LINGUIST List 12.1401

Mon May 21 2001

Books: Discourse

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Sean Hanrahan, Discourse: Mediated Discourse, The Nexus of Practice, by Ron Scollon

Ron Scollon, Georgetown University, MEDIATED DISCOURSE The
Nexus of Practice

Mediated Discourse sets out a discursive theory of human
action. Language and action are intimately related. The
difficult question to answer is how they are related.
Mediated Discourse Theory looks into social relationships
to see how the use of language is both a form of action in
itself and is also indirectly related to all other forms of
human action. Through the empirical study of a one-year-old
child learning to exchange objects with caregivers, Scollon
challenges the claim that all practices are represented in
discourse and that all discourse has the function of
structuring practice.

Routledge June 2001 192 pp 50 illus
HB 0 415 24882 5 $100.00 �60.00
PB 0 415 24883 3 $29.95 �18.99

1.Mediated Discourse: A Discursive Theory of Human Action
2. On the Ontogenesis of a Social Practice
3. On the Ontogenesis of a Social Actor: From Object to
Agency in Baby Talk
4. Objects as Mediational Means: The Crayon Appropriates a
Child
5. The Nexus of Practice
6. Mediated Discourse as a Nexus of Practice