Don't Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

Daniel Everett

Profile Books, Jul 9, 2010 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 327 pages

Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahãs, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world.

Everett describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Pirahã language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Everett's views are most recently discussed in Tom Wolfe's bestselling The Kingdom of Speech.

Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book.

Contents

• LANGUAGE: 175
• CONCLUSION: 261
• Why Care about Other Cultures and Languages?: 275
• Acknowledgments: 281
• Index: 285

About the author

Daniel Everett was born in California. He lived for many years in the Amazon jungle and conducted research on over a dozen indigenous languages of Brazil. He has published on sound structure, grammar, meaning, culture and language. He has been the subject of endless controversy in academic circles and is currently Professor of Linguistics at Illinois State University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Don't Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
• Author: Daniel Everett
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Profile Books, 2010
• ISBN: 1847651224, 9781847651228
• Length: 327 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Travel / Essays & Travelogues