An Anatomy of Chinese : Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics / Perry Link.
Link, Perry, author.
2013
PL1279 .L483 2013eb
Available Online

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Title An Anatomy of Chinese : Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics / Perry Link.
Author Link, Perry, author.
ISBN 9780674067684
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674067684
Published Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Copyright ©2013
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource : 1 table
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/harvard.9780674067684 doi
Call Number PL1279 .L483 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 495.1 16
Summary During the Cultural Revolution, Mao exhorted the Chinese people to "smash the four olds": old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Yet when the Red Guards in Tiananmen Square chanted "We want to see Chairman Mao," they unknowingly used a classical rhythm that dates back to the Han period and is the very embodiment of the four olds. An Anatomy of Chinese reveals how rhythms, conceptual metaphors, and political language convey time-honored meanings of which Chinese speakers themselves may not be consciously aware, and contributes to the ongoing debate over whether language shapes thought, or vice versa. Perry Link's inquiry into the workings of Chinese reveals convergences and divergences with English, most strikingly in the area of conceptual metaphor. Different spatial metaphors for consciousness, for instance, mean that English speakers wake up while speakers of Chinese wake across. Other underlying metaphors in the two languages are similar, lending support to theories that locate the origins of language in the brain. The distinction between daily-life language and official language has been unusually significant in contemporary China, and Link explores how ordinary citizens learn to play language games, artfully wielding officialese to advance their interests or defend themselves from others. Particularly provocative is Link's consideration of how Indo-European languages, with their preference for abstract nouns, generate philosophical puzzles that Chinese, with its preference for verbs, avoids. The mind-body problem that has plagued Western culture may be fundamentally less problematic for speakers of Chinese.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)
In Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2013
E-BOOK PACKAGE ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 2013
E-BOOK PAKET LINGUISTIK 2013
HUP Complete eBook Package 2011-2014
HUP eBook Package 2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2014
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2015
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Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction
1 Rhythm
2 Metaphor
3 Politics
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index

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