Does Language Influence Culture? - WSJ.com

[Steve Black]

Dear all,
I think one of the larger issues we need to face that is represented in Rudi's initial commentary is the general lack of publicly available, easier to digest information about our foci of study.  Linguistic relativity is one of the most complex and still argued concepts within anthropology, and the relationship between language and thought takes many other forms as well (for instance, the issues of awareness of grammatical forms and intentionality/ reflexivity).  Perhaps as a beginning to a solution, we should prepare a short statement about some of the diverse work that has been done?
Best,
Steve Black

On Jul 28, 2010, at 9:31 AM, Kephart, Ronald wrote:

> On 7/28/10 8:58 AM, "Sarah Wagner" <swagner at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> I find it frustrating that she wouldn't refer to any linguist except
>> Chomsky, who could care less what people do with their language.
> 
> I find it frustrating, and also unfortunate, that folks misrepresent Chomsky
> in this way. For one thing, NC has over the years stressed three research
> questions: (1) What do people know when they know a language?  (2) How do
> people acquire this knowledge?  (3) How do people put this knowledge to use?
> NC himself has always admitted  that he's only one person (why should he
> have to?), that he can only do so much, and that he prefers to work on (1)
> and (2).
> 
> For another, NC has for many years taught us about the ways elites use
> language to control what people know and think about their government's
> activities, both at home and out in the world. See his discussions, in all
> sorts of places, of the use of the word "terrorism," for example.
> 
> There's plenty about NC's formal linguistics that I don't understand very
> well, and there's some that I think I understand and disagree with; but to
> say that he doesn't care at all about how language is used in the world is
> simply false.
> 
> Ron
> --
> Ronald Kephart
> Associate Professor of Anthropology
>   and Linguistics
> University of North Florida
> http://crankylinguist.blogspot.com/