Language in Culture

Reviews / Votes

'Brilliant, comprehensive, and always thought-provoking, Language in Culture is a truly singular contribution. Silverstein has brought his subtle and elegantly laid-out theoretical approach together with the acute and generative exploration of detailed exemplary cases - and always in his own distinctive and engaging voice. This is bound to be an immediate classic of lasting resonance.' Don Brenneis, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz 'This treasure of a book lays out the total linguistic fact, with all of Silverstein's classic brilliance, erudition, and mischievousness.' Penelope Eckert, Albert Ray Lang Professor Emerita, Stanford University 'It's difficult to find words to characterize adequately Michael Silverstein's genius, or the significance of his work. He is a singular figure. It's tempting to think of him as a kind of Saussure for our century, except that, as this elegantly constructed volume reveals, Silverstein disassembles Saussure's framework and uses the component parts - along with myriad elements from elsewhere (Peirce, Whorf, Sapir, Jakobson, Bakhtin, and many others) - to build a wondrous new construction that allows a breathtakingly rich view of how language works and of what happens when we use it.' Michael Lucey, Sidney and Margaret Ancker Professor of Comparative Literature and French, University of California, Berkeley 'With his signature searing clarity and punning wit, Michael Silverstein at long last lays out in print what decades of students have heard - the detailed, layered, and at once remarkably robust and subtle semiotic mechanisms through which we co-construct our worlds, or wreck them, hold them in a precarious order or teeter off course.' Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies, Columbia University