About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198709838

ISBN-139780198709831

eBay Product ID (ePID)201691586

Product Key Features

Number of Pages216 Pages

Publication NameUtility of Meaning : What Words Mean and Why

LanguageEnglish

SubjectLinguistics / Semantics, Linguistics / Psycholinguistics, Linguistics / General

Publication Year2015

TypeTextbook

AuthorN. J. Enfield

Subject AreaLanguage Arts & Disciplines

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight17 Oz

Item Length9.4 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2014-937978

Reviewsa new and different approach, one that connects a wide range of discipline areas and offers an account of linguistic meaning that is like no other ... those who love language and who love playing with words and their meanings will surely relish this book.

Dewey Edition23

TitleLeadingThe

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal495.9/191143

Table Of ContentConventions for linguistic examplesList of figures and tablesPreface1. Introduction2. Meanings are layered3. Meanings are multiple4. Meanings are anthropocentric5. Meanings are cultural6. Meanings are distributed7. Conclusion: Meanings are usefulReferencesIndex

SynopsisThis book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life. N. J. Enfield draws on semantic and pragmatic case studies from his extensive fieldwork in Laos to investigate a range of semantic fields including emotion terms, culinary terms, landscape terminology, and honorific pronouns, among many others. These studies form the building blocks of a conceptual framework for understanding meaning in language. The book argues that the goals and relevancies of human communication are what bridge the gap between the private representation of language in the mind and its public processes of usage, acquisition, and conventionalization in society. Professor Enfield argues that in order to understand this process, we first need to understand the ways in which linguistic meaning is layered, multiple, anthropocentric, cultural, distributed, and above all, useful. This wide-ranging account brings together several key strands of research across disciplines including semantics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and sociology of language, and provides a rich account of what linguistic meaning is like and why., This book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life. N. J. Enfield draws on semantic and pragmatic case studies from his extensive fieldwork in Laos to investigate a range of semantic fields including emotion terms, culinary terms, landscape terminology, and honorific pronouns, among many others. These studies form the building blocksof a conceptual framework for understanding meaning in language. The book argues that the goals and relevancies of human communication are what bridge the gap between the private representation oflanguage in the mind and its public processes of usage, acquisition, and conventionalization in society. Professor Enfield argues that in order to understand this process, we first need to understand the ways in which linguistic meaning is layered, multiple, anthropocentric, cultural, distributed, and above all, useful.This wide-ranging account brings together several key strands of research across disciplines including semantics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, andsociology of language, and provides a rich account of what linguistic meaning is like and why., This book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life, and explores relations between language, communication, culture, and mind. It contains extensive data from the author's fieldwork on language and culture in Laos., This book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life. N. J. Enfield draws on semantic and pragmatic case studies from his extensive fieldwork in Laos to investigate a range of semantic fields including emotion terms, culinary terms, landscape terminology, and honorific pronouns, among many others. These studies form the building blocks of a conceptual framework for understanding meaning in language. The book argues that the goals and relevancies of human communication are what bridge the gap between the private representation of language in the mind and its public processes of usage, acquisition, and conventionalization in society. Professor Enfield argues that in order to understand this process, we first need to understand the ways in which linguistic meaning is layered, multiple, anthropocentric, cultural, distributed, and above all, useful.This wide-ranging account brings together several key strands of research across disciplines including semantics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and sociology of language, and provides a rich account of what linguistic meaning is like and why.

LC Classification NumberP325