Consequences of Language

Consequences of Language PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262372738
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
What is it about humans that makes language possible, and what is it about language that makes us human? If you are reading this, you have done something that only our species has evolved to do. You have acquired a natural language. This book asks, How has this changed us? Where scholars have long wondered what it is about humans that makes language possible, N. J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell ask instead, What is it about humans that is made possible by language? In Consequences of Language their objective is to understand what modern language really is and to identify its logical and conceptual consequences for social life. Central to this undertaking is the concept of intersubjectivity, the open sharing of subjective experience. There is, Enfield and Sidnell contend, a uniquely human form of intersubjectivity, and it is essentially intertwined with language in two ways: a primary form of intersubjectivity was necessary for language to have begun evolving in our species in the first place and then language, through its defining reflexive properties, transformed the nature of our intersubjectivity. In the authors’ analysis, social accountability—the bedrock of society—is grounded in this linguistically transformed, enhanced kind of intersubjectivity. The account of the language-mind-society connection put forward in Consequences of Language is one of unprecedented reach, suggesting new connections across disciplines centrally concerned with language—from anthropology and philosophy to sociology and cognitive science—and among those who would understand the foundational role of language in making us human.

Consequences of Language

Consequences of Language PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262372738
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
What is it about humans that makes language possible, and what is it about language that makes us human? If you are reading this, you have done something that only our species has evolved to do. You have acquired a natural language. This book asks, How has this changed us? Where scholars have long wondered what it is about humans that makes language possible, N. J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell ask instead, What is it about humans that is made possible by language? In Consequences of Language their objective is to understand what modern language really is and to identify its logical and conceptual consequences for social life. Central to this undertaking is the concept of intersubjectivity, the open sharing of subjective experience. There is, Enfield and Sidnell contend, a uniquely human form of intersubjectivity, and it is essentially intertwined with language in two ways: a primary form of intersubjectivity was necessary for language to have begun evolving in our species in the first place and then language, through its defining reflexive properties, transformed the nature of our intersubjectivity. In the authors’ analysis, social accountability—the bedrock of society—is grounded in this linguistically transformed, enhanced kind of intersubjectivity. The account of the language-mind-society connection put forward in Consequences of Language is one of unprecedented reach, suggesting new connections across disciplines centrally concerned with language—from anthropology and philosophy to sociology and cognitive science—and among those who would understand the foundational role of language in making us human.

Consequences of Language

Consequences of Language PDF Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262544865
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
What is it about humans that makes language possible, and what is it about language that makes us human? If you are reading this, you have done something that only our species has evolved to do. You have acquired a natural language. This book asks, How has this changed us? Where scholars have long wondered what it is about humans that makes language possible, N. J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell ask instead, What is it about humans that is made possible by language? In Consequences of Language their objective is to understand what modern language really is and to identify its logical and conceptual consequences for social life. Central to this undertaking is the concept of intersubjectivity, the open sharing of subjective experience. There is, Enfield and Sidnell contend, a uniquely human form of intersubjectivity, and it is essentially intertwined with language in two ways: a primary form of intersubjectivity was necessary for language to have begun evolving in our species in the first place and then language, through its defining reflexive properties, transformed the nature of our intersubjectivity. In the authors’ analysis, social accountability—the bedrock of society—is grounded in this linguistically transformed, enhanced kind of intersubjectivity. The account of the language-mind-society connection put forward in Consequences of Language is one of unprecedented reach, suggesting new connections across disciplines centrally concerned with language—from anthropology and philosophy to sociology and cognitive science—and among those who would understand the foundational role of language in making us human.

Language Choices

Language Choices PDF Author: Martin Pütz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027218315
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
This volume concerns various aspects of the theory and application of language conflict phenomena seen from an interdisciplinary perspective. The focus is on linguistic, social, psychological and educational issues (conditions, constraints and consequences) involved in the status and use of languages in multilingual settings. The book is divided into four sections, which deal with: theoretical issues - such as the nature of the concepts of language maintenance; language policy and language planning; attitudes towards languages; and codeswitching and language choice.

Investigating Obsolescence

Investigating Obsolescence PDF Author: Nancy C. Dorian
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521437578
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This collection will certainly stimulate further and better co-ordinated research into a topic of direct relevance to sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.

Language and Exclusion

Language and Exclusion PDF Author: Ayọ Bamgboṣe
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 9783825847753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Language is a critical factor in nation-building, and in a continent such as Africa, where language groups do not necessarily correspond with national boundaries, it is potentially contentious as well. Ayo Bamgbose's new book focuses on the problem of language exclusion, whereby certain languages -- and groups -- are omitted from language policies, particularly in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Originally based on a series of lectures given in South Africa, the individual chapters largely preserve the original style of presentation. Consequently, the book is readable, and a valuable introduction to some of the more important issues in African sociolinguistics. The book makes special reference to the language situation in post-apartheid South Africa. The appendices provide access to some of the most important documents on language policies such as the Organization of African Unity's Language Plan of Action For Africa (1986), the language provisions in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of South Africa (1996), and the Barcelona Universal Declaration on Linguistics Rights.

