English: Meaning and Culture

by Anna Wierzbicka

Overview

It is widely accepted that English is the first truly global language and lingua franca. Anna Wierzbicka, the distinguished linguist known for her theories of semantics, has written the first book that connects the English language with what she terms "Anglo" culture. Wierzbicka points out that language and culture are not just interconnected, but inseparable. She uses original research to investigate the "universe of meaning" within the English language (both grammar and vocabulary) and places it in historical and geographical perspective. This engrossing and fascinating work of scholarship should appeal not only to linguists and others concerned with language and culture, but the large group of scholars studying English and English as a second language.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199884049
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/27/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Anna Wierzbicka is Professor of Linguistics, Australian National University.

Table of Contents

Part I	Meaning, History and Culture
1	English as a Cultural Universe	3
1.1	English-the most widely used language in the world	3
1.2	English and Englishes	5
1.3	An illustration: Words, scripts, and human lives	7
1.4	"Anglo English" as a historical formation	9
1.5	The tendency to mistake "Anglo English" for the human norm	11
1.6	The cultural underpinnings of (Anglo) English	13
1.7	A framework for studying and describing meaning	16
2	Anglo Cultural Scripts Seen through Middle Eastern Eyes	20
2.1	Linguistics and intercultural cCommunication	20
2.2	The theory of cultural scripts	22
2.3	The Anglo ideal of "accuracy" and the practice of "understatement"	25
2.4	"To the best of my knowledge..."	35
2.5	Anglo respect for "facts"	41
2.6	"Cool reason": to think vs. to feel	46
2.7	To compel or not to compel? The value of autonomy	50
2.8	Conclusion	56
Part II	English Words: From Philosophy to Everyday Discourse
3	The Story of Right and Wrong and Its Cultural Implications	61
3.1	Introduction	61
3.2	"Right" and "wrong": A basis for ethics?	64
3.3	The link between "right" and "reason"	70
3.4	"That's right"	74
3.5	An illustration: English vs. Italian	76
3.6	"Right" as a neutral ground between "good" and "true"	78
3.7	Procedural morality	80
3.8	"Right" and "wrong": Increasingly asymmetrical	82
3.9	The changing frequencies of true, truth, right, and wrong	85
3.10	"Right" as a response in dialogue	87
3.11	"Right" and cultural scripts	92
3.12	Retrospect and conclusion: The Puritans, the Enlightenment, the growth of democracy	95
4	Being Reasonable: A Key Anglo Value and Its Cultural Roots	103
4.1	Introduction	103
4.2	The pre-Enlightenment uses of "reasonable"	104
4.3	The main themes in the modern meanings of the word reasonable	105
4.4	"A reasonable man"	107
4.5	"It is reasonable to" think (say, do) ...	112
4.6	"Reasonable doubt"	117
4.7	"Reasonable force" and "reasonable care"	123
4.8	"A reasonable time," "A reasonable amount"	125
4.9	"Reasonable" as "reasonably good"	127
4.10	"Reasonable" and "unreasonable"	128
4.11	An internal reconstruction of the semantic history of "reasonable"	133
4.12	"Reasonable" and Anglo cultural scripts	135
4.13	Is the Anglo value of "reasonable" unique? English vs. French	138
5	Being Fair: Another Key Anglo Value and Its Cultural Underpinnings	141
5.1	The importance of "fairness" in modern Anglo culture	141
5.2	The meaning of fair and not fair	144
5.3	"Fairness" and Anglo political philosophy	152
5.4	"Fairness" vs. "justice"	155
5.5	The illusion of universality	160
5.6	"Fairness" and "fair play": A historical perspective	163
5.7	"Fairness" and "procedural morality"	165
Part III	Anglo Culture Reflected in English Grammar
6	The English Causatives: Causation and Interpersonal Relations	171
6.1	The cultural elaboration of causation	171
6.2	The English "let"-constructions and the cultural ideal of "noninterference"	183
7	I Think: The Rise of Epistemic Phrases in Modern English	204
7.1	Introduction	204
7.2	I think	208
7.3	I suppose	208
7.4	I guess	209
7.5	I gather	210
7.6	I presume	212
7.7	I believe	213
7.8	I find	220
7.9	I expect	226
7.10	I take It	230
7.11	I understand	233
7.12	I imagine	235
7.13	I bet	236
7.14	I suspect	237
7.15	I assume	239
7.16	Conclusion	241
8	Probably: English Epistemic Adverbs and Their Cultural Significance	247
8.1	Introduction	247
8.2	Developing a format for the semantic analysis of epistemic adverbs	257
8.3	"Probably" and "likely": The heart of the category of epistemic adverbs	261
8.4	"Confident" adverbs: Evidently, clearly, obviously	270
8.5	"Nonconfident" adverbs: Possibly and conceivably	276
8.6	Hearsay adverbs: Apparently, supposedly, allegedly, and reportedly	278
8.7	The "uncertain" status of certainly	284
8.8	Epistemic adverbs vs. discourse particles	287
8.9	The history of epistemic adverbs in modern english	291
Part IV	Conclusion
9	The "Cultural Baggage" of English and Its Significance in the World at Large	299
9.1	The legacy of history	299
9.2	Living with concepts	300
9.3	Two illustrations: International law and international aviation	301
9.4	Communication and "vibes"	305
9.5	Intercultural communication and cross-cultural education	308
9.6	English in the world today	310
	Notes	315
	References	325
	Index	341

Editorial Reviews

"A great book, one which must be applauded. The strength of this book is to propose a kind of linguistics which takes into account the various, subtle, rich, and extremely interesting interactions between language and cultural scripts. Given that books like this are rare, the author deserves countless words of praise." —Studies in Language

"This is an important book. The strength of this book lies in its accurate and insightful analysis of various linguistic elements and their cross-linguistic equivalents. Wierzbicka's comman of a large number of European languages and her personal experience of cross-cultural communication provide an excellent background for this type of study." —Language in Society

"There is a huge literature on the relation between language and our perception of the world, including well-known myths involving words for snow, but a feature of much previous work in this area has been a focus on an exotic (to anglophone readers) language whose strange structures appear to remake the world. The shock of this book is that the exotic language under the construction of English, and the world which is remade may very well be your own. This is a striking contribution to the history of English, and the history of ideas." —Language

From the Publisher