|
Article Excerpt
By Salikoko S. Mufwene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xvi, 255. $59.95 (hardback), $21.95 (paperback).
The turn of the 21st century witnessed the belated crumbling of once-powerful nineteenth century metaphors. These included monolithic concepts such as culture, society, and language, and also figurative appreciations of each of these key terms as a sort of organism. In The ecology of language evolution, Mufwene provides an overview of linguistic change within an ecological context and complicates this ORGANIC ANALOGY rather than abandoning it altogether. Language should no longer be understood to be some living, unified creature with needs and functions. Rather, it is better appreciated as a parasitic species. I have long appreciated the germ model of language. Language, like a virus, penetrates the brains of newborn humans, probably remaking these as it does so. Infected humans then pass the virus along to others so that languages typically outlive most...
|
|
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
|
