Re: OT: Good Books?
| From: | J. K. Hoffman <ryumaou@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, March 5, 2004, 13:09 |
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> Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 14:23:57 -0500
> From: John Quijada <jq_ithkuil@...>
> Subject: Re: OT: Good Books?
> -----------
> The following books are guaranteed to open one's eyes to what is possible
> in language beyond Indo-European and should get the conlanging creative
> juices flowing:
>
> "Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf"
> edited by John B. Carroll. The essays toward the last half of the book are
> what you want.
>
> "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind"
> by George Lakoff.
>
> "Semantics, Culture, and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Culture-
> Specific Configurations" by Anna Wierzbicka
>
> --John Quijada
While I've heard the _Morphosyntax_ book recommended before, frankly,
just the *name* intimidates me still. And, I think I've heard
*Language Universals and Linguistic Typology* recommended before, too.
But, something that's more, er, populist, is probably better for a
conlang noob like me.
I've heard of _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things_, and I have to admit
that sounds interesting. _Semantics, Culture, and Cognition_ is totally
new to me. Care to give a short review? ^_^
And, how hard do you think the Whorf collection will be for someone that
has to look up stuff in the linguistics glossary still? If it's just a
matter of stretching, I can manage, but if it's over my head, I might as
well focus on some other scary sounding book.
In any case, thank you, everyone, for your suggestions!
Jim
--
"What is impossible today may suddenly become possible tomorrow."
- Thomas Merton
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