Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind (1986)

As an academic study Lakoff's book is highly regarded as groundbreaking. Unfortunately, not having expertise in linguistics, it is also difficult to read as the author has an overly reliant focus on long lists, and on the use of terminology that is specific to this domain. The book presents reasoned arguments (particularly on the long discussion against objectivism in scientific theory) and carefully blends linguistics with philosophy and psychology with social linguistics, which at times is fascinating. Not an easy read, but worthwhile and thought-provoking, and better for the case studies included at the end of the book. ( )

The cognitive view of the mind, and language, but no mention of anthropologists like Whorf.

Also see http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ps.32.020181.000513 ' CATEGORIZATION OF NATURAL OBJECTS by Carolyn B. Mervis and Eleanor Rosch ( )

read for Cog Sci at UCB

I have to hand it to George Lakoff. Despite his Chomsky training at MIT, he was able to break out and consider how people really construct metaphors and how much of language is really metaphor. All his works and those of his cohorts are insightful and evdn exciting, although this particular work has a sexist bias as the title reveals. I guess that was George's little joke ( )