LINGUIST List 17.2626

Fri Sep 15 2006

Books: Linguistic Theories: Rastall

Editor for this issue: Maria Moreno-Rollins <marialinguistlist.org>

Directory         1.    Ulrich Lueders, The Power of Speech: Rastall
Message 1: The Power of Speech: Rastall
Date: 15-Sep-2006
From: Ulrich Lueders <lincom.europat-online.de>
Subject: The Power of Speech: Rastall


Title: The Power of Speech Series Title: LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 36 Published: 2006 Publisher: Lincom GmbH
                http://www.lincom.at

Author: Paul Rastall, University of Portsmouth Paperback: ISBN: 389586479X Pages: 115 Price: Europe EURO 48
Abstract:

Following from Ontological Questions in Linguistics (2005) by Mulder andRastall, The Power of Speech adopts a functional perspective to address arange of fundamental issues concerned with our understanding of speech actsand the role of theory, systems, and other constructs in our account.

In particular, the work explores the ideas that acts of speaking are"powers" in the philosophical sense and that "meaning" exists only inactual speech acts. Applying a rigorous ontological distinction betweenactually existing speech events in space, time and social circumstances,and theoretically determined constructs accounting for speech events andtheir aspects, the work distinguishes real communication from accounts ofpotentials for communication and potentials for meaning on the one hand,and from socially constructed beliefs about language on the other.

The work further explores Popper's views on the nature of language. Itdistinguishes language as communication from language as system or patternand from language as information. For the latter the capacity to "arrest"speech and to consider it critically is central to understanding the roleof linguistic mediation in rationality. However, by placing language in abiological and evolutionary context the work revisits the analogy/anomalydebate and emphasises the evidence for a more balanced and organic view oflanguage along with its systematic features. The work draws attention tothe need to explain the adaptation of linguistic constructs toever-changing human needs and priorities and suggests some solutions.

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories                             Theoretical Linguistics
Written In: English (eng )

See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=21176


-------------------------- Major Supporters --------------------------

Blackwell Publishing 		http://www.blackwellpublishing.com

Cambridge University Press 		http://us.cambridge.org

Cascadilla Press 		http://www.cascadilla.com/

Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd 		http://www.continuumbooks.com

Edinburgh University Press 		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/

Equinox Publishing Ltd. 		http://www.equinoxpub.com/

European Language Resources Association 		http://www.elda.org/sommaire.php

Georgetown University Press 		http://www.press.georgetown.edu

Hodder Arnold 		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk

John Benjamins 		http://www.benjamins.com/

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 		http://www.erlbaum.com/

Lincom GmbH 		http://www.lincom.at

MIT Press 		http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Mouton de Gruyter 		http://www.mouton-publishers.com

Multilingual Matters 		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Oxford University Press 		http://www.oup.com/us

Palgrave Macmillan 		http://www.palgrave.com

Rodopi 		http://www.rodopi.nl/

Routledge (Taylor and Francis) 		http://www.routledge.com/

Springer 		http://www.springer.com

---------------------- Other Supporting Publishers ----------------------

Anthropological Linguistics 		http://www.indiana.edu/~anthling/

CSLI Publications 		http://cslipublications.stanford.edu/

Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc. Umass 		http://glsa.hypermart.net/

International Pragmatics Assoc. 		http://www.ipra.be

Kingston Press Ltd 		http://www.kingstonpress.com/

Linguistic Assoc. of Finland 		http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/

MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 		http://web.mit.edu/mitwpl/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke 		http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Pacific Linguistics 		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/

SIL International 		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp

St. Jerome Publishing Ltd. 		http://www.stjerome.co.uk

Utrecht institute of Linguistics 		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/