Accepted manuscript
Mathematical ideas and indigenous languages
2001
DOI: 10.17077/pp.005748
Abstract
Recent interest in how anthropology and linguistics relates to mathematics has led to recognition that mathematical thinking is a function of language in ways not previously recognised. Ethnomathematics, cognitive linguistics, and anthropology are all pointing to a way of understanding mathematical ideas based on human experience and cultural activities. Formal mathematics can be seen to have developed from metaphors deeply embedded in our languages. This raises the question of relativity in mathematics. Do different languages embody different types of mathematics? This chapter examines some emerging evidence in the grammar and syntax of indigenous languages, i.e. languages structurally very different from the Indo-European linguistic tradition. The educational consequences of the possibility of different mathematical thinking is briefly discussed.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Mathematical ideas and indigenous languages
- Creators
- Bill Barton (Author)Roslyn M Frank - University of Iowa, Spanish and Portuguese
- Contributors
- Bill Atweh (Editor)Helen Forgasz (Editor)Ben Nebres (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Accepted manuscript
- Publisher
- University of Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa, USA
- DOI
- 10.17077/pp.005748
- Number of pages
- 15 pages
- Comment
- Published as part of Sociocultural research on mathematics education : an international perspective (ISBN 9780805837261)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2001
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9984101801302771
Metrics
52 File views/ downloads
31 Record Views