The Leopard's spots : : essays on language, cognition, and culture / / by Gerrit J. Dimmendaal.

• Superior document: Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture, Volume 11
• VerfasserIn: Dimmendaal, Gerrit Jan,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : Koninklijke Brill,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's studies in language, cognition and culture ; Volume 11.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (237 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; 1 By Way of Introduction /; 2 Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent /; 3 Accretion Zones and the Absence of Language Union in the Nuba Mountains /; 4 Esoterogeny and Localist Strategies in a Nuba Mountain Community /; 5 Some Observations on Evolutionary Concepts in Current Linguistics /; 6 Studying Lexical-Semantic Fields in Languages: Nature Versus Nurture, or Where Does Culture Come into It These Days? /; 7 Lexical-Semantic Fields in Tima /; 8 Colourful psi’s Sleep Furiously: Depicting Emotional States in Some African Languages /; 9 Perception of the Living Dead and the Invisible Hand in Teso-Turkana /; 10 Conversational Styles in Tima /; References /; Language Index /; Subject Index /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• ISBN: 9004224149
• ISSN: 1879-5412
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Gerrit J. Dimmendaal.

In The Leopard’s Spots , Gerrit J. Dimmendaal discusses the interaction between language, cognition, and culture in an African context with special focus on the cultural construction of meaning through language. Such constructions are constrained by our cognitive system, but leave lots of space for culture-specific interpretations and thereby for tremendous typological diversity between languages. This variation reflects the adaptive nature of human language in the same way that the spots of the leopard reflect selective advantages for its natural habitat. But whereas science has essentially one explanation for the rosettes of the leopard, the non-scientific mind may attach meaning to his or her cultural environment by way of language through a plethora of strategies.