Perception and Cognition in Language and Culture

Every language has a way of talking about seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. In about a quarter of the world's languages, grammatical evidentials express means of perception. In some languages verbs of vision subsume cognitive meanings. In others, cognition is associated with a verb of auditory perception, touch, or smell. 'Vision' is not the universally preferred means of perception. In numerous cultures, taboos are associated with forbidden visual experience. Vision may be considered intrusive and aggressive, and linked with power. In contrast, 'hearing' and 'listening' are the main avenues for learning, understanding and 'knowing'. The studies presented in this book set out to explore how these meanings and concepts are expressed in languages of Africa, Oceania, and South America.

Alexandra Aikhenvald (PhD 1984, DLitt 2006), James Cook University, is Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow. She published numerous articels and monographs on languages of Papua New Guinea and South America, and on perception and cognition, including Evidentiality (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Languages of the Amazon (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Anne Storch (PhD 1999), University of Cologne, is Full Professor of African Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cologne. She published on various languages of West and East-Central Africa and on African speech registers, including Secret Manipulations (Oxford University Press, 2011). Her book on Repertoires and Choices in African Languages, co-authored by Friederike Lüpke, is in print.

Contributors include Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Anne Storch; Christa König; Willem F.H. Adelaar, Lourens de Vries, Matthias Brenzinger, Anne Maria Fehn, Angelika Jakobi, El-Shafie El-Guzuuli, Gertrud Schneider-Blum, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, and Marilena Thanassoula.

"This book is an important contribution to deeper understanding of the linguistic expression of sensory perception and its correlation with cognition and culture. It brings fresh and diverse questions and approaches that in due time will help refine and expand previous research." – Thiago Costa Chacon, University of California, Santa Barbara, on Linguist List