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Showing 1 - 25 of 93 matches in All Departments
Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective shows how language influences mechanisms of cognition, perception and belief, and by extension its power to manipulate thoughts and beliefs. This exciting and original work is the first to apply cognitive linguistics to the analysis of political lies and conspiracy theories, both of which have flourished in the internet age and which many argue are threatening democracy. It unravels the verbal mechanisms that make these "different truths" so effective and proliferative, dissecting the verbal structures (metaphor, irony, connotative implications etc) of the words of a variety of real-life cases in the form of politicians, conspiracy theorists and influencers. Marcel Danesi goes on to demonstrate how these linguistic structures "switch on" or "switch off" alternative mind worlds. This book is essential reading for students of cognitive linguistics and will enrich the studies of any student or researcher in language and linguistics more broadly, as well as discourse analysis, rhetoric or political science.
This book aims to describe and demystify what makes criminal gangs so culturally powerful. It examines their codes of conduct, initiation rites, secret communications methods, origin myths, symbols, and the like that imbue the gangsters with the pride and nonchalance that goes hand in hand with their criminal activities. Mobsters are everywhere in the movies, on television, and on websites. Contemporary societies are clearly fascinated by them. Why is this so? What feature and constituents of organized criminal gangs make them so emotionally powerful-to themselves and others? These are the questions that have guided the writing of this textbook, which is intended as an introduction to organized crime from the angle of cultural analysis. Key topics include: * An historic overview of organized crime, including the social, economic, and cultural conditions that favour its development; * A review of the type of people who make up organized gangs and the activities in which they engage; * The symbols, rituals, codes and languages that characterize criminal institutions; * The relationship between organized crime and cybercrime; * The role of women in organized crime; * Drugs and narco-terrorism; * Media portrayals of organized crime. Organized Crime includes case studies and offers an accessible, interdisciplinary approach to the subject of organized crime. It is essential reading for students engaged with organized crime across criminology, sociology, anthropology and psychology.
Marcel Danesi's outstanding introduction provides a clear guide to brands and brand identity, outlining their historical origins and their increasing centrality in contemporary consumer culture. He introduces: the origins of brands naming and brand image how semiotic theory can be used to analyze brand image brands and consumer culture advertising campaigns brands in the global village the anti-brand movement. Danesi shows how consumer products such as cars, perfume and even websites are sold to us through the creation of powerful brand images, and analyzes the advertising campaigns developed to promote brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Absolut Vodka, Apple, Gucci and Chanel. He also discusses the rise of the anti-brand movement, and its challenges to the dominance of global brands such as Gap and Nike. Including an annotated guide to further reading, details of useful websites and a comprehensive bibliography, Danesi's book is an important contribution to the field of marketing and communications.
Brands are all around us, part of the fabric of our everyday lives. Marcel Danesi's introduction provides an accessible guide to brands and brand identity, outlining the historical origins of brands and their increasing centrality in contemporary consumer culture. Danesi introduces: the origins of brands; naming and brand image; how semiotic theory can be used to analyse brand image; brands and consumer culture; advertising campaigns; brands in the global village; and the anti-brand movement.;Danesi shows how consumer products such as cars, perfume and even websites are sold to us through the creation of powerful brand images, and analyses the advertising campaigns developed to promote brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Absolut Vodka, Apple, Gucci and Chanel. He also discusses the rise of the anti-brand movement and its challenges to the dominance of global brands such as Gap and Nike.;"Brands" includes an annotated guide to further reading, details of useful websites and a comprehensive bibliography.
Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective shows how language influences mechanisms of cognition, perception and belief, and by extension its power to manipulate thoughts and beliefs. This exciting and original work is the first to apply cognitive linguistics to the analysis of political lies and conspiracy theories, both of which have flourished in the internet age and which many argue are threatening democracy. It unravels the verbal mechanisms that make these "different truths" so effective and proliferative, dissecting the verbal structures (metaphor, irony, connotative implications etc) of the words of a variety of real-life cases in the form of politicians, conspiracy theorists and influencers. Marcel Danesi goes on to demonstrate how these linguistic structures "switch on" or "switch off" alternative mind worlds. This book is essential reading for students of cognitive linguistics and will enrich the studies of any student or researcher in language and linguistics more broadly, as well as discourse analysis, rhetoric or political science.
