The bilingual mind: And what it tells us about language and thought

International Multilingual Research Journal. 2017. Vol. 11. No. 4. P. 277–279.

Kharkhurin A. V.

Using author’s own words, this monograph signifies a bilingual turn in the scientific investigation of the relationship between language and thought. This book deserves to occupy a prominent place on any shelf collecting academic literature on bi- and multilingualism, and not only there. It is an important contribution to broader fields of study such as linguistics and cognitive psychology. The book is written for scholars working in both fields, and the arguments presented throughout the book would require substantial knowledge of both fields. Thus, the book would accomplish one of the major purposes of any scholarly work: it would encourage readers to expand their knowledge base to encompass the theories and empirical findings accumulated in these fields of study. However, this book is intended for non-academic audience as well. Possibly due to the Russian literary tradition native to the author, this book is written in vivid language enriched with compound sentences, captivating subtitles, and thought provoking epigraphs. It combines virtually encyclopedic knowledge equipped with an extensive bibliography and nonstandard perspectives on major theories in linguistics. With respect to the latter, the book presents a fresh re-reading of salient theorists such as Humboldt, Sapir, Whorf, Vygotsky, and Bakhtin.

Keywords: bilingualism, билингвизм, язык и мышление, language and thought, bilingual mind, билингвальное сознание