The Word in the Word: Literary Text Reception and Linguistic Relativity (3)

by Aprilia Zank

This book deals with a wide range of issues - linguistic, psycholinguistic, literary, translational, anthropological, and more - in largely non-technical language, and it is particularly suitable for university courses, addressing students as well as teachers. A further important target group is that of translators and theoreticians of translation. At the same time, the book contributes to current scholarly debates on the theory of linguistic relativity. ( Ubersetzungswissenschaft / Translation Studies - Vol. 3) *** "This book represents a novel and effective development of cross-disciplinary perspectives, and a fascinating way to get as some of the assumptions that underlie our understanding use of language. It is cogent, interesting, well-written and suggestive." - Prof. Adam J. Sorkin, Pennsylvania State University

342 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2013

Reviews

[Jennifer Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

A suitable textural resource for those interested in language and it's relativity. It has some interesting in depth discussion of one of T.S. Elliot's lesser known poems. I was particularly interested to read about the the research done by Lera Boroditsky. She suggests what I had wondered about from time to time, and that is that grammatical genders applied to language do influence people.

[Liliana Negoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I happened to find out about Mrs. Aprilia Zank's book due to one of those fortunate accidents that enrich our knowledge and conscience, and I admit that the first impulse towards reading it was given by the title, which is, in my opinion, very well chosen, given the content of the book. I myself, as a writer and translator, often pondered upon the ways in which certain meanings of words change from one language to another, thus influencing the reader's perception of the message. Therefore, when learning about this volume, I was highly interested in reading it and in finding out a specialist's opinion on this matter.
It is not a "light reading", mainly because it is a theory book, but putting aside the specific, I must emphasize that it is very well written, including both prior mentions regarding the main topic - linguistic relativity - and current studies on the subject. As an example, the author chose to "dissect" a text belonging to T. S. Eliot, thoroughly considering all aspects regarding it, starting with the title and going through each detail of content, not only in its original version, in English, but also in five other languages - French, German, Italian, Romanian and Spanish. Since I, personally, speak English and French aside my Romanian native tongue, and have certain knowledge regarding Spanish language, though at a beginner's level, it was an interesting experiment to see ad litteram the comparisons made by Mrs. Zank.
I strongly recommend it to all those interested in the way language is able to shape and be shaped by the thought, and also to those concerned by the preservation or alteration of message through translation.

[Ampat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by Aprilia Zank is worth reading as it strikes a balance between being for experts and laymen. I confess that not being very much into linguistics or translation there were sections that took me a longer time to wade through but what really caught my attention was the constant striving on the part of the author to make it both reader and user-friendly. I must admit that I felt a tad jealous at how well the book has been brought out and thanked my lucky stars for owning one as a complimentary gift, that too an inscribed by the author herself one! We in India struggle to match such high standards of production, due probably to monetary factors.

Coming to the contents of the book itself, for someone as crazy as I am about theory, this books is an absolute treat. I have not seen such a comprehensive survey of the history of linguistics before and the gradual move to the analysis of a poem and the exercises given for praxis make this one a book in a million. It is a treat that covers, to name painstakingly, Whorf & co., Freud, Piaget, Vygotsky, Sapir, Chomsky, Pinker, Eco, Zeno, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Kant, Wittgenstein, Einstein, Penrose, Bergson, Hawking - to name but the most significant few of those studied here, according to me - and the poem taken for analysis including its "thousand" translations is T. S. Eliot's Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock , a poem much loved by me - which leads to the interesting exercises at the end.

I give it five stars - it is a book that should be the rage everywhere in the intellectual world!

A treat to have and a treasure to own, hold and read always!