Don't sleep there are snakes

Informationen zum Autor Daniel Everett is Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University in Massachusetts. Previously, he was Chair of the department of languages, literatures and cultures at Illinois State University. He is the author of international bestseller Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes . Klappentext Everett was a missionary with a plan to convert the Pirahas, but they ended up converting him. Over time, he learnt their language and began to see the world how they saw it. They also challenge Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The trade paperback was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and sold over 13,000 copies. ´An astonishing book: a work of exploration, into the most distant place and language, but also a revelation of the way language is shaped by thought and circumstance´ The Times Zusammenfassung Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahãs, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world.Everett describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Pirahã language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Everett's views are most recently discussed in Tom Wolfe's bestselling The Kingdom of Speech.Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book.

Product details

• Authors: Daniel Everett, Daniel (Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University) Everett, Daniel L. Everett
• Publisher: Profile Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 06.08.2009
• EAN: 9781846680403
• ISBN: 978-1-84668-040-3
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 198 mm x 22 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Travel > Travelogues, traveller's tales; Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistik, Amazonas, Amazonas : Berichte, Erinnerungen, Indianer (süd-, mittelamerik.), Indios : Berichte, Erinnerungen, Brasilien, Amazonas und Nebenflüsse, Memoiren, Berichte/Erinnerungen, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / General, Englische Bücher / Geisteswissenschaften / Sprachwissenschaft