Language, Culture, and Mind: Natural Constructions and Social Kinds

By Paul Kockelman

Book Overview

Based on fieldwork carried out in a Mayan village in Guatemala, this book examines local understandings of mind through the lens of language and culture. It focuses on a variety of grammatical structures and discursive practices through which mental states are encoded and social relations are expressed: inalienable possessions, such as body parts and kinship terms; interjections, such as 'ouch' and 'yuck'; complement-taking predicates, such as 'believe' and 'desire'; and grammatical categories such as mood, status and evidentiality. And, more generally, it develops a theoretical framework through which both community-specific and human-general features of mind may be contrasted and compared. It will be of interest to researchers and students working within the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521516390
• ISBN13: 9780521516396
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"