic relationship between language and culture. Everett is my linguistic idol and all of his books are pure gold.
mikime's review against another edition
4.0
Quite an interesting book, presenting the most prominent linguistic theories as well as the very peculiar culture and language of the Amazonian tribes the author had the chance to study and live with. If you had any doubt, you'll find here convincing arguments and evidence of the nature of human language as a very powerful cultural tool.
dmm227's review against another edition
5.0
For anyone who has ever wanted to understand what it means for language to be a cultural tool and to have a symbiotic, inter-influential (if you will) relationship with cultures. Most people hold many misconceived notions about language's and language acquisition thanks, in part, to the pervasive dogma that follows Chomsky and his universal grammar theory. This book examines this in depth. Everett has an enjoyable, easy-to-read voice with personal anecdotes, engaging stories about small languages and a sense of humor, which makes this book not only insightful but a fun read, too.
scotchneat's review
3.0
Everett is not a Chomsky proponent. Instead, he argues that we invented language and we can lose it. He combines anthropology, structural analysis, linguistics and field study to bolster his argument.
I'm not a linguist, but I'm not sure I'm convinced of his central argument in the end. I agree that language is heavily influenced by culture and socialization, but there seems to be SOMEthing we have that is like an innate capacity to develop it.
Nevertheless, the stories of the people he visits are interesting and he is very good at parsing the linguistic structures for laypeople. And his point that specific cultures omit certain concepts because they are understood by everyone and need no expression, or the exact opposite, and they are absent from the culture's concepts.
I'm not a linguist, but I'm not sure I'm convinced of his central argument in the end. I agree that language is heavily influenced by culture and socialization, but there seems to be SOMEthing we have that is like an innate capacity to develop it.
Nevertheless, the stories of the people he visits are interesting and he is very good at parsing the linguistic structures for laypeople. And his point that specific cultures omit certain concepts because they are understood by everyone and need no expression, or the exact opposite, and they are absent from the culture's concepts.
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