Secondly, I think we need to recognize that in addition to explanations of the sort fostered by the linguistic turn in its broadest sense, historians, even cultural historians, continue to rely on explanation of a mechanistic type. I suspect that one reason for Chartier’s wariness about linguistic models is a sense that they are utterly incapable of explicating these more mechanistic determinants of cultural practice. Immediately following one of his denunciations of linguistic imperialism, Chartier writes: