Dec 20
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Language and Humour in the Media
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
http://www.c-s-p.org
Book URL: http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Language-and-Humour-in-the-Media1-4438-3894-2.htm
Editor: Jan Chovanec
Editor: Isabel Ermida
Hardback: ISBN: 1443838942 9781443838948 Pages: 260 Price: U.K. £ 39.99
Hardback: ISBN: 1443838942 9781443838948 Pages: 260 Price: U.S. $ 59.99
Abstract:
Language and Humour in the Media provides new insights into the interface
between humour studies and media discourse analysis, connecting two areas of
scholarly interest that have not been studied extensively before. The volume
adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, concentrating on the various roles
humour plays in print and audiovisual media, the forms it takes, the purposes
it serves, the butts it targets, the implications it carries and the
differences it may assume across cultures.
The phenomena described range from conversational humour, canned jokes and
wordplay to humour in translation and news satire. The individual studies draw
their material for analysis from traditional print and broadcast media, such
as magazines, sitcoms, films and spoof news, as well as electronic and
internet-based media, such as emails, listserv messages, live blogs and online
news.
The volume will be of primary interest to a wide range of researchers in the
fields of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, intercultural studies,
pragmatics, communication studies, and rhetoric but it will also appeal to
scholars in the areas of media studies, psychology and crosscultural
communication.
Dec 18
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Circus as Multimodal Discourse
Subtitle: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Linguistics (formerly Continuum Linguistics)
http://www.continuumbooks.com
Book URL: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/circus-as-multimodal-discourse-9781441125637/
Author: Paul Bouissac
Hardback: ISBN: 1441125639 9781441125637 Pages: 224 Price: U.K. £ 75.00
Abstract:
This volume presents a theory of the circus as a secular ritual and introduces
a method to analyze its performances as multimodal discourse.
The book’s fifteen chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic,
domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide
examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by
circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world’s leading authorities on
circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research
conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this
discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to
develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of
both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography
to bear on the realm of the circus.
Dec 18
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhbook review
Editor: Barbara Dancygier
Editor: Eve Sweetser
Title: Viewpoint in Language
Subtitle: A Multimodal Perspective
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2012
Reviewer: Simone C. Bacchini, The British Library, UK
SUMMARY
The theme explored in this volume is “viewpoint” or “perspective”. The two
terms are very common: the former is often associated with literary and
linguistic studies whilst the latter is familiar in the figurative arts. Both
imply that any act of representation, linguistic or otherwise, necessitates a
sentient entity doing the “viewing” as well as a “viewed”. These observations
are not new but the somewhat novel idea that lies behind this new volume is
that viewpoint is much more pervasive in human cognition and language than has
been hitherto acknowledged. “Subjectivity”, meaning the particular position
and embodied perspective from which a cognitive and encoding (e.g. through
language) act is performed, is crucial and shapes forms of communication.
Furthermore, it can be argued that communication itself (in its broadest
sense) exists to encode and allow the expression of viewpoint. As mentioned,
literary (or narrative) viewpoint has been explored extensively. However, the
volume’s editors argue that more work is needed to explore the relations
between simple and complex viewpoints. In addition, there is also a need to
further explore and question the relationship between physical viewpoint and
more abstract ones, such as the one we find in narrative. “Viewpoint in
Language” takes a multidisciplinary, multimodal approach by bringing together
researchers from different scholarly communities and working within different
fields to explore and highlight the centrality and pervasiveness of viewpoint.
The book is divided into four parts: Part One deals with “intersubjectivity
and subjectification”; Part Two addresses “gesture and processing of visual
information”; Part Three contains contributions on “multiple viewpoints in
American Sign Language; and Part Four deals with “constructions and
discourse”. One of the editors, Eve Sweetser, provides an introduction, whilst
the conclusion, “multiple viewpoints, multiple spaces”, is by the other
editor, Barbara Dancygier. Part one contains three contributions each, whilst
parts two, three, and four contain two each.
The chapters in Part One, “Intersubjectivity and Subjectification”, explore
the ways in which speakers weave complex viewpoints by simultaneously evoking
and appealing to contrasting, even conflicting, spaces.
