This book offers readers a collection of 50 short chapter entries on topics in the philosophy of language. Each entry addresses a paradox, a longstanding puzzle, or a major theme that has emerged in the field from the last 150 years, tracing overlap with issues in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics, political philosophy, and literature. Each of the 50 entries is written as a piece that can stand on its own, though useful connections to other entries are mentioned throughout the text. Readers can open the book and start with almost any of the entries, following themes of greatest interest to them. Each entry includes recommendations for further reading on the topic. Philosophy of Language: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments is useful as a standalone textbook, or can be supplemented by additional readings that instructors choose. The accessible style makes it suitable for introductory level through intermediate undergraduate courses, as well as for independent learners, or even as a reference for more advanced students and researchers. Key Features: Uses a problem-centered approach to philosophy of language (rather than author- or theory-centered) making the text more inviting to first-time students of the subject. Offers stand-alone chapters, allowing students to quickly understand an issue and giving instructors flexibility in assigning readings to match the themes of the course. Provides up-to-date recommended readings at the end of each chapter, or about 500 sources in total, amounting to an extensive review of the literature on each topic.

For more than two thousand years. Aristotle's "Art of Rhetoric" has shaped thought on the theory and practice of rhetoric, the art of persuasive speech. In three sections, Aristotle discusses what rhetoric is, as well as the three kinds of rhetoric (deliberative, judicial, and epideictic), the three rhetorical modes of persuasion, and the diction, style, and necessary parts of a successful speech. Throughout, Aristotle defends rhetoric as an art and a crucial tool for deliberative politics while also recognizing its capacity to be misused by unscrupulous politicians to mislead or illegitimately persuade others. Here Robert C. Bartlett offers a literal, yet easily readable, new translation of Aristotle's "Art of Rhetoric," one that takes into account important alternatives in the manuscript and is fully annotated to explain historical, literary, and other allusions. Bartlett's translation is also accompanied by an outline of the argument of each book; copious indexes, including subjects, proper names, and literary citations; a glossary of key terms; and a substantial interpretive essay.

This volume focuses on the connection between participation constellations and identity construction as a specific, yet under-researched problem of text and media linguistics. It assembles empirical analyses of a wide range of corpora, ranging from naturally occurring talk-in-interaction over TV series and social media discourse to the linguistic landscapes of Namibia. In addition to insights into dynamic participation and identity constellations in the respective corpora, the articles develop new theoretical concepts and categories. This volume is of interest to advanced students and scholars in linguistics, media studies and sociology alike.

This is the very first book to investigate the field of phraseology from a learner corpus perspective, bringing together studies at the cutting edge of corpus-based research into phraseology and language learners. The chapters include learner-corpus-based studies of phraseological units in varieties of learner language differentiated in terms of task and/or learner variables, compared with each other or with one or more reference corpora; mixed-methods studies that combine learner corpus data with more experimental data types (e.g. eyetracking); and instruction-oriented studies that show how learner-corpus-based insights can be used to inform second language (L2) teaching and testing. The detailed analysis of a wide range of multiword units (collocations, lexical bundles, lexico-grammatical patterns) and extensive learner corpus data provide the reader with a comprehensive theoretical, methodological and applied perspective onto L2 use in a wide range of situations. The knowledge gained from these learner corpus studies has major implications for L2 theory and practice and will help to inform pedagogical assessment and practice.

This book presents, for the first time, an overarching, trans-Scandinavian, comprehensive and comparable account of linguistic developments and practices in late modern urban contact zones. The book aims to capture the multilingual realities of all young people in urban contexts, whether they are of migrant descent or not. Taking a multi-layered approach to linguistic practices, chapters in the book include structural and phonological analyses of new linguistic practices, examine how these practices and their practitioners are perceived, and discuss the sociolinguistic potentials of speakers when constructing, challenging and negotiating identities. The book also contains three short overview articles describing studies of multilingual practices in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The editors have aimed to make Scandinavian research on urban multilingualism accessible to scholars and students who don't speak Scandinavian languages, and also to make a valuable contribution to the global study of multilingualism.

