The Instruction of Imagination
Language as a Social Communication Technology
Series: Foundations of Human Interaction;
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 27 August 2015
- ISBN 9780190256623
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages280 pages
- Size 236x152x30 mm
- Weight 499 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
The book presents a new general theory of language as a collectively-constructed communication technology - not unlike the social media on the Net today - that is dedicated to a very particular communicative function: the instruction of imagination.
MoreLong description:
The book suggests a new perspective on the essence of human language. This enormous achievement of our species is best characterized as a communication technology - not unlike the social media on the Net today - that was collectively invented by ancient humans for a very particular communicative function: the instruction of imagination. All other systems of communication in the biological world target the interlocutors' senses; language allows speakers to systematically instruct their interlocutors in the process of imagining the intended meaning - instead of directly experiencing it. This revolutionary function has changed human life forever, and in the book it operates as a unifying concept around which a new general theory of language gradually emerges. Dor identifies a set of fundamental problems in the linguistic sciences - the nature of words, the complexities of syntax, the interface between semantics and pragmatics, the causal relationship between language and thought, language processing, the dialectics of universality and variability, the intricacies of language and power, knowledge of language and its acquisition, the fragility of linguistic communication and the origins and evolution of language - and shows with respect to all of them how the theory provides fresh answers to the problems, resolves persistent difficulties in existing accounts, enhances the significance of empirical and theoretical achievements in the field, and identifies new directions for empirical research. The theory thus opens a new way towards the unification of the linguistic sciences, on both sides of the cognitive-social divide.
For anyone interested in language and how it works in modern day society, Dor offers a compelling account of competing positions in discourse linguistics...Overall, Dor's book has the potential to establish a new foundation for a communicative socially-based linguistic theory. Dor offers a framework for bringing together the two sides of linguistics which typically form psycholinguistics and socio-linguistics, and the book is about unpacking the tensions across the cognitive-social divide that can be said to be at play in trying to theorize new constructs.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The Functional Specificity of Language
3. How the Technology Works
4. Sign and Meaning
5. The Spiral of Relativity
6. Production and Comprehension
7. The Social Autonomy of Syntax
8. The Universality of Diversity
9. Acquisition as a Collective Enterprise
10. The Evolution of Language and its Users
11. Conclusion
References
