Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech

Edward Sapir

Jan 1921 · Mariner Books

About this ebook

"This little book aims to give a certain perspective on the subject of language rather than to assemble facts about it. It has little to say of the ultimate psychological basis of speech and gives only enough of the actual descriptive or historical facts of particular languages to illustrate principles. Its main purpose is to show what the author conceives language to be, what is its variability in place and time, and what are its relations to other fundamental human interests--the problem of thought, the nature of the historical process, race, culture, art. The perspective thus gained will be useful, the author hopes, both to linguistic students and to the outside public that is half inclined to dismiss linguistic notions as the private pedantries of essentially idle minds"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

About the author

Edward Sapir (IPA: /spr/), (January 26, 1884 - February 4, 1939) was a Jewish-German-American anthropologist-linguist, a leader in American structural linguistics, and one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. He is arguably the most influential figure in American linguistics, influencing several generations of linguists across several schools of linguistics. Books Sapir, Edward (1907). Herder's "Ursprung der Sprache". Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ASIN: B0006CWB2W. Sapir, Edward (1908), "On the etymology of Sanskrit asru, Avestan asru, Greek dakru", in Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji, Spiegel memorial volume. Papers on Iranian subjects written by various scholars in honour of the late Dr. Frederic Spiegel, Bombay: British India Press, pp. 156-159 Sapir, Edward; Curtin, Jeremiah (1909). Wishram texts, together with Wasco tales and myths. E.J. Brill. ASIN: B000855RIW. http://www.archive.org/details/wishramtexts00sapirich. Sapir, Edward (1910). Yana Texts. Berkeley University Press. http://www.archive.org/details/yanatexts00sapirich. Sapir, Edward (1915). A sketch of the social organization of the Nass River Indians. Ottawa: Government Printing Office. http://www.archive.org/details/sketchofsocialor00sapiiala.