This book examines how discourse analysts could best disseminate their research findings in real world settings. Each chapter presents a study of spoken or written discourse with authors putting forward a plan for how to engage professional practice in their work, using this volume's Framework for Application. Techniques used include Conversation Analysis in combination with other methods, Genre Analysis in combination with other methods, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Contributions are loosely grouped by setting and include the following: workplace and business settings; education settings; private and public settings; and government and media settings. The volume aims to link the end of research and the onset of praxis by helping analysts to move forward with ideas for dissemination, collaboration and even intervention. The book will be of interest to all researchers conducting discourse analysis in professional settings.

Although there is still no general agreement on the exact functions of linguistic pragmatics and the fields of activity it covers, it can generally be understood as the relationship of language to its users and the resultant practical applications of language. Thus it is one of the main concerns of research in this field to achieve a better understanding and account of the influence of extra-linguistic factors on language. In this introduction to the field, "pragmalinguistics" is seen as a field within the more general subject of "pragmatics." The book aims to familiarize those interested in linguistics with the problems and methods of what is still an "open" field of enquiry and to present its main topic areas - pragmalinguistics as a general semiotic theory, as speech act theory, as the linguistics of conversation, and as text linguistics.

How is meaning constructed discursively by participants in problem discourse? To which discursive resources do they resort in order to accomplish their complicated tasks of problem presentation and negotiation of possible solutions? To what extent are these resources related to the interactional and meaningful construction of problems and solutions? Irit Kupferberg and David Green- a discourse analyst and a clinical psychologist- have explored naturally-occurring media, hotline, and cyber troubled discourse in a quest for answers. Inspired by a constructivist-interpretive theoretical framework grounded in linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, narrative inquiry, and clinical psychology as well as their professional experience, the authors put forward three novel claims that are illustrated by 70 attention-holding examples. First, sufferers often present their troubles through detailed narrative discourse as well as succinct story-internal tropes such as metaphors and similes- discursive resources that constitute two interrelated versions of the troubled self. Particularly interesting are the intriguing figurative constructions produced in acute emotional states or at crucial discursive junctions. Second, such figurative constructions often 'lubricate' the interactive negotiation of solutions. Third, when the figurative and narrative resources of self-construction are employed in the public arena they are used and sometimes abused by the media representatives, depending on a plethora of contextual resources identified in this book.

Recent decades of studies have been human-centred while zooming in on cognition, verbal choices and performance. (...) [and] have provided interesting results, but which often veer towards quantity rather than quality findings. The new reality, however, requires new directions that move towards a humanism that is rooted in holism, stressing that a living organism needs to refocus in order to see the self as a part of a vast ecosystem. Dr Izabela Dixon, Koszalin University of Technology, Poland This volume is a collection of eight chapters by different authors focusing on ecolinguistics. It is preceded by a preface (..) underlin[ing] the presence of ecolinguistics as a newly-born linguistic theory and practice, something that explains the mosaic of content and method in the various chapters, with a more coherent approach being the aim for future research. Prof. Harald Ulland, Bergen University, Norway

This edited volume investigates the nature and possible applications of an expanded and reconceptualized theoretical construct of speaking as a dynamic socially-constructed endeavour. It addresses both theoretical perspectives and methodological procedures to define and circumscribe the assessment of contextualized speaking. The chapters focus on the complexity brought about by actual interactional competence in speaking tasks and discuss how testing and assessment models and practices can incorporate recent research findings on the inherently dynamic and situated nature of language use. The volume presents research on language assessment in a variety of languages other than English, including French, Chinese and Japanese. It also examines the role that embodied action (gaze, gesture, orientation to materials and texts in the environment) plays in assessment practices, an area that has heretofore remained under-explored. Chapter 6 is free to download as an open access publication. You can access it here: https://zenodo.org/record/5163340#.YQvJ0IhKjcs

Silence, Civility, and Sanity addresses the reclamation of civil communication and healthy public conversation at a time when people are very divided. Throughout this book, Stephanie Bennett focuses on the importance of silence to temper speech and embrace the art of listening to foster a more positive dialogue and civil society. Throughout this book, the author addresses the place of silence as a communicational good, intrapersonal silence in the history of contemplative prayer, the importance of attentive silence, the reflective use of silence, the ethnical dimensions of silence, and the abuses of silence. This book also delves into the layers of technological advancement that obscure perception and act as noise that poses as silence, phantom silence. Bennett offers readers an alternative to the false binaries of culture-warring that plague our relationships, institutions, and public sphere. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, and media studies will find this book of particular interest.

