Thought-based Linguistics: How Languages Turn Thoughts into Sounds

Wallace Chafe

doi:10.1017/9781108367493

The extent to which language is inseparable from thought has long been a major subject of debate across linguistics, psychology, philosophy and other disciplines. In this study, Wallace Chafe presents a thought-based theory of language that goes beyond traditional views that semantics, syntax, and sounds are sufficient to account for language design. Language begins with thoughts in the mind of a speaker and ends by affecting thoughts in the mind of a listener. This obvious observation is seldom incorporated in descriptions of language design for two major reasons. First, the role of thought is usually usurped by semantics. But semantic structures are imposed on thought by languages and differ from one language to another. Second, thought does not lend itself to familiar methods of linguistic analysis. Chafe suggests ways of describing thoughts, traces the path languages follow from thoughts to sounds, and explores ways in which thoughts are oriented in time, memory, imagination, reality, and emotions.

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Contents

Thought-Based Linguistics
pp i-ii
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Thought-Based Linguistics - Title page
pp iii-iii
How Languages Turn Thoughts into Sounds
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Copyright page
pp iv-iv
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Epigraph
pp v-vi
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Contents
pp vii-viii
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Acknowledgments
pp ix-x
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Prologue
pp 1-4
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Part I - Preliminaries
pp 5-20
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1 - Background
pp 7-11
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2 - Ground Rules
pp 12-20
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Part II - Thoughts and Their Properties
pp 21-66
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3 - The Priority of Thoughts
pp 23-26
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4 - The Path from a Thought to a Sound
pp 27-32
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5 - How Thoughts Are Structured
pp 33-41
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6 - How Thoughts Are Experienced
pp 42-49
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7 - How Thoughts Are Shared
pp 50-56
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8 - How Thoughts Flow through Time
pp 57-66
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Part III - Verbalization Illustrated
pp 67-90
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9 - From a Thought to a Sound in English
pp 69-83
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10 - From a Thought to a Sound in a Polysynthetic Language
pp 84-90
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Part IV - Related Issues
pp 91-120
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11 - The Translation Paradox
pp 93-99
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12 - Repeated Verbalizations of the Same Thought
pp 100-104
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13 - Rethinking Whorf
pp 105-112
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14 - Lessons from Literature
pp 113-120
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Part V - Common Ways of Orienting Thoughts
pp 121-158
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15 - Small Numbers and Subitizing
pp 123-130
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16 - Thoughts and Gender
pp 131-136
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17 - Time, Tense, Memory, and Imagination
pp 137-150
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18 - Relating Ideas to Reality
pp 151-158
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How Languages Turn Thoughts into Sounds

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