The University of Wisconsin Press

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Anthropology

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Dialogue at the Margins Whorf, Bakhtin, and Linguistic Relativity Emily A. Schultz New Directions in Anthropological Writing The “linguistic relativity principle” of pioneering American linguist Benjamin Whorf has been a focus of controversy among scholars of language for half a century. Many claim that this principle amounts to Whorf’s assertion that language determines thought and culture, while others vigorously reject such a claim. Emily Schultz rereads Whorf in terms of Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, and argues that the Whorfian controversy is rooted in the polyphonic character of his best known texts. By combining Whorfian and Bakhtinian insights concerning variation within and across languages, Schultz offers a new dialogic interpretation of linguistic relativity that has profound implications for students and scholars of anthropology, linguistics, cognitive psychology, philosophy of language, and literary and art criticism. Emily Schultz is an anthropologist and an independent scholar. She is the senior author, with Robert H. Lavenda, of Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition. New Directions in Anthropological Writing George F. Marcus and James Clifford series editors Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)

November 1990 LC: 90-050097 P 192 pp. 6 x 9 Paper $18.95 x ISBN 978-0-299-12704-6 ADD TO CART

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