Nurturing Language

This monograph introduces students and scholars in linguistics, anthropology, and intercultural communication to anthropological linguistics, with a special focus on Africa. Among the topics addressed are semantic fields such as kinship or colour terminology, spatial orientation, linguistic relativity and the link between language and cognition, onomastics, the ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, emotions, (im)politeness strategies, conversation analysis, and non-verbal communication.

Auteur
Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, University of Cologne, Germany.

Texte du rabat

This monograph presents an overview of current perspectives on the interaction between language, culture, and cognition, with a special focus on Africa. More specifically, it discusses the investigation of lexical-semantic fields and the occasional ethnocentric bias in cognitive experiments related to these domains. Additional topics addressed are cross-cultural differences in spatial orientation, and the progress made in the investigation of linguistic relativity or onomastics, modern views on the ethnography of communication and interactional sociolinguistics, as well as politeness and impoliteness strategies. Furthermore, the impact of conversation analysis and the investigation of non-verbal communication in the field of anthropological linguistics and intercultural communication studies are being discussed.