This concise volume offers an accessible introduction to state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) language models, providing a platform for their use in textual interpretation across the humanities and social sciences. The book outlines the affordances of new technologies for textual analysis, which has historically employed established approaches within the humanities. Neuman, Danesi, and Vilenchik argue that these different forms of analysis are indeed complementary, demonstrating the ways in which AI-based perspectives echo similar theoretical and methodological currents in traditional approaches while also offering new directions for research. The volume showcases examples from a wide range of texts, including novels, television shows, and films to illustrate the ways in which the latest AI technologies can be used for "dialoguing" with textual characters and examining textual meaning coherence. Illuminating the potential of AI language models to both enhance and extend research on the interpretation of texts, this book will appeal to scholars interested in cognitive approaches to the humanities in such fields as literary studies, discourse analysis, media studies, film studies, psychology, and artificial intelligence.
This is the first textbook on the linguistic relativity hypothesis, presenting it in user-friendly language, yet analyzing all its premises in systematic ways. The hypothesis claims that there is an intrinsic interconnection between thought, language, and society. All technical terms are explained and a glossary is provided at the back of the volume. The book looks at the history and different versions of the hypothesis over the centuries, including the research paradigms and critiques that it has generated. It also describes and analyzes the relevant research designed to test its validity in various domains of language structure and use, from grammar and discourse to artificial languages and in nonverbal semiotic systems as well. Overall, this book aims to present a comprehensive overview of the hypothesis and its supporting research in a textbook fashion, with pedagogical activities in each chapter, including questions for discussion and practical exercises on specific notions associated with the hypothesis. The book also discusses the hypothesis as a foundational notion for the establishment of linguistic anthropology as a major branch of linguistics. This essential course text inspires creative, informed dialogue and debate for students of anthropology,linguistics, cultural studies, cognitive science, and psychology.
This book aims to describe and demystify what makes criminal gangs so culturally powerful. It examines their codes of conduct, initiation rites, secret communications methods, origin myths, symbols, and the like that imbue the gangsters with the pride and nonchalance that goes hand in hand with their criminal activities. Mobsters are everywhere in the movies, on television, and on websites. Contemporary societies are clearly fascinated by them. Why is this so? What feature and constituents of organized criminal gangs make them so emotionally powerful-to themselves and others? These are the questions that have guided the writing of this textbook, which is intended as an introduction to organized crime from the angle of cultural analysis. Key topics include: * An historic overview of organized crime, including the social, economic, and cultural conditions that favour its development; * A review of the type of people who make up organized gangs and the activities in which they engage; * The symbols, rituals, codes and languages that characterize criminal institutions; * The relationship between organized crime and cybercrime; * The role of women in organized crime; * Drugs and narco-terrorism; * Media portrayals of organized crime. Organized Crime includes case studies and offers an accessible, interdisciplinary approach to the subject of organized crime. It is essential reading for students engaged with organized crime across criminology, sociology, anthropology and psychology.
Language Creativity: A Semiotic Perspective frames the concept of creativity within a linguistic dimension by developing a theoretical reflection with constant references to contact languages and to the educational plan. Through the concept of creativity and linguistic rule, Simone Casini highlights how knowing and using a language does not mean using the rules of its grammar, or making well-made phrases that guarantee understanding and communication. Learning and using a language are social activities, constantly hovering between the risks of misunderstanding and the attempt to create upon the field an understanding between users: a meaning that is possible (but not guaranteed) provided that the users themselves are willing to move within creativity to try to identify the most appropriate semiotic roads to convey and create meaning. In the perspective Casini proposes, semiotic creativity abandons the condition of the linguistic property inter pares and rises to the rank of theoretical and first principle by which languages define themselves, function and interact in the negotiation of meaning in relation to the social uses. This book considers creativity as a premise for the rule changing of boundaries of meaning and creation of language and meaning. Casini progresses from the historical-critical concept of creativity and discusses the most philosophical and linguistic theories in the North American and European context.
