Daniel Everett

Daniel L. (Dan) Everett holds a ScD and a Masters of Linguistics from the Universidade Estadual in Campinas (UNICAMP), both based upon years of field research among the Pirahã people of the Brazilian Amazon jungle. He taught as an instructor and later Assistant Professor at UNICAMP, 1981-1986, until leaving Brazil to return to the USA. He next was appointed full professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also chaired the Department of Linguistics until 1999. At that time, Dan moved to the Amazon to live the majority of the next three years in the jungle among the Pirahãs. He left the jungle when the University of Manchester, England, offered him the position of Professor of Phonetics and Phonology. Following several years in England, Dr. Everett spent the 2005-2006 academic year as a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He went on to chair the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University from 2006 - 2010. From 2010-2018 he served as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University. He is currently Trustee Professor of Cognitive Sciences at Bentley. Everett has lived in the Amazonian jungle for nearly eight out of the last thirty years, studying more than a dozen little or never previously studied Amazonian languages. He has published more than 100 scientific articles as sole author and eleven books. In 2008 his book, Don't Sleep There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle, was published in eight languages, becoming a best-seller in English, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, and German. That book was selected by National Public Radio in the US as one of the best books of 2009. It was also selected by Blackwells booksellers in the UK as one of the best books in the UK for 2009. Everett's book, Language: The Cultural Tool, was published in 2012. It has been reviewed in various publications, published in four languages, and was a NY Times Editor's Choice. Dan has appeared numerous times on the BBC and NPR, and has been profiled in newspapers around the world. A documentary about his life and work, The Grammar of Happiness, was released in 2012. Everett's recent books are Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious, with University of Chicago Press and How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention, with Liveright Books. Everett's books are published in many languages.

Education

• Doutorado em Ciências em Lingüistica (Sc.D.), UNICAMP, 1983.
• Mestrado em Lingüistica, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), 1980.
• Diploma in Foreign Missions, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL, 1975.

Teaching Interests

Everett's teaching interests have historically been phonetics, phonology, syntax, morphology, linguistics field research, and anthropology. Currently teaches on the evolution of human behavior, cultures of business, Native Americans, and cross-cultural communication.

Research Interests

His research spans a wide range of topics such as anthropology, cognitive sciences, the nature of language, language evolution, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind.

Awards and Honors

• 2022, Kawaja Family Foundation, Kawaja Family
• 2014, Lonner Lecture, International Association for Cross Cultural Psychology
• 2014, Founding co-Editor in Chief of Open Linguistics, De Gruyter Open
• 2013, 20th Anniversary Issue dedicated to Everett's book, Language: The Cultural Tool., Journal Pragmatics and Cognition
• 2013, Best World Science Documentary Award and the Student Jury Award (for Grammar of Happiness, documentary about Everett's life and work), § Academia Film Olomouc International Festival of Science Documentary Films, Czech Republic.
• 2013, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes selected as required reading for all freshmen; same book was subject of Annual Belmont Conference., Belmont University, Nashville, TN
• 2013, Gold Panda Award for Best Long Documentary (for Grammar of Happiness, film about Everett's life and work)., Sichuan TV Festival (China)
• 2013, Grand Prix, Tree of Knowledge Award (for Grammar of Happiness), The World of Knowledge Science Film Festival, St Petersburg, Russia
• 2013, One of Four Inaugural Winners, Annual Meeting Opening Film, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 2013, Holtville High School Hall of Fame, Holtville High School, Holtville, CA
• 2012, ACS Gold and the 2012 Judges Award for Best Cinematography (for Grammar of Happiness), Australian Cinematographers Society Awards
• 2012, Best Human and Social Science film 2012 (for Grammar of Happiness, documentary about Everett's life and work)., Jackson Hole Science Media Awards
• 2012, Grand River Forum (three-day conference dedicated to Everett's book, Don't Sleep, There are Snakes. All incoming freshmen required to read Don't Sleep), Wilfrid Laurier College, Toronto
• 2012, Top 15 Scientific Insights 2011, Forbes Magazine
• 2012, Young European Jury Prize 2012 (for Grammar of Happiness)., FIPA International Festival of Audio Visual Programs, FRANCE.
• 2012, Tel Aviv University Conference (on Everett's book, Language: The Cultural Tool)., Cohn Institute and the Department of Philosophy
• 2010, Top 100 Science Stories, 2009, Discover Magazine
• 2009, Best Books of 2009, for Everett's Don't Sleep, There are Snakes, National Public Radio (US)
• 2009, Finalist, Best Book 2009 (for Everett's Don't Sleep, There are Snakes), Society of Midland Authors
• 2009, Inaugural University Professor, Illinois State University
• 2005, Visiting Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
• 2001, Research Professorship, University of Manchester, UK
• 1992, Fellow, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science
• 1984, Visiting Scholar, Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 1975, Delta Epsilon Chi, Delta Epsilon Chi, National Honor Society for Christian Colleges