Our understanding of the concept of narrative has undergone a significant transformation over time, particularly today as new communication technologies are developed and popularized. As new narrative genres are born and old ones undergo great change by the minute, a thorough understanding can shed light on which storytelling elements work best in what format. That deep understanding can then help build strong, satisfying stories. The Handbook of Research on Narrative Interactions is an essential publication that examines the relationships between types of narratives in a shifting and widening scope of storytelling forms. While highlighting a wide range of topics including contemporary culture, advertising, and transmedia storytelling, this book is ideally designed for media professionals, content creators, advertisers, entrepreneurs, researchers, academicians, and students.

Rhetoric of Masculinity: Male Body Image, Media, and Gender Role Stress/Conflict lends depth and global nuance to discourse associated with the masculinity concept as it brings to bear on males' self-image, role in society, media representations of them, and the gender role stress/conflict experienced when they fail to measure up to social standards associated with what it means to be manly. Even though the concept of masculine gender role stress/conflict has received substantial scholarly attention in psychology, social learning effects of masculinity as it plays out in media warrant further study given that representations offer audiences restrictive male gender roles that may contribute to toxic masculinity. Men and boys are taught to be self-sufficient, to act tough, to be muscular, heterosexual, and to use aggression to resolve conflicts. Such contexts provide restrictive images that can result in self harm and an inflexible social milieu. Scholars and students of communication, rhetoric, and gender studies will find this book particularly interesting.

This book presents the current state of knowledge in the vibrant and diverse field of vocabulary studies, reporting innovative empirical investigations, summarising the latest research, and showcasing topics for future investigation. The chapters are organised around the key themes of theorising and measuring vocabulary knowledge, formulaic language, and learning and teaching vocabulary. Written by world-leading vocabulary experts from across the globe, the contributions present a variety of research perspectives and methodologies, offering insights from cutting-edge work into vocabulary, its learning and use. The book will be essential reading for postgraduate students and researchers interested in the area of second language acquisition, with a particular focus on vocabulary, as well as to those working in the broader fields of applied linguistics, TESOL and English studies.

In-depth ethnographic study of those active in the conspiracy milieu

First published in 1992, Vocabularies of Public Life explores the revolution that has taken place in our understanding of contemporary culture and decodes a number of the symbols which now dominate public life. Wuthnow divides the essays collected here into three distinct 'vocabularies.' Part I examines the ways in which religious and scientific languages function as vocabularies of conviction in public life, Part II focuses on music and art as vocabularies of expression, and Part III considers law, ideology, and public policy as vocabularies of persuasion. The contributors discuss such diverse subjects as American spiritualism, the syntax of modern dance and the social contexts of number one songs. What unifies the book is the common concern with the concrete, everyday manifestations of culture and the importance of understanding its basic structure. This book will be of interest to specialists and scholars of various disciplines such as linguistics, literature, media studies, popular culture, and sociology.

Discursive Change in Hong Kong: Sociopolitical Dynamics, Metaphor, and One Country, Two Systems is a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of socio-political and discursive change in Hong Kong, a westernized Chinese society once under British rule, now decolonized but without independence, and with a constitution promising universal suffrage sometime in the future. Starting off with interesting and frequently contradictory debates surrounding the discussions on the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China, Jennifer Eagleton provides a stimulating, politically well informed, detailed, and comprehensive "insider" account of many aspects of the press media and official discourse on democracy and political change in Hong Kong as part of "One Country, Two Systems." The book shows how historical, cultural, and identity issues have shaped and molded post-1997 political discourse and how the seemingly dramatic changes in the city since 2020 may not have been that surprising for long-term observers of Hong Kong. By going beyond consideration of the purely linguistic dimension of the selected texts to encompass the larger historical and socio-political context, and incorporating textual, discursive, and metaphoric analysis over time, this book provides a comprehensive examination of Hong Kong political discourse and its constituent themes.

A revised, updated edition of S. I. Hayakawa's classic work on semantics. He discusses the role of language, its many functions, and how language shapes our thinking. Introduction by Robert MacNeil; Index.

