This book provides a new approach to the ‘ethnosyntax’ concept — the proposition that the grammar of a language is intimately linked to the culture of its speakers. It focuses on three related issues: how far culture accounts for linguistic variation; how culture and grammar are connected; and to what extent one may constitute the other. It looks, for example, at the ways in which grammatical (including semantic) resources may be constrained by social values, and at the possible sociocultural significance of grammatical devices. The chapters add to the renewed debate among linguists and anthro ... More

This book provides a new approach to the ‘ethnosyntax’ concept — the proposition that the grammar of a language is intimately linked to the culture of its speakers. It focuses on three related issues: how far culture accounts for linguistic variation; how culture and grammar are connected; and to what extent one may constitute the other. It looks, for example, at the ways in which grammatical (including semantic) resources may be constrained by social values, and at the possible sociocultural significance of grammatical devices. The chapters add to the renewed debate among linguists and anthropologists on the relationship between grammar, culture, and cognition. The book represents a wide range of research traditions, some of which have not until now explicitly addressed the grammar and culture issue. It considers the subject in the context of a wide range of cultures in North America, Europe, and Australasia.