Cantitate/Preț
Produs

Language and Human Nature

Autor Mark Halpern
en Limba Engleză Hardback – 12 oct 2017
"Language and Human Nature" exposes a century's worth of flawed thinking about language, to exhibit some of the dangers it presents, and to suggest a path to recovery. It begins by examining the causes of changes in the English vocabulary. These sometimes take the form of new words, but more often that of new senses for old words. In the course of this examination, Halpern discusses a wide variety of verbal solecisms, vulgarisms, and infelicities generally. His objective is not to deplore such things, but to expose the reasons for their existence, the human traits that generate them.A large part of this book is devoted to contesting the claims of academic linguists to be the only experts in the study of language change. Language is too central to civilized life to be so deeply misunderstood without causing a multitude of troubles throughout our culture. We are currently experiencing such troubles, a number of which are examined here. The exposure of linguists' misunderstandings is not an end in itself, but a necessary first step in recovery from the confusion we are now enmeshed in.The picture of the relationship between words and thoughts that is part of the attempt to deal with language "scientifically" is partly responsible for dangerous cultural developments. The attempt by linguists to treat their subject scientifically makes them view meaning as an irritating complication to be ignored if possible. It turns them into formalists who try to understand language by studying its physical representations, with a resort to semantics only when unavoidable. With words practically stripped of their role as bearers of meaning, it becomes easy to see them as unimportant. Halpern's book is a serious critique of such oversimplified theorizing.
Citește tot Restrânge

Toate formatele și edițiile

Toate formatele și edițiile Preț Express
Paperback (1) 46418 lei  6-8 săpt.
  Taylor & Francis – 30 aug 2008 46418 lei  6-8 săpt.
Hardback (1) 101374 lei  6-8 săpt.
  Taylor & Francis – 12 oct 2017 101374 lei  6-8 săpt.

Preț: 101374 lei

Preț vechi: 123626 lei
-18%

Puncte Express: 1521

Preț estimativ în valută:
17921 21494$ 15579£

Carte tipărită la comandă

Livrare economică 13-27 martie


Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781138526884
ISBN-10: 1138526886
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: Taylor & Francis
Colecția Routledge
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom

Cuprins

1: The Question of Change in Language; 2: How Language is Studied Today; 3: Linguistic Authority: Rules, Dictionaries, and Teaching; 4: Descriptivist, Prescriptivist, and Linguistic Activist; 5: The Eskimo Snow Vocabulary Controversy–A Case Study; 6: A People’s Linguistics; 7: Restoring Rhetoric to Its Throne; 8: Decadence and Diseases of Language; 9: Plagiarism and Misquotation: the Use of Others’ Thoughts and Words; 10: What is To Be Done?; APPENDIX A: Linguistics as a Science; APPENDIX B: Eskimo-Language Terms for Snow and Ice; APPENDIX C: AI and the Golem project — the reverse-engineering twins; APPENDIX D: Notes on Chomsky and the Chomskyan literature; APPENDIX E: A Language of Mathematics? A Proof of Programs?; APPENDIX F: The Principal Players Identified; APPENDIX G: What is A ‘Foreign Term’?

Descriere

Exposes a century's worth of flawed thinking about language, to exhibit some of the dangers it presents, and to suggest a path to recovery. This book examines the causes of changes in the English vocabulary. It discusses a variety of verbal solecisms, vulgarisms, and infelicities generally.