Thinking about culture through the lens of language
1)Read: Deutscher, Guy. “Does Your Language Shape How You Think?”The New York Times. Aug 8, 2010.
2)Read: Lakoff, George. 2004. Don’t Think of an Elephant. Chelsea Green Publishing. Pp.pp. xv-xvi, 3-14, 22-26.
3)Read: Excerpts from Roland Barthes
Global Perspectives on Expression
1)Read: “The Case for Contamination,” New York Times, January 1, 2006. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/magazine/01cosmopolitan.html
2)Watch Film: Waste Land (Walker, Harley & Jardim, irs.., 2010)
Reading Questions
1. What is Whorf’s theory of language?
2. How do people who speak languages that rely primarily on geographic coordinates seem to experience space differently than others?
3. What is Deutscher’s conclusion about how language influences thinking?
4. What does Lakoff mean by “framing” and “re-framing?”
5. How does language selection relate to framing?
6. What is the “strict father” model (frame) and how does it relate to US politics
7. What is the nurturing parent model (frame) and how does it relate to US politics?
8. What is Hypocognition?