Re: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture

I am trying to get the whole article available, David. So far, not
successfully. There are also
important articles in academic journals. I have written about Gordon's work
on number, but what
this article makes clear is that he was a tiny part of a much larger, much
more important picture.
If anyone can get the electronic version to distribute, please do!!
mike

On 4/16/07, David Preiss <davidpreiss@uc.cl> wrote:
>
> Hi Peter et al,
> How great you and Mike fwed this. I read the article and it is amazing.
> There
> are three parts I loved the most: first, the depiction of the intellectual
> and
> personal biography of Everett. What an unusual and carismatic chracter. He
> is
> an outsider enough to challenge the givens of American cog sci an has the
> training needed to do so. Everett stroke me as a new romantic in an
> unromantic
> science. And, second, I loved the way the journalist depicted the
> researcher
> that came "down there" to test Chomsky´s hypotheses and how evident was
> the
> whole experimental procedure was so alien to the culture that was of no
> use
> there. Last but not least, I loved the comeback of Sapir and how fitting
> was
> Everett depictions of the Piraha to the thinking of contemporary cultural
> psychologists such as Tomasello and Mike himself. There are many issues
> there
> that can be nicely framed in a CHAT perspective-
> Thanks to the New Yorker for being there for al of us!
> David
>
> Peter Smagorinsky escribió:
> > a colleague reports:
> >
> >
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > I recommend to you a recent article in The New Yorker about peoples
> living
> > in the Amazon whose language seems to defy Chomsky's ideas that all
> > languages follow certain structural features (universal grammar). A
> > linguist Dan Everett who has lived with the Piraha off and on for many
> years
> > writes that their language which is described as sounding like "a
> profusion
> > of exotic birds, a melodic chattering scarcely discernible, to the
> > uninitiated, as human speech" does not follow Chomsky's universal
> grammar.
> > The article is very engaging and might be useful in stimulating student
> > discussion of the relationship between language and culture.
> >
> > Look for "The Interpreter" by John Colapinto in the April 16th New
> Yorker
> > magazine.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Professor Michelle Commeyras
> > Department of Language and Literacy Education
> > University of Georgia
> > 706-542-2718
> > pulane@uga.edu (currently being forwarded to pulane@gmail.com)
> > http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/clinic/
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
>
>
> --
> David D. Preiss Ph.D.
> Profesor Auxiliar / Assistant Professor
> Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
> Escuela de Psicología.
> Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860.
> Macul, Santiago de Chile.
> Chile
>
> Teléfono: (56-2) 354-4605
> Fax: (56-2) 354-4844.
> Web: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
Received on Mon Apr 16 20:28 PDT 2007