Publications

Journal Articles

• Everett, D. L. (2021). Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Paleolithic. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 28, pages 535–579 44. (Link)
• Everett, D. (2020). O Papel da Cultura na Língua e na Cognição. Brazilian Linguistics Association. 29.
• , ., Everett, D. (2020). Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Paleolithic. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 45.
• Everett, D. (2019). Review of Recursion Across Domains. Language, The Journal of the Linguistic Society of America. Volume 95, Number 4 777-790. (Link)
• Everett, D. L., , E., , . (2019). Review of Recursion Across Domains. Language: The Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, (Volume 95) 4 777-790. (Link)
• Everett, D. L. (2018). The Role of Culture in Language and Cognition. Wiley. Volume 12, issue 11 34. (Link)
• Futrell, R., Stearns, L., Piantadosi, S. T., Gibson, E. (2016). A Corpus Investigation of Syntactic Embedding in Piraha. PLOS One.
• Everett, D. (2016). An Evaluation of Universal Grammar and the Phonological Mind. Frontiers In Psychology.
• Everett, D. (2015). On resilience, homesigns and nativism: a response to Goldin-Meadow. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. 30 919-921.
• Everett, D. (2015). Geo-Identity. Travel Plus Magazine.
• Everett, D. (2014). Cultural Differences in Perceptual Reorganization in US and Piraha Adults. PLOS One.
• Everett, D. (2014). "One World, many visions'. Review of "Upriver: The Turbulent Life and Times of an Amazonian people" by Michael F. Brown. New Scientist Magazine.
• Everett, D. (2013). The State of Whose Art? Reply to Nick Enfield's review of Language: The Cultural Tool. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
• Everett, D. (2013). A Noble Scientist - Review of 'Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes - The Yanamamo and the Anthropologists. New Scientist Magazine.
• Everett, D. (2012). What does Piraha Have to Teach Us About Human Language and the Mind?. WIREs Cognitive Science.
• Everett, D. (2012). The story of language: culture not nature. New Scientist. 32-35.
• Everett, D. (2011). Furchtet euch nicht!. Kultur Austausch, (11) 111 64-65.
• Everett, D. (2009). Pirahã Culture and Grammar: A Response to Some Criticisms. Language, (Volume 85) Number 2 405-442.
• Frank, M., Everett, D., Fedorenko, E., Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition, (108) 3 819-824.
• Everett, D. (2007). Challenging Chomskyan Linguistics: The Case of Piraha. Human Development, (50) 6 297-299.
• Everett, D. (2006). Responding to Bambini, Valentina, Claudio Gentili, and Pietro Pietrini 'Discussion On Cultural Constraints on Pirahã Grammar'. Current Anthropology, (47) 1 143-145.
• Everett, D. (2005). Biology and Language: a Consideration of Alternatives. Journal of Linguistics, (41) 157-175.
• Everett, D. (2005). Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã. Current Anthropology, (46) 4 621-646.
• Everett, D. (2005). Periphrastic Pronouns in Wari. , (71) 3 303-326.
• Everett, D. (2003). Iambic Feet in Paumari and the Theory of Foot Structure. Linguistic Discovery, (2) 1 22-44.
• Everett, D. (2002). Recollections of Kenneth L. Hale. Linguistic Typology, (6) 2
• Everett, D. (2001). Do Phonological Representations Specify Variables? Evidence from the Obligatory Contour Princip.e. Cognitive Psychology. 42 1-60.
• Everett, D. (2001). Review of Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. & Randy J. LaPolla's "Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function", 1997. Journal of Linguistics.
• Everett, D. (1999). A Formacao de Palavras na Sintaxe em Wari'. Margarida Basilio.
• Everett, D., Ladefoged, P., Ladefoged, J. (1997). Phonetic Structures of Banawa, an Endangered Language. Phonetica. 54 94-111.
• Everett, D., Ladefoged, P. (1996). The Status of Phonetic Rarities. Language, (72) 3
• Everett, D. (1994). The Sentential Divide in Language and Cognition: Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility and Related Issues. The Journal of Pragmatics and Cognition, (2) 1 131-166.
• Everett, D. (1994). Restricoes de Bloqueamento e a Teoria da Otimalidade. The Journal of the Brazilian Linguistics Society, (10) 2
• Everett, D. (1993). Sapir, Reichenbach, and the Syntax of Tense in Piraha. The Journal of Pragmatics and Cognition, (1) 1 89-124.
• Everett, D., Buller, B., Buller, E. (1993). Stress Placement, Syllable Structure and Minimality in Banawa. The International Journal of American Linguistics, (59) 3 280-293.
• Everett, D. (1992). Formal Linguistics and Field Work. Cadernos do Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem.
• Everett, D. (1991). 'Mental representations: The interface between language and reality' edited by Ruth M. Kempson. Language. 67
• Everett, D. (1989). Anaphoric Indices and Inalienable Possession in Brazilian Portuguese. Linguistic Inquiry, (20) 3 491-497.
• Everett, D. (1989). Clitic Doubling, Reflexives, and Word Order Alternations in Yagua. Language, (65) 2 339-372.
• Everett, D. (1988). On Metrical Constituent Structure in Piraha Phonology. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 5 207-246.
• Everett, D. (1987). Piraha Clitic Doubling. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 5 245-276.
• Everett, D., Seki, L. (1986). Deletion, Reduplication and CV Skeleta in Kamaiura. Notes on Linguistics. 33 48-52.
• Everett, D., Seki, L. (1985). Reduplication and CV Skeleta in Kamairua. Linguistic Inquiry. 16 326-330.
• Everett, D., Everett, K. (1984). On the relevance of Syllable Onsets to Stress Placement. Linguistic Inquiry. 15 705-711.
• Everett, D. (1983). A Gramatica dos Genes. Ciencia Ilustrada.
• Everett, D. (1982). Phonetic Rarities in Piraha. Journal of the International Phonetics Association. 94-96.
• Everett, D. (1982). Some Remarks on Minimal Pairs. Notes on Linguistics, (22) 24-30.
• Everett, D. (). Religion is of reduced importance when not needed to solve the problems of social living." . Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion. Forthcoming.