Chapter 1, by Vera Tobin and Michael Israel, offers a novel analysis of irony,
both situational and literary. They argue that irony naturally follows from
the narrative mind, from the possibility of encoding anything that we
encounter, both as something which simply occurs and something that is
represented, thus relying on viewpoint. The authors argue that irony is
pervasive but that its functioning and interpretation are cognitively
demanding processes. They rely on the ability to connect with a single
all-viewing mental space, i.e., an “all-knowing viewer”. The authors argue for
the existence of close and natural relations between different types of
“verbal, situational, and structural ironies” (p. 44), which make it difficult
to explain why irony is often unsettling.
Chapter 2 is by Lilian Ferrari and Eve Sweetser. It offers an analysis of
historical processes of semantic subjectification by resorting to the notion
of viewpoint relations within a complex and dynamic network of mental spaces.
Among the examples they deal with are the cases of deictic markers morphing
into articles and the emergence of epistemic meanings from deontic ones
encoded by modals. They argue that the result of this inclusion reveals higher
subjectivity, since the incorporated meanings are located in higher mental
spaces, further apart from the real-world content being described.
Chapter 3, by Barbara Dancygier, deals with concepts of negation in the
context of the mental space framework (MSF). By developing the concept of an
“alternativity of negation”, the author argues that negation is a device for
marking viewpoint and signalling stance. The author considers some
constructions that involve negation in order to explain its intersubjective
role and shows how this is used to negotiate multiple viewpoints which are
made available by a specific context. This approach, the author argues, can
help clarify problematic areas such as the interpretation of Neg-Raising and
metalinguistic negation.
Chapter 4, by Fey Parrill, is concerned with viewpoint in multimodal language,
i.e., “speech and speech accompanying gestures” (p. 97) (if the version in the
text contains single quotes, please put double quotes around the single
quotes). The author separates viewpoint into three distinct — although
interconnected — phenomena: conceptual, linguistic, and gestural. She argues
that considering viewpoint as seen in co-gesture can help bring together and
harmonise general notions of viewpoint and views of it as understood by the
‘blending and conceptual integration framework’, a theory of cognition
according to which elements from various scenarios are subconsciously
‘blended’. According to the theory, this process underlies thinking and speech
processes. The author describes an experimental study involving twenty-four
university students. They were each accompanied by a friend and, after
watching three cartoon stimuli, had to describe them to their friend. Each of
the participants watched the cartoon in one of two conditions: the ‘shared
knowledge condition’ and the ‘control condition’. In the former, the
participant watched the stimuli with his/her friend, while in the latter
he/she watched alone. The study helps to shed light on the ways in which the
two modalities of speech and gestures are connected.
Chapter 5, by Shweta Narayan, continues the exploration of gesture in
conversation, although this is done within the context of spoken language
rather than signed language, as in the previous chapter. In this chapter, the
author shows how interactants create meaning collaboratively thanks to their
ability to shift viewpoints as evidence of erroneous interpretations of
previous interactions emerge. By looking at how interactants “align” their
gestures, she is able to show that they are able to show viewpoint, thus
cognitively aligning themselves. with their interactants.
Chapter 6, by Barbara Shaffer, is a further contribution to our understanding
of sign language (specifically, American Sign Language (ASL)) from the point
of view of Cognitive Grammar.. The author analyses one of the ways in which
ASL users incorporate viewpoint in their discourse. In particular, she looks
at how reported speech is marked in ASL and concludes that the ways in which
evidentiality is marked and grammaticised in ASL is in many aspects similar to
the ways this is done in spoken language.
Chapter 7, by Terry Janzen, investigates yet another aspect of ASL discourse.
He describes a strategy used by ASL users that depends on imagining a
180-degree rotation of the signer’s body. This allows him or her to alternate
between physically representing one of the participants in a reported
conversation, and then the interlocutor, who is facing him/her. It is this
shift in imagined viewpoint, the author argues, which is based on the
interactants’ cooperation, that enables the correct interpretation of messages
and thus allows effective communication.
Chapter 8 is by Niki Nikiforidou. Leaving signed language behind, the opening
contribution to the last section of the volume brings the discussion back to
more familiar grounds, namely, narrative viewpoint in literary texts.
Nikiforidou explores the use, in English, of the past tense with a proximal
deictic ‘now’ (e.g. ‘they were NOW listening to him attentively’). She argues
that its implications are twofold. First, it signals a change of perspective
from ‘outside’ to ‘within’ the narrated event. Secondly, this narrative
strategy should be viewed on par with other discourse-grammatical
constructions of a high-level type.