Language vs. Reality

Language vs. Reality PDF Author: N.J. Enfield
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262368773
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
A fascinating examination of how we are both played by language and made by language: the science underlying the bugs and features of humankind’s greatest invention. Language is said to be humankind’s greatest accomplishment. But what is language actually good for? It performs poorly at representing reality. It is a constant source of distraction, misdirection, and overshadowing. In fact, N. J. Enfield notes, language is far better at persuasion than it is at objectively capturing the facts of experience. Language cannot create or change physical reality, but it can do the next best thing: reframe and invert our view of the world. In Language vs. Reality, Enfield explains why language is bad for scientists (who are bound by reality) but good for lawyers (who want to win their cases), why it can be dangerous when it falls into the wrong hands, and why it deserves our deepest respect. Enfield offers a lively exploration of the science underlying the bugs and features of language. He examines the tenuous relationship between language and reality; details the array of effects language has on our memory, attention, and reasoning; and describes how these varied effects power narratives and storytelling as well as political spin and conspiracy theories. Why should we care what language is good for? Enfield, who has spent twenty years at the cutting edge of language research, argues that understanding how language works is crucial to tackling our most pressing challenges, including human cognitive bias, media spin, the “post-truth” problem, persuasion, the role of words in our thinking, and much more.

Language

Language PDF Author: Howard Giles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Aims to synthesize work in social psychology, communication science, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. Begins with theory, and proceeds to a consideration of actual contexts, such as ethnolinguistic expression, bilingualism, health and ageing, where language and social forces interact.

The Visual Consequences of Language Comprehension

The Visual Consequences of Language Comprehension PDF Author: Alexia C. Toskos
Publisher: Stanford University
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
How do we understand language? What kinds of representations do people form when hearing a story or when reading a paragraph? In this dissertation, I will explore how people make meaning out of the language that they read or hear. One possibility is that the words we read or hear engage perceptuomotor representations, and language comprehension arises from modality-specific simulation or imagery of the linguistic content. Strong versions of the modality-specific approach assume complete overlap between the representations generated by language and those generated by perception and action. Perhaps representations brought about by language only partially overlap and interact with perception and action, with clear limits, and with important differences along the continuum from concrete to abstract language. The studies presented in this dissertation aim to delineate where perception and language understanding share representations and processing resources, and where they diverge. The findings suggest that language understanding affects visuospatial processing (Chapter 2) and visual motion processing (Chapter 3), but to a lesser extent than does perception itself.

Consequences of Contact

Consequences of Contact PDF Author: Miki Makihara
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199724539
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The Pacific is historically an area of enormous linguistic diversity, where talk figures as a central component of social life. Pacific communities also represent diverse contact zones, where between indigenous and introduced institutions and ideas; between local actors and outsiders; and involving different lingua franca, colonial, and local language varieties. Contact between colonial and post-colonial governments, religious institutions, and indigenous communities has spurred profound social change, irrevocably transforming linguistic ideologies and practices. Drawing on ethnographic and linguistic analyses, this edited volume examines situations of intertwined linguistic and cultural change unfolding in specific Pacific locations in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Its overarching concern is with the multiple ways that processes of historical change have shaped and been shaped by linguistic ideologies reflexive sensibilities about languages and language useheld by Pacific peoples and other agents of change. The essays demonstrate that language and linguistic practices are linked to changing consciousness of self and community through notions of agency, morality, affect, authority, and authenticity. In times of cultural contact, communities often experience language change at an accelerated rate. This is particularly so in small-scale communities where innovations and continuity routinely depend on the imagination, creativity, and charisma of fewer individuals. The essays in this volume provide evidence of this potential and a record of their voices, as they document new types of local actors, e.g., pastors, Bible translators, teachers, political activists, spirit mediums, and tour guides, some of whom introduce, innovate, legitimate, or resist new ideas and ways to express them through language. Drawing on and transforming metalinguistic concepts, local actors (re)shape language, reproducing and changing the communicative economy. In the process, they cultivate new cultural conceptions of language, for example, as a medium for communicating religious knowledge and political authority, and for constructing social boundaries and transforming relationships of domination.

Linguistic Justice

Linguistic Justice PDF Author: April Baker-Bell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351376705
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
Bringing together theory, research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and white linguistic supremacy, this book provides ethnographic snapshots of how Black students navigate and negotiate their linguistic and racial identities across multiple contexts. By highlighting the counterstories of Black students, Baker-Bell demonstrates how traditional approaches to language education do not account for the emotional harm, internalized linguistic racism, or consequences these approaches have on Black students' sense of self and identity. This book presents Anti-Black Linguistic Racism as a framework that explicitly names and richly captures the linguistic violence, persecution, dehumanization, and marginalization Black Language-speakers endure when using their language in schools and in everyday life. To move toward Black linguistic liberation, Baker-Bell introduces a new way forward through Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, a pedagogical approach that intentionally and unapologetically centers the linguistic, cultural, racial, intellectual, and self-confidence needs of Black students. This volume captures what Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy looks like in classrooms while simultaneously illustrating how theory, research, and practice can operate in tandem in pursuit of linguistic and racial justice. A crucial resource for educators, researchers, professors, and graduate students in language and literacy education, writing studies, sociology of education, sociolinguistics, and critical pedagogy, this book features a range of multimodal examples and practices through instructional maps, charts, artwork, and stories that reflect the urgent need for antiracist language pedagogies in our current social and political climate.