Books

• Everett, D. L. (2022). Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes (Chinese). Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. L. (2022). Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes (Ukrainian). 400. Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. L. (2022). How Language Began (Chinese translation). Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. L. (2022). Language: The Cultural Tool. 400. Riga, Latvia: University of Riga Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. L. (2021). Don't Sleep There Are Snakes (Italian Translation). 400. Italy: Fabbrica dei Segni
• Everett, D. (2016). Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious. roughly 350. Chicago, IL: For release in 2016 by University of Chicago Press
• Everett, D. (2016). How Language Began. For release in 2016 by Liveright Publishers
• Everett, D. (2013). Shaping the Future of Business Education: Relevance, Rigor, and Life-Preparation. 296pp. Palgrave-Macmillan
• Everett, D. (2012). Language: The Cultural Tool. 352. New York: Pantheon
• Everett, D. (2011). Linguistic fieldwork: A Student Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
• Everett, D. (2008). Don't sleep, there are snakes: Life and language in the Amazonian Jungle. 352. New York: Pantheon
• Everett, D. (1997). Journal of Amazonian Languages, 1:1 and 1:2. University of Pittsburgh
• Everett, D. (1997). Wari':The Pacaas-Novos Language of Western Brazil. 536. Routledge
• Everett, D. (1997). Why There are No Clitics. 190. Arlington, TX: SIL-University of Texas, Arlington
• Everett, D. (1990). A Lingua Pirahã e a Teoria da Sintaxe. 410. UNICAMP
• Everett, D. (1986). Baako-Kasi. Translation of the Gospel of Mark in Piraha. Edicoes Vida Nova, Brazil
• Everett, D. (1985). O Desenvolvimento de Teoria Chomskyana: Uma Discussao Epistemologica. RLEE, Lima, Peru
• Everett, D. L. (). Peircean Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Empiricist Thought. app 400. New York, New York: Oxford University Press Forthcoming.

