LINGUIST List 14.460

Sun Feb 16 2003

TOC: Special Issue of Language & Communication, 23/2

Editor for this issue: Tomoko Okuno <tomokolinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Neden, Julie (ELS), Special Issue of Language and Communication, 23/2 (2003)

Julie Neden
Elsevier Science

>From love letters to magic spells, from sadomasochistic rituals 
to interactions between infants and their caregiver

Find out more in this special issue of Language and Communication -
Language and Desire

Elsevier Science is pleased to announce the publication of an exciting
special issue of Language & Communication 23(2): Language and Desire

Guest Editors:

Deborah Cameron
School of Culture, Language and Communication, Institute of Education,
UK

Don Kulick
Department of Anthropology, New York University, USA 

Desire is a universal category of human experience, but its forms and
meanings are culturally variable, as is the manner of its
representation and expression in human languages. Defining what or who
we desire and communicating our desires to others are processes
dependent on shared semiotic resources, including linguistic ones. In
this special issue on language and desire, contributors explore the
semiotic resources for communicating desire in a range of languages,
cultures and social settings. Articles focus on Nepali love letters
and Petalangan magic spells used to draw another's desire; on the
identity and desire-talk of a New York City 'alternative lifestyles'
group; on the acquisition of the imperative--part of the grammar of
desire--by young children; and on the peculiarly complex pragmatics of
the word 'no' in sexual situations. The editors provide an
introduction relating the topic of language and desire to ongoing
research in other subfields of linguistic inquiry, including language
and gender, language and sexuality, language socialization, language
and affect, and also to a multidisciplinary theoretical literature on
the nature and workings of desire.

Deborah Cameron and Don Kulick, Language and desire in theory and in
practice

Abstract: This introductory essay sets out to locate the topic of
'language and desire' in theory and empirical social science. It
reviews various theoretical perspectives on desire and considers how
their insights might be brought to bear on empirical investigations of
the linguistic expression of desire in particular communities and
cultures.

To view this article for free, please see:
http://www.socscinet.com/linguistics/langcom/index_desire.html

To view all contents, abstracts, and full text articles* please see:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/Issue/5918-2003-999769997-377763

For further information on the whole of Elsevier's linguistics programme
please visit 

http://www.socscinet.com/linguistics 

* Subject to entitlements