{"product_id":"9780674976580-myriad-of-tongues","title":"A Myriad of Tongues","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHow Languages Reveal Differences in How We Think\u003cbr\u003eExploring breakthroughs in language and cognition research, Caleb Everett finds that fundamentals of human perception are culturally encoded by the words and sentences we use. The experience of time, space, color, odor, and taste is substantially influenced by language, so that basic interactions with the world vary greatly across peoples.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An assured guide\" (New Scientist) to the relationship between the language we speak and our perception of such fundamentals of experience as time, space, color, and smells. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe tend to assume that all languages categorize ideas and objects similarly, reflecting our common human experience. But this isn’t the case. When we look closely, we find that many basic concepts are not universal, and that speakers of different languages literally see and think about the world differently.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaleb Everett takes readers around the globe, explaining what linguistic diversity tells us about human culture, overturning conventional wisdom along the way. For instance, though it may seem that everybody refers to time in spatial terms—in English, for example, we speak of time “passing us by”—speakers of the Amazonian language Tupi Kawahib never do. In fact, Tupi Kawahib has no word for “time” at all. And while it has long been understood that languages categorize colors based on those that speakers regularly encounter, evidence suggests that the color words we have at our disposal affect how we discriminate colors themselves: a rose may not appear as rosy by any other name. What’s more, the terms available to us even determine the range of smells we can identify. European languages tend to have just a few abstract odor words, like “floral” or “stinky,” whereas Indigenous languages often have well over a dozen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy do some cultures talk anthropocentrically about things being to one’s “left” or “right,” while others use geocentric words like “east” and “west”? What is the connection between what we eat and the sounds we make? \u003ci\u003eA Myriad of Tongues\u003c\/i\u003e answers these and other questions, yielding profound insights into the fundamentals of human communication and experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40985017548897,"sku":"9780674976580","price":21.21,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_41158326.jpg?v=1778119889","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780674976580-myriad-of-tongues","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}