Chapter 9 is by Lieven Vandelanotte. In it, the author argues that a more
nuanced account of reported speech and thought phenomena is possible — and,
in fact, desirable — if the area between direct and indirect speech (or
thought) is not considered as belonging to a single area of free indirect
forms. The author identifies a separate type of indirect speech: “distancing
direct speech and thought” (p. 198). This maintains the deictic centre and
particular viewpoint aligned with the quoting speaker, whilst incorporating
the quoted speaker’s speech.
The volume concludes with a chapter by Barbara Dancygier called ‘Multiple
viewpoints, multiple spaces’. In it, the author draws together the various
strands explored in the volume and one again highlights how, contrary to what
some might think, the linguistic and gestural structures examined by the
various contributors are far from simple. She also suggests further avenues of
exploration, such as more detailed explorations of the “mechanisms yielding
the configurations of viewpoint” (p. 228) addressed by the contributors to the
volume.
EVALUATION
Due to its multidisciplinary approach and multimodal orientation, ‘Viewpoint
in Language’ is likely to appeal to diverse audiences, most likely at the
post-graduate level. Indeed, a fundamental strength of the volume is that it
coherently brings together strands of research that are frequently pursued
separately.
The various contributors to this volume convincingly show the centrality of
viewpoint in human cognition and its ubiquity across a range of communicative
modes. Crucially, they also show to what extent human cognition and
communication are profoundly embodied phenomena.
The section on signed communication is — in this reviewer’s opinion —
important and effective in this respect. Perhaps because of their
‘physicality’, or their more obviously embodied nature, signed languages can
be especially useful in highlighting interlocutors’ need (and ability) to take
into account other people’s — as well as their own — unique viewpoint in the
encoding, decoding, and transmitting of a linguistic message. Although studies
of signed languages are by no means rare, the existing ones still do no
justice to the importance of close analysis of signed languages, both for its
numerical relevance in terms of users, and for its relevance for a deeper
understanding of both cognitive and communicative processes.
The editors of this volume acknowledge that the study of viewpoint, and an
appreciation of its pervasiveness in human communication, are not new. What
this collection of essays adds is a clear example of the ways in which a
multimodal approach enhances our understanding of the cognitive processes
involved in communication. This is because such an approach is better at
picking up clues that would not be entirely accessible if only a single mode
— such as the study of written literary fiction, for example — is
considered. One of the major strengths of this volume, therefore, is that it
deals with the implications and manifestation of subjective viewpoint
holistically, as shown by the aforementioned sections on American Sign
Language.
The papers published in this volume are not informed by new theories. As the
editors say it is “a contribution to the study of language in the context of
embodied (or grounded) cognition” (p. 3). It makes use of the MSF and, more
generally, insights gained from Cognitive Grammar. However, the papers
presented in the volume present new case-studies or revisit topics that have
been the object of considerable attention in a new light. Such is the case
with irony (Tobin and Israel, pp. 25-46), viewed as a viewpoint phenomenon and
as a “figure of subjectivity” (p. 44).
The final section of the volume (Constructions and Discourse, pp. 177-218)
will be of particular interest to, and — in this reviewer’s opinion – greatly
appreciated by, literary scholars. As stated, literary narrative is perhaps
the field that has had the longest familiarity with viewpoint and
subjectivity. However, Nikiforidou’s and Vandelanotte’s essays bring a more
nuanced examination of the linguistic machinery that underpins the encoding of
viewpoint in narrative and literary texts. Like the other contributions, but
perhaps even more so — given the aforementioned familiarity of literary and
narrative studies with viewpoint — these two essays exemplify how the
interdisciplinary and multimodal approach exemplified in, and exemplified by,
this volume truly represents a step forward in our understanding of
subjectivity.
The ability with which the editors have been able to give shape to a coherent
approach is to be applauded. It is likely that a number of researchers now
working separately in different areas on viewpoint will be encouraged to carry
on with their work enlightened and inspired by this volume. Indeed, the
bringing together of linguistics, cognitive science, and literary studies by a
unifying concept of subjectivity as an embodied phenomenon is a major and
needed achievement.
About the Reviewer:
Simone Bacchini has recently been awarded a PhD in linguistics, having
defended a thesis on the linguistic encoding of the experiences of physical
pain and chronic illness through the lexicogrammar of Italian. His research
interests include sociolinguistic, Systemic Functional Grammar and discourse
analysis. As a result of his doctoral research, he has developed and interest
in health communication and the use of language in medicine and medical
settings. He is currently researching the encoding of ‘affect’ in
doctor-patient communication, with particular attention to the role of the
interpreter in situations when medical professionals and patients do not speak
the same language.
