Dear Colleagues,
I'd like to draw your attention to the following book on Humboldt that recently came out with Edinburgh University Press.
Humboldt, Worldview and Language (Hardcover)
by Dr James W. Underhill (Author)
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press (23 May 2009)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0748638423
ISBN-13: 978-0748638420
£ 47.50
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humboldt-Worldview-Language-James-Underhill/dp/0748638423
Humboldt is a thinker who has fascinated philosophers such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein and linguists like Chomsky. But his work has always been considered extremely profound and complicated. Though readers recognise the penetrating and thought-provoking nature of his thought, his ideas have often been misconstrued.
This short book aims to clearly set out the essential ideas of Humboldt, and stress his importance for debates on worldview today at a time in which languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. This book takes up the challenge to build bridges between philosophy and linguistics. It should thereby enable us reflect upon language: what language means for us and what it allows us to do as we create our own worlds within the scope of each linguistic system.
Review
James Underhill shows a great mastery concerning the general theory of language. It is extremely rare to find nowadays any thinker, either in linguistics or philosophy, whose thought continues the way Humboldt linked the word and the world. --Henri Meschonnic, Paris VIII University
Book Description
With the loss of many of the world's languages, it is important to question what will be lost to humanity with their demise. It is frequently argued that a language engenders a 'worldview', but what do we mean by this term? Attributed to German politician and philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), the term has since been adopted by numerous linguists. Within specialist circles it has become associated with what is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which suggests that the nature of a language influences the thought of its speakers and that different language patterns yield different patterns of thought. Underhill's concise and rigorously researched book clarifies the main ideas and proposals of Humboldt's linguistic philosophy and demonstrates the way his ideas can be adopted and adapted by thinkers and linguists today. A detailed glossary of terms is provided in order to clarify key concepts and to translate the German terms used by Humboldt.
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