"The hypothesis suggested by Benjamin Lee Whorf that the structure of a person's language is a factor in the way in which he understands reality and behaves with respect to it has attracted the attention of linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers, as well as a large segment of the public." Science
"Benjamin Lee Whorf's scholarly contributions were substantial both in technical linguistics and in the broader area for which he is best known, the relation between language perception and thought.... The basic thesis, stated by others before Whorf but developed by him and given his name in recent literature, is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak.... Any student of comparative literature or other cross-cultural study of values must at least take Whorf SMYTHs thesis into account . . ." -- Literature East and West, the Newsletter of the Conference on Oriental-Western Library Relations of the Modern Language Association of America.
"With his edition of Language, Thought, and Reality, Professor Carroll has . . . performed an invaluable service for linguists everywhere . . . A carefully planned and skillfully edited presentation of Whorf THEs philosophy of language, to which has been added an interesting foreword by Stuart Chase, an invaluable essay by Carroll, and an extremely illuminating and useful bibliography. . ." -- International Journal of American Linguistics
"An essay showing why Hopi is superior to English as a scientific language, a criticism of Basic English as Complex English, and an account of the semantics of fire prevention are not only readable but delightful." - New Yorker
Mike Teaches English is a motivating and engaging CALL package featuring a cartoon character who shares his world, language and music. The program allows students to revise and extend their language, literacy and computer skills individually or with a partner. There are three levels of difficulty and a simple, consistent user interface that allows for easy manipulation and navigation. The accompanying teacher's notes are well organised, comprehensive and practical.
From antiquity, the phenomenon of speech has been an object of both general curiosity and scientific inquiry. Over the centuries, much effort has been devoted to the study of this remarkable process whereby our eating and breathing apparatus is used to transform thoughts in the mind of a speaker into vibrations in the air and back into congruent thoughts in the mind of a listener. Although we still do not have satisfactory answers to many of the questions about speech and language that the ancients pondered, we do have substantial scientific knowledge of the subject and an evolving technology based on it.
Mike Teaches English
