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Imprisoned in English

Imprisoned in English argues that in the present English-dominated world, social sciences and the humanities are locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English and that most scholars in these fields are not aware of the need to break away from this framework to reach a more universal, culture-independent perspective on things human. Indeed they are typically not aware that any problem exists, and resistant to its being pointed out. The book engages with current debates across a range of disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary science, psychology, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics. The topics include values, emotions, social cognition, intercultural communication, endangered languages, human universals vs. human diversity, the evolution of consciousness, etc. It is a book dedicated to one central idea: the blind spot in contemporary social sciences and the prevailing global discourse on values, the human condition, human relations, and so on, which results from the <"invisibility>" of English as an increasingly globalized way of thinking and talking.

"Imprisoned in English is an heroic attempt to truly understand 'others' as subjects rather than objects without assimilating their understandings to one's own. The book summarizes the author's influential and monumental plan for a great escape from ethnocentrism and conceptual parochialism in the humanities and social sciences." --Richard A. Shweder, Harold Higgins Swift Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago"This book is the latest outstanding product of Anna Wierzbicka's research, driven by her cross-cultural approach and theory of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). Wierzbicka is excellent in showing how much we are imprisoned in culture-specific English concepts. The book is powerful, and recommended for everyone who is interested in languages." --Istvan Kecskes, founding editor of the journal Intercultural Pragmatics

PART I: EVERY LANGUAGE DRAWS A CIRCLE ... ; CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: RECOGNISING THE CONTINGENCY OF ONE'S OWN LANGUAGE ; CHAPTER 2. NAMING THE WORLD OR CONSTRUING THE WORLD? ; CHAPTER 3. THE GIVENS OF HUMAN LIFE ; CHAPTER 4. UNIVERSAL WORDS, SEMANTIC ATOMS AND SEMANTIC MOLECULES ; CHAPTER 5. HUMAN BODIES AND HUMAN MINDS: WHAT IS VISIBLE AND WHAT IS INVISIBLE ;

PART II: EMOTIONS AND VALUES ; CHAPTER 6. ANGLO VALUES VS. HUMAN VALUES: TALKING ABOUT VALUES IN A GLOBAL WORLD ; CHAPTER 7. HUMAN EMOTIONS AND ENGLISH WORDS: ARE ANGER AND DISGUST UNIVERSAL? ;

PART III: 'POLITENESS' AND 'COOPERATION' ; CHAPTER 8. TALKING TO OTHER PEOPLE: 'POLITENESS' AND CULTURAL SCRIPTS ; CHAPTER 9. DOING THINGS WITH OTHER PEOPLE: 'COOPERATION', 'INTERACTION' AND 'OBS?ENIE' ;

PART IV: ENTERING OTHER MINDS ; CHAPTER 10. GRAMMAR AND SOCIAL COGNITION: THE HAWAIIANS, THE DALABONS, AND THE ANGLOS ; CHAPTER 11. ENDANGERED LANGUAGES, ENDANGERED MEANINGS ; CHAPTER 12. THINKING ABOUT 'THINGS' IN YUCATEC AND IN ENGLISH ; CHAPTER 13. CHIMPANZEES AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN COGNITION ;

PART V: BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF THE PRISON ; CHAPTER 14. FROM ORDINARY (ANGLO) ENGLISH TO MINIMAL ENGLISH ;

PART VI: KINDRED THINKING ACROSS DISCIPLINES ; PRELIMINARY REMARKS ; CHAPTER 15. ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY ; CHAPTER 16. PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY, POLITICS ; CHAPTER 17. LINGUISTICS: COGNITIVE AND CULTURAL APPROACHES ; CHAPTER 18. BILINGUALISM, LIFE WRITING, TRANSLATION ; FINAL REMARKS ;

REFERENCES ;

INDEX

272 pages, Harrdcover