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Imprisoned in English: The Hazards of English as a Default Language

Online ISBN:
9780199369263
Print ISBN:
9780199321490
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Imprisoned in English: The Hazards of English as a Default Language

Anna Wierzbicka
Anna Wierzbicka

Professor of Linguistics

Australian National University
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Published online:
23 January 2014
Published in print:
6 December 2013
Online ISBN:
9780199369263
Print ISBN:
9780199321490
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Imprisoned in English is intended for educated readers in general, as well as scholars across a broad range of disciplines. The main idea, reflected in the title, is that in the present English-dominated world, social sciences and the humanities are locked in a conceptual framework grounded in English and that most scholars in these fields are not aware of the need to break away from this framework to reach a more universal, culture-independent perspective on things human. Indeed, they are typically not aware that any problem exists, and resistant to its being pointed out. The book engages with current debates across a range of disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, evolutionary science, psychology, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics. The topics include values, emotions, social cognition, intercultural communication, endangered languages, human universals vs. human diversity, the evolution of consciousness, and so on. It is a book dedicated to one central idea: the blind spot in contemporary social sciences and the prevailing global discourse on values, the human condition, human relations, and so on, which results from the “invisibility” of English as an increasingly globalized way of thinking and talking.

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