From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 56044
Date: 2008-03-27
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From: mkelkar2003
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 3:49 PM
Subject: [Courrier indésirable] [tied] Linguistics in a Colonial World:
Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Language, Meaning, and
Power (Paperback)
by Joseph Errington
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This book provides both an introduction and an innovative argument
about the development of colonial linguistics and its place in the
rise of 19th century European linguistics as a field of expert
knowledge. This is stimulating scholarship and a valuable teaching
resource for linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, history of
linguistics, cultural studies and historiography."
Kathryn Woolard, University of California: San Diego<!--end-->
"This splendid history of ideas is a nuanced reflection on how
language and humanity became each other's deepest theoretical mirrors
as the world made the transition from colonialism to the more recent
forms of globalization. It is also a superb contribution to the
general dialogue between linguistics and its cognate human sciences."
Arjun Appadurai, The New School
"In this concise, eloquent yet wide-ranging book, Joseph Errington
demonstrates the importance of understanding linguistics as a special
kind of colonial encounter. Linguistics, he shows, has always
operated within particular relations of power, constructs of sameness
and difference, and ways of reducing languages to writing. The
European science of language helped legislate on the one hand
national difference in Europe and on the other human inequality in
European empires. Linguistics, Errington shows, may claim
scientificity but it can never be insulated from the speech of those
it studies; it is always entangled with contexts, projects and
linguistic ideologies from the past. This book therefore provides not
only key historical discussion of the long and fraught connections
among colonialism, linguistic description, literacy practices, and
social imaginations, but also challenges any contemporary practising
linguist - whether engaged in pan-human speculations about universal
language, continuing missionary linguistic projects, or attempts to
save and preserve endangered languages - to understand current
postcolonial linguistic projects in relation to the colonial past."
Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology-Sydney
Book Description
Drawing on both original texts and critical literature, Linguistics
in a Colonial World surveys the methods, meanings, and uses of early
linguistic projects around the world.
Explores how early endeavours in linguistics were used to aid in
overcoming practical and ideological difficulties of colonial rule
Traces the uses and effects of colonial linguistic projects in the
shaping of identities and communities that were under, or in
opposition to, imperial regimes
Examines enduring influences of colonial linguistics in contemporary
thinking about language and cultural difference
Brings new insight into post-colonial controversies including
endangered languages and language rights in the globalized twenty-
first century
See all Editorial Reviews
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Product Details
Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (September 10, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1405105704
ISBN-13: 978-1405105705
From Amazon.com