The fifth edition of Marcel Danesi's Popular Culture is an accessible, engaging introduction for popular culture, media and society, and sociology of the media courses.The fifth edition features updated coverage on social media and digital cultures, including those surrounding memes, video games, virtual reality, and streaming services. Pop culture surrounds us. It infuses the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the books we read, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. It comes to us on our televisions, phones, computers, radio, and in every storefront and billboard we pass on the street. Danesi delves into the social structures that create and promote pop culture, showing how it validates our common experiences. Offering a variety of perspectives on its many modes of creations and delivery, Danesi shows why pop culture will always be something we love to hate and hate to love.
The fifth edition of Marcel Danesi's Popular Culture is an accessible, engaging introduction for popular culture, media and society, and sociology of the media courses.The fifth edition features updated coverage on social media and digital cultures, including those surrounding memes, video games, virtual reality, and streaming services. Pop culture surrounds us. It infuses the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the books we read, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. It comes to us on our televisions, phones, computers, radio, and in every storefront and billboard we pass on the street. Danesi delves into the social structures that create and promote pop culture, showing how it validates our common experiences. Offering a variety of perspectives on its many modes of creations and delivery, Danesi shows why pop culture will always be something we love to hate and hate to love.
Scientific evidence for the origin of speech is abundant, but evidence for the origin of language as separate from speech as a naming system remains speculative. What evidence can be utilized that will furnish relevant insights on the origin or language? This book attempts to provide an answer by suggesting that the first riddles of humanity, along with the first myths, reveal that language may have emerged as a mode of reflection via metaphor-a mode that involves blending speech forms together to produce complex, abstract cognition.
1. This book is useful and accessible background reading for those engaged in organized crime and cybercrime. It is written with the general reader in mind, so will be of interest to students and intelligent readers alike. 2. The book draws on a range of case studies from around the world, looking at Italian Mafias, Russian and Georgian criminal groups and drug cartels, and the Asian gangs such as the Yakuza and the Triads.
This book examines the use of cryptography in both real and fictional crimes-a topic that is rarely broached. It discusses famous crimes, such as that of the Zodiac Killer, that revolve around cryptic messages and current uses of encryption that make solving cases harder and harder. It then draws parallels with the use of cryptography and secret writing in crime fiction, starting with Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, claiming that there is an implicit principle in all such writing-namely, that if the cryptogram is deciphered then the crime itself reveals its structure. The general conclusion drawn is that solving crimes is akin to solving cryptograms, as the crime fiction writers suggested. Cases of cryptographic crime, from unsolved cold cases to the Mafia crimes, are discussed and mapped against this basic theoretical assumption. The book concludes by suggesting that by studying cryptographic crimes the key to understanding crime may be revealed.
In Language Creativity: A Semiotic Perspective, Simone Casini aims to frame the concept of creativity within a linguistic dimension by developing a theoretical reflection with constant references to contact languages and to the educational plan. Semiotic creativity abandons the condition of the linguistic property inter pares and rises to the rank of theoretical and first principle by which languages define themselves, function and interact in the negotiation of meaning in relation to the social uses. Casini considers creativity as a premise for the rule changing of boundaries of meaning and creation of language and meaning. The work progresses starting from the historical-critical concept of creativity, discussing the most philosophical and linguistic theories in the North American and European context.
The serial killer has become an obsession ever since Jack the Ripper became a media sensation, embedding a new and horrifying type of murderer into our cultural consciousness - one who kills darkly and in the dark. All popular media - print, radio, television, and so on - have become absorbed by this new figure. This book traces its diffusion through all media and discusses what this reveals about modern society. Using the Dexter saga of novels and television programs as its basis, the book argues that a "Dexter Syndrome" has emerged whereby we no longer see a difference between real and fictional serial killers. The psychological and social reasons for this are explored by tracing pop culture texts themselves (movies, novels, etc.). Above all else, Dexter's concept of a "moral code" forms a thematic thread that allows the author to argue that our contemporary moral nihilism has produced the demand for horror and horrific characters like serial killers, who have replaced medieval demons and monsters.
