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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2021

Danko Sipka
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
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Summary

This is a beach book, a long-flight book, a public-transportation book, a before-I-go-to-bed book. It has been written to entertain first and educate second. What is meant by a geography of words here are language-specific and culture-specific configurations of words. Fascinating cases of differences in the way that languages organize their vocabularies are portrayed here. As famous Russian-American linguist Roman Jakobson once noted, languages differ in what they must convey, not in what they may convey. The examples discussed in this book concern situations where various languages express ideas in their word stocks in a way that may be curious to English speakers and those where English may be strange to speakers of other languages. The choice of English is determined not only by the fact that this book is written in English and intended for English speakers but also that for many years now the English language has held a special place in international communication.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Geography of Words
Vocabulary and Meaning in the World's Languages
, pp. 1 - 6
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Introduction
  • Danko Sipka, Arizona State University
  • Book: The Geography of Words
  • Online publication: 25 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894548.001
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Danko Sipka, Arizona State University
  • Book: The Geography of Words
  • Online publication: 25 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894548.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Danko Sipka, Arizona State University
  • Book: The Geography of Words
  • Online publication: 25 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108894548.001
Available formats
×