Dec 16
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Playing by Ear and the Tip of the Tongue
Subtitle: Precategorial information in poetry
Series Title: Linguistic Approaches to Literature 14
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/lal.14
Author: Reuven Tsur
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273253 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 158.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273253 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 105.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273253 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 88.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027233493 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 111.30
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027233493 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 105.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027233493 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 158.00
Abstract:
In our everyday life we are flooded by a pandemonium of information which
consciousness organizes into more easily manageable phonetic and semantic
categories. In poetry reading, however, the total effect of a poem is not only
obtained by some of these categories but also by precategorial information,
for which there is a growing body of empirical evidence of its psychological
reality. In the Tip of the Tongue phenomenon, a great amount of diffuse
precategorial information is present but fails to “grow together” into a
compact word, generating a feeling of some dense, undifferentiated mass.
Poetic language typically exploits such precategorial information for its
effects. By way of theoretical considerations and close readings, this book
explores the semantic and phonetic strategies by which a text may increase
or decrease the impact of such information. It investigates the conditions
that boost or inhibit overtone fusion in rhyme and alliteration. By seeking
empirical evidence for the claims he makes in different fields such as music,
art, literature, linguistics, experiments in the speech laboratory, the author
provides ample and sound examples (ambiguity intended) in an almost
conversational tone, which makes us really anticipate reading each new
chapter.
Dec 15
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: The Semantics of Colour
Subtitle: A Historical Approach
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://us.cambridge.org
Book URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6633840/The%20Semantics%20of%20Colour/?site_locale=en_US
Author: Carole P. Biggam
: ISBN: 9780521899925 Pages: 274 Price: U.S. $ 99.00
Abstract:
Human societies name and classify colours in various ways. Knowing this, is it
possible to retrieve colour systems from the past? This book presents the
basic principles of modern colour semantics, including the recognition of
basic vocabulary, subsets, specialised terms and the significance of
non-colour features. Each point is illustrated by case studies drawn from
modern and historical languages from around the world. These include
discussions of Icelandic horses, Peruvian guinea-pigs, medieval roses, the
colour yellow in Stuart England, and Polynesian children’s colour terms. Major
techniques used in colour research are presented and discussed, such as the
evolutionary sequence, Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Vantage Theory. The
book also addresses whether we can understand the colour systems of the past,
including prehistory, by combining various semantic techniques currently used
in both modern and historical colour research with archaeological and
environmental information.
1. What is colour?
2. What is colour semantics?
3. Basic colour terms
4. Non-basic and non-standard colour expressions
5. Basic colour categories
6. The evolutionary sequence
7. Different approaches
8. Historical projects: preliminaries
9. Synchronic studies
10. Diachronic studies
11. Prehistoric colour studies
12. Applications and potential.
Dec 15
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Meaning and Humour
Series Title: Key Topics in Semantics and Pragmatics
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://us.cambridge.org
Book URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6636912/Meaning%20and%20Humour/?site_locale=en_US
Author: Andrew Goatly
Paperback: ISBN: 9780521181068 Pages: 380 Price: U.S. $ 35.99
: ISBN: 9781107004634 Pages: 380 Price: U.S. $ 95.00
Abstract:
How are humorous meanings generated and interpreted? Understanding a joke
involves knowledge of the language code (a matter mostly of semantics) and
background knowledge necessary for making the inferences to get the joke (a
matter of pragmatics). This book introduces and critiques a wide range of
semantic and pragmatic theories in relation to humour, such as systemic
functional linguistics, speech acts, politeness and relevance theory,
emphasising not only conceptual but also interpersonal and textual meanings.
Exploiting recent corpus-based research, it suggests that much humour can be
accounted for by the overriding of lexical priming. Each chapter’s discussion
topics and suggestions for further reading encourage a critical approach to
semantic and pragmatic theory. Written by an experienced lecturer on the
linguistics of the English language, this is an entertaining and user-friendly
textbook for advanced students of semantics, pragmatics and humour studies.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Meaning in the language system: aspects of form and meaning
3. Semantics and conceptual meaning of grammar
4. Semantics and the conceptual meaning of lexis
5. Personal, social and affective meanings
6. Textual meaning and genre
7. Metaphor and figures of speech
8. Pragmatics, reference and speech-acts
9. Pragmatics: co-operation and politeness
10. Relevance theory, schemas and deductive inference
11. Lexical priming: information, collocation, predictability and humour.
Dec 12
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Society and Discourse
Subtitle: How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://us.cambridge.org
Book URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6893168/Society%20and%20Discourse/?site_locale=en_US
Author: Teun A. van Dijk
Paperback: ISBN: 9781107407107 Pages: 298 Price: U.S. $ 46.00
Abstract:
Please note: This is a new paperback edition of a previously announced book.