Book Chapters

• Everett, D. (2022). "O papel da Cultura na emergência da Linguagem." In , (Eds.) Linguagem, Sentido e Ação na Obra de Daniel Everett. Pernambuco: Universidade Catolica de Pernambuco, Brazil
• Everett, D. L. (2022). C.S. Peirce e a Gramatica Universal In Dr. Danilo Costa, (Eds.) Linguagem, Sentido e Acao na Obra de Daniel L. Everett. 45. Universidade Catolica de Pernambuco, Brazil Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. (2014). Instinct and Innate In John Brockman, (Eds.) This Idea Must Die: Scientific theories that are blocking progress.
• Everett, D. (2014). The Demise of the Scholar In John Brockman, (Eds.) What should we be worried about: real scenarios that keep scientists up at night.
• Everett, D. (2013). Recursion and Human Thought: Why the Piraha Don't Have Numbers In John Brockman, (Eds.) Thinking: the New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction. 269-291. HarperCollins
• Everett, D. (2013). The Role of Culture in the Emergence of Language In Brian MacWhinney and William O'Grady, (Eds.) The Handbook of Language Emergence. 25pp. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. (2012). Concentric Circles of Attachment in Pirahã: A Brief Survey In Heidi Keller, Hiltrud Otto, (Eds.) Different Faces of Attachment: Cultural Variations of a Universal Human Need. 25pp. Cambridge University Press
• Everett, D. (2009). Interview with Dan Everett In Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil, Peter Trudgill, (Eds.) Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable. Oxford University Press
• Everett, D. (2009). Wari' Intentional State Construction Predicates In Robert Van Valin, (Eds.) Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface. John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Everett, D. (2004). Coherent Fieldwork In Piet van Sterkenberg, (Eds.) Linguistics Today. 141-162. John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Everett, D. (2001). Monolingual Field Research In Paul Newman and Martha Ratliff, (Eds.) Fieldlinguistics. 166-188. Cambridge University Press
• Everett, D. (2000). Why There are no Clitics: On the Storage, Insertion, and Form of-features In Peter Coopmans, Martin Everaert, Jane Grimshaw, (Eds.) Lexical Specification and Insertion. 91-114. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Everett, D. (1998). Wari' Morphology In , (Eds.) Handbook of Morphology. Basil Blackwell
• Everett, D. (1995). Sistemas Prosodicos da Familia Arawa In Leo Wetzels, (Eds.) Estudos Fonologicos de Linguas Indigenas Brasileiras. Rio de Janeiro: Editora da Universidade Federal
• Everett, D. (1986). Piraha In Desmond Derbyshire, Geoffrey Pullum, (Eds.) Handbook of Amazonian Languages. 200-326. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
• Everett, D. (1985). Dialogue and the Selection of Data for a Grammar In Marcelo Dascal, (Eds.) Dialogue: An Interdisciplinary Approach. 251-267. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Everett, D. (). "Peirce's Journey to the End of Inquiry:The Tenure of the Soul," In , (Eds.) Handbook of C.S. Peirce. Oxford: Oxford University Press Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. (). "Towards a Peircean Linguistics" In , (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of C.S. Peirce.. 50. Oxford: Oxford University Press Forthcoming.
• Everett, D. (). Underspecified Temporal Semiosis in Pirahã In , (Eds.) Understanding Human Time. . Oxford: Oxford University Press Forthcoming.