This is the first textbook on the linguistic relativity hypothesis, presenting it in user-friendly language, yet analyzing all its premises in systematic ways. The hypothesis claims that there is an intrinsic interconnection between thought, language, and society. All technical terms are explained and a glossary is provided at the back of the volume. The book looks at the history and different versions of the hypothesis over the centuries, including the research paradigms and critiques that it has generated. It also describes and analyzes the relevant research designed to test its validity in various domains of language structure and use, from grammar and discourse to artificial languages and in nonverbal semiotic systems as well. Overall, this book aims to present a comprehensive overview of the hypothesis and its supporting research in a textbook fashion, with pedagogical activities in each chapter, including questions for discussion and practical exercises on specific notions associated with the hypothesis. The book also discusses the hypothesis as a foundational notion for the establishment of linguistic anthropology as a major branch of linguistics. This essential course text inspires creative, informed dialogue and debate for students of anthropology,linguistics, cultural studies, cognitive science, and psychology.
An Anthropology of Puzzles argues that the human brain is a "puzzling organ" which allows humans to literally solve their own problems of existence through puzzle format. Noting the presence of puzzles everywhere in everyday life, Marcel Danesi looks at puzzles in society since the dawn of history, showing how their presence has guided large sections of human history, from discoveries in mathematics to disquisitions in philosophy. Danesi examines the cognitive processes that are involved in puzzle making and solving, and connects them to the actual physical manifestations of classic puzzles. Building on a concept of puzzles as based on Jungian archetypes, such as the river crossing image, the path metaphor, and the journey, Danesi suggests this could be one way to understand the public fascination with puzzles. As well as drawing on underlying mental archetypes, the act of solving puzzles also provides an outlet to move beyond biological evolution, and Danesi shows that puzzles could be the product of the same basic neural mechanism that produces language and culture. Finally, Danesi explores how understanding puzzles can be a new way of understanding our human culture.
Accessible to wide range of readers from student to lay people, this authoritative reference provides a complete listing of media concepts, figures, and techniques with illustrations and historical commentaries. Written by distinguished scholar and author Marcel Danesi, and with an Introduction by Arthur Asa Berger, a leading figure in the world of media and communications, the dictionary also includes terms related to psychology, linguistics, aesthetics, computer science, semiotics, culture theory, anthropology, and more that have relevance in media studies. Each entry includes a definition in simple, clear language; an illustration where applicable; and, historical commentary (who coined a term for example, why, who uses it, etc.). A bibliography, a directory of online resources, and a time-line of media genres add to the dictionary's usefulness and appeal.
Advertising plays a key role in defining contemporary culture worldwide, creating a variety of meanings in the minds of consumers. Intrigued by this process, Marcel Danesi an entertaining and insightful tour guide decodes the messages woven into the advertisements, commercials, brand names, and logos we see on a daily basis. Marketing-oriented messages are made, he notes, through techniques not unlike those used by artists, musicians, and other creative sources. Guiding readers through the basics of how to interpret ads, Danesi explores everything from product and package design to jingles, cyberadvertising, ad campaigns, global impacts, culture jamming, and advertising effects. Why It Sells will fascinate and inform all readers interested in how ads, marketing, and branding take hold in the consumer psyche."
The Concise Dictionary of Popular Culture covers the theories, media forms, fads, celebrities and icons, genres, and terms of popular culture. From Afropop and Anime to Oprah Winfrey and the X-Files, the book provides more than just accessible definitions. Each of the more than 800 entries is cross-referenced with other entries to highlight points of connection, a thematic index allows readers to see common elements between disparate ideas, and more than 70 black and white photos bring entries to life. |
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