After his earlier book Discourse and Context, also published by Cambridge
University Press, Teun A. van Dijk in this 2009 study presents the second part
of his new multidisciplinary theory of context. The main thesis of this theory
is that the influence of society on discourse is not direct, as is postulated
for instance in sociolinguistics, but cognitively mediated by subjective
mental models of the communicative situation: context models. These dynamic
models control discourse production and comprehension and define the pragmatic
appropriateness of text and talk. Whereas in Discourse and Context the
psychological and linguistic aspects of context were analyzed, this book
focuses on the social psychological, sociological, anthropological and
political aspects of context. Tony Blair’s 2003 speech defending his motion to
go to war against Saddam Hussein and the following debate in parliament is
used as an example illustrating the new theory.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Context and social cognition
3. Context and society
4. Context and culture
5. Context and politics: the Iraq debate in British parliament
6. Conclusions
Dec 12
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: (Re)presentations and Dialogue
Series Title: Dialogue Studies 16
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/ds.16
Editor: François Cooren
Editor: Alain Létourneau
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273161 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 149.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273161 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 99.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027273161 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 83.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210333 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 104.94
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210333 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 99.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210333 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 149.00
Abstract:
This edited volume proposes key contributions addressing the connections
between two important themes: dialogue and representation. These connections
were approached or interpreted in three possible ways: 1. Dialogue as
representation, 2. Normative perspectives on dialogue/representation issues,
and 3. Representations of dialogue. The first interpretation — Dialogue as
representation — consists of exploring dialogue as an activity where many
things, beings or voices can be made present, whether we think in terms of
ideologies, cultures, situations, collectives, roles, etc. The second
interpretation – Normative perspectives on dialogue/representation issues –
leads scholars to explore questions of normativity, which are often associated with the notion of
dialogue, when conceived as a morally stronger form of conversation. Finally,
the third interpretation – Representations of dialogue – invites us to address
methodological questions related to the representation of this type of
conversation. Echoing Bakhtin, contributors were invited to explore the
polyphonic, heteroglot, or dialogic character of any text, discourse or
interaction.
Dec 10
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Commitment
Edited by Philippe De Brabanter and Patrick Dendale
Institut Jean Nicod & Université Paris 4-Sorbonne / University of Antwerp
Paperback
ISBN 978 90 272 2682 2 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00
Commitment is a notion widely invoked in speech-act theory, in studies on modality and in dialogue modelling, but it has never been the central topic of a monograph or a collective volume in linguistics. This volume is the very first to bring together researchers from different linguistic traditions and request them to focus on the notion. All the contributions presented here use commitment as a key concept in accounting for a broad range of linguistic phenomena in various languages, from illocutionary acts like assertions and questions to modal expressions, through sentence-types, finite subordinate clauses, concessive markers, tense markers, and even text-types and genres. Each contributor takes pains to explicate his/her understanding of the term commitment, thus making interesting comparisons possible across theoretical boundaries. Some authors also point out potential drawbacks of the notion and argue for replacing or supplementing it with a related concept of involvement.
Dec 10
ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements
Title: Information Structure, Discourse Structure and Grammatical
Structure
Series Title: Belgian Journal of Linguistics 26
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/bjl.26
Editor: Bart Defrancq
Editor: Gudrun Rawoens
Editor: Els Tobback
Paperback: ISBN: 9789027226860 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 161.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9789027226860 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 107.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9789027226860 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 113.42
Abstract:
This volume is a collection of papers dealing with the close connection
between discourse and grammar, illustrating the many, sometimes conflicting,
facets of that relationship in various European languages. Central to all
contributions is their focus on diverse aspects of clause combination and on
the various parameters, such as information structure, that have a special tie with clause
combination. Most of the papers are centred around subordination as a
grammatical structure and its status in a discourse. With a few notable
exceptions, subordination has been thought of as part of the discursive
background. This volume adduces convincing evidence from the field of
deictic/anaphoric items, information structure and rhetorical structure in
favour of a more nuanced approach to the status of subordination in discourse.
It also illustrates how rhetorical patterns in discourse give rise, through a
grammaticalisation process, to new interclausal dependencies.
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