Prophets, Lovers and Giraffes: Wor(l)d Classification in Ancient Egypt

Name: Prophets, Lovers and Giraffes: Wor(l)d Classification in Ancient Egypt
Brand: Harrassowitz Verlag
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

By Orly Goldwasser

0 - Default Title

Description

The book's central proposition is that the prominent feature of the hiero-glyphic script which Egyptologists call "determinatives" makes up an elabo-rate system of classifiers. All items of the lexicon take motivated pictorial classifiers. By this device, the script reflects the map of knowledgeorganization of ancient Egyptian culture. The book aims to reveal the principles and constraints governing the codification of the ancient Egyptian universe in this system. There is, to date, no comprehensive study, either in Egyptology or in cognitive linguistics, of the hieroglyphic classifiers as a structured system. The present work attempts to fill the existing hiatus by bridging the disciplines of Egyptology and cognitive studies, using the tools of the latter to elucidate the former and thus perhaps arrive at new perspectives on both. From the Egyptological angle, the book deals with the ancient Egyptians' nomenclature for "items in the world" and the relationship between lexicon and the knowledge organization. However, the events occurring in the picture-script render cognitive processes visible to our inspection hundreds of years before they have ripened into the Egyptian language. This "visibility" bears directly on a number of crucial questions in cognitive linguistics and ethnobiology. The book also includes an introduction to the hieroglyphic script.

Product details

Binding:

Paperback

Edition:

1

Number of Pages:

236

Release Date:

2002-12-31

Publication Date:

2002-01-01

Publisher:

Harrassowitz Verlag

Languages:

Original: English

ISBN10:

3447045906

ISBN13:

9783447045902

GPSR Manufacturer Reference:

[email protected]

Weight:

698 g

Height:

210 cm

Width:

297 cm

Thickness:

15 cm

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