<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">Dear All,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">The remarks by Tom and Joan are, as
one would expect, extremely useful and interesting. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">Let me address myself first to Tom.
Tom suggests that my research program is Whorfian. In fact, it is the
opposite of Whorf. Whereas Whorf, Sapir, Herder, and others raised the question
of the degree of influence that grammar could have on cognition, my program, suggested a bit by Boas and Sapir, is mainly concerned with how culture can affect
grammar. As far as I know, Whorf never concerned himself with the effects of
culture on grammar. Here is a summary of various positions:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center;
text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Cognition,
Grammar, Culture Connections</span></b><span style="font-family:Helvetica;
mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;mso-table-layout-alt:fixed;border:none;
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<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Constraint Relationship</span></b><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-left:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Representative Theory</span></b><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">1. cognition </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">
grammar</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Chomsky's Universal Grammar</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:2">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">2. grammar </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">
cognition</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Linguistic Relativity (Whorf)</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:3">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">3. cognition </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">
culture</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's work on color
terms</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:4">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">4. grammar </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">
culture</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Greg Urban's work on discourse-centered
culture</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:5">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">5. culture </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma"> cognition</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Long term effects on thinking of cultural
restrictions on certain behaviors</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;
mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow:6;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes">
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border:solid black 1.0pt;
border-top:none;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">6. culture </span><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol">--></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">
grammar</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width="295" valign="top" style="width:295.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid black 1.0pt;border-right:solid black 1.0pt;
padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;
mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma">Ethnogrammar; individual forms structured
by culture</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:
Tahoma">I believe that there are different, yet non-exclusive, relations
between culture, cognition, and grammar. My program, such as it is, falls
under number 6. I think that box number one is probably the null set, though it
might have something in it that no one has yet discovered. The others are all
active and viable connections, each associated with a different research
program. I discuss this all in more detail in my book, Don't sleep there are
snakes, which is now available in Korean (Courrier), in the UK (Profile) and in the
USA (Pantheon and Vintage), and soon to be available in German (February - <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Das-glücklichste-Volk-Pirahã-Indianern-Amazonas/dp/3421043078/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259941204&sr=8-3">http://www.amazon.de/Das-glücklichste-Volk-Pirahã-Indianern-Amazonas/dp/3421043078/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259941204&sr=8-3</a>), French, Thai,
Mandarin, and Japanese.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:
Tahoma">Grammaticalization clearly is relevant in 'freeze framing' various
connections, including culture and grammar. Nothing in my own thought or research is incompatible with grammaticalization. It plays a vital role in any complete theory of diachronic or synchronic linguistics. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:
Tahoma">Tom's term - 'society of intimates' - has been very helpful to me. The Utes might be a society of intimates. The
Pirahas certainly are. So why aren't all societies of intimates
grammatically similar? Why doesn't Ute have the characteristics of Piraha or
vice-versa? Because no single cultural value is going to be responsible for
all the culture-grammar connections one might discover. Culture, like Language, is an abstraction,
an idealization. In Everett and Sakel (to appear), we propose a methodology for
studying linkage between grammatical chararacteristics and cultural
characteristics. One must first identify cultural values, in a non-circular
manner, and then identify grammatical phenomena. We then suggest ways of
establishing non-circular connections and relations of causality between such
pairs. Piraha is not only a society of intimates, but it has a particularly
strong value of 'immediacy of experience'. I discuss such issues in more detail
in Don't sleep.</span><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica">If Piraha has suffered some sort of cultural trauma, e.g. the conquest
by Europeans that began in the 16th century, then this certainly could have
dramatically affected their culture and its connections with their
language/grammar/grammatical constructions. On the other hand, we know that
their culture and language today look pretty much like they did in 1784, when
the first written records begin to appear. So whatever their culture &
language were like before then, that is irrelevant to the fact that they have
been in a relative period of stasis since then. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">Diachronic studies and
grammaticalization are vital to my program ultimately. This is because I simply want to understand language as well as I can. Because I do not
believe in Universal Grammar or much at all in the way of genetic constraints
on the shapes of grammars, I have to look to other explanans for similarities
between languages of the world. This is in fact the subject of my book,
Cognitive Fire: Language as a Cultural Tool, to appear in late 2010
(Pantheon in the US, Profile in the UK). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">Joan - thanks for the reference!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none">Ultimately, I see nothing incompatible with anything Tom has said and what I have said. I simply believe that culture plays a larger part than some other linguists do in shaping grammar and other aspects of cognitive life. </p><div><br></div><div>Yesterday, GEO magazine published a large story about my work in German (it will ultimately appear in all 20 languages in which GEO is published). In that story, Chomsky says that it is ridiculous to think that culture could affect grammar because three year olds know nothing/little about culture and much about grammar. That seems false. Much of culture is learned and transmitted nonverbally from birth. Perhaps before birth. I give examples in Everett (2008).</div><div><br></div><div>I believe that all humans are born with a similar genetic endowment, encompassing intelligence, body size, etc. I am not 'searching for primitive languages'. I am interested in learning more about the culture-grammar interface as one part of the symbiosis between grammar, culture, and cognition. </div><div><br></div><div>Cheers, </div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica">Dan</span></p><div><br></div><div>Everett, Daniel L. and Jeanette Sakel. forthcoming. Linguistic Fieldword: A Student Guide. Cambridge University Press, Red Series.</div><div><br></div><div>Everett, Daniel L. 2008. Don't sleep there are snakes: life and language in the Amazonian jungle. Vintage Departure Series.</div>
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