On the basis of a cross-linguistic study of over 250 languages, this book brings to light several fascinating characteristics of pronouns. It argues that these words do not form a single category, but rather two different categories called 'personal pronouns' and 'proforms'. It points out several differences between the two, such as the occurrence of a dual structure among proforms but not among personal pronouns. These differences are shown to derive from the distinct functions that the two categories have to perform in language. The book also shows that the so-called interrogative pronouns of familiar languages do not actually have interrogation as their meaning. One can only assign the meaning of indefiniteness to them. Further, the notion of indefiniteness that can be associated with these and other pronouns is quite different from the one that can be associated with noun phrases. Other interesting aspects of this book include the postulation of certain typological distinctions like 'two-person' and 'three-person' languages and 'free-pronoun' and 'bound-pronoun' languages.

The main purpose of the publication is to present a linguo-cultural picture of traditional values (such as the value of life, freedom, dignity, family, religion, community, truth, good, beauty, and God) reflected in Anglo-American and Polish paremiology. The author analyzes the proverbs with the use of semantic approach and divides them into several thematic categories and subcategories related to the sphere of values. The paremiological analysis carried out from a contrastive perspective provides additional evidence to support the claim that, despite some widespread axiological views common to languages, there exist distinct differences characteristic only of a given linguo-culture, naturally caused by different, among others, geographical, historical, social, and cultural environments.

Time in Natural Language investigates the relationship between the syntactic and semantic representations of sentences within the domain of tense. Assuming that tenses are semantically composed of three distinct times, Thompson proposes that these times map onto the syntax in a regular fashion: each time is associated with a unique syntactic head. Adopting the Minimalist approach to syntactic theory, this approach makes possible insightful analyses of syntactic structures involving temporal dependency. Thompson argues that, depending on their adjunction site, temporal adverbials modify different parts of the tense structure of the clause. Locating the Event time within VP, it is correctly predicted that an adverbial that modifies the Event time is adjoined to VP. On the other hand, since the Reference time is argued to be within AspP, when an adverbial is adjoined to AspP, it modifies the Reference time. The syntax of temporal adjunct clauses is accounted for in a similar fashion; they may be adjoined either to VP, where they are interpreted as simultaneous with the matrix event, or to AspP, where they are interpreted as nonsimultaneous. Thompson shows that the analysis sheds light on the less-studied issue of the temporal syntax of arguments. Subjects with gerundive relative clauses are claimed to be interpreted in VP at LF when the relative clause is temporally dependent on the Event time of the main clause, and in TP when the relative clause is dependent on the Speech time of the main clause. By extending the syntactic proposal to investigate the discourse-level effects of tense, an original analysis of the discourse representation of tense is proposed. Thompson argues that the discourse representation of tense is based on same primitives and subject to the same principles as the syntactic representation of tense, based on an in-depth examination of the structure and meaning of the temporal discourse adverb then.

"For too long the Left has tried to silence the Right through a war on words. Understanding their tactics and what we can do about it is crucial. Sam Sorbo lays it all out." - Sean Spicer, Host of Spicer&Co In Words for Warriors, with her trademark wit and intelligence, Sam Sorbo shows exactly how radical left-wingers have manipulated language to fit their own socialistic and anti-freedom agenda. Sam Sorbo is on a mission to reclaim today's hot button/culture war words for all freedom-loving Americans. After hearing all the hatred spewing from ideologues, mainstream media, social justice warriors, and political hacks, Sam Sorbo was fed up: "I'm tired of their games, so I'm calling BS on them. It's time to set the record straight, especially for the folks who are just trying to enjoy the lives the Lord gave them and want a few things explained in easy-to-understand prose." Arranged in an accessible "A-Z" glossary style, readers can dip in to discover the real meanings behind the acronyms, words, and phrases that the toxic liberal left loves to force on the rest of us. From Ad hominem, antifa, and anarchy... To woke, wonk, and zeitgeist Mixed with the newly-coined concepts like covidiot, pizzagate, and TERF... Words for Warriors is a treasure trove of linguistic gymnastics the Democrats and other toxic lefties employ to further their anti-American agenda. Arm yourself with Words for Warriors, and fight back against political correctness that squashes real debate, free speech, and prosperity.