The Search for the Perfect Language

Download The Search for the Perfect Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0631205101
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (312 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Search for the Perfect Language by : Umberto Eco

Download or read book The Search for the Perfect Language written by Umberto Eco and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1997-04-08 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence. The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History. The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.

An Encyclopedia of Language

Download An Encyclopedia of Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1134977174
Total Pages : 570 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis An Encyclopedia of Language by : N.E. Collinge

Download or read book An Encyclopedia of Language written by N.E. Collinge and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * Examines how language works, accounting for its nature, its use, its study and its history * Two comprehensive indexes of Topics and Technical Terms, and Names * Carefully illustrated to explain key points in the text `This rich repository of information on all aspects of language is a must for all libraries in higher education, schools and larger public libraries.' - Library Review `Each article has an excellent bibliography. In addition, there are comprehensive indexes of topics and technical terms and names. Highly recommended for all college and general public libraries.' - Choice `This important book is in many ways a state-of-the -art survey of current conceptions of, and approaches to, language, with generous references to more detailed sources. Each chapter has a good bibliography.' - Language International `A comprehensive guide ... with very thorough bibliographies ... Collinge's Encyclopedia is recommended to academic libraries.' - Reference Reviews `The bibliographies are an invaluable aid ... the editor is to be congratulated for having done an excellent job ... there are virtually no areas of language and linguistics that do not get a look in somewhere, and there is good signposting in the text itself.' - Nigel Vincent, Times Higher Education Supplement

Lunatic Lovers of Language

Download Lunatic Lovers of Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lunatic Lovers of Language by : Marina Yaguello

Download or read book Lunatic Lovers of Language written by Marina Yaguello and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the creation of imaginary languages in history and fiction as an expression of the search for an original and primitive or universal language. The author's other works include "Les Mots et les Femmes" (1978) and "Alice au pays du Language" (1981).

Across the Lines

Download Across the Lines PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cork University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781859181836
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (818 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Across the Lines by : Michael Cronin

Download or read book Across the Lines written by Michael Cronin and published by Cork University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the Lines is a study of how language mediates experience across cultures with regard to travel. The study is partly based on the books of various travel writers with no grasp of a foreign tongue & their perceptions using interpreters & guides.

A Revolution in Language

Download A Revolution in Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804749312
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (493 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Revolution in Language by : Sophia A. Rosenfeld

Download or read book A Revolution in Language written by Sophia A. Rosenfeld and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003-08-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the relationship between the ideas of the Enlightenment and the culture and ideology of the French Revolution? This book takes up that classic question by concentrating on changing conceptions of language and, especially, signs during the second half of the eighteenth century. The author traces, first, the emergence of a new interest in the possibility of gestural communication within the philosophy, theater, and pedagogy of the last decades of the Old Regime. She then explores the varied uses and significance of a variety of semiotic experiments, including the development of a sign language for the deaf, within the language politics of the Revolution. A Revolution in Language shows not only that many key revolutionary thinkers were unusually preoccupied by questions of language, but also that prevailing assumptions about words and other signs profoundly shaped revolutionaries' efforts to imagine and to institute an ideal polity between 1789 and the start of the new century. This book reveals the links between Enlightenment epistemology and the development of modern French political culture.

The Art of Language Invention

Download The Art of Language Invention PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin Books
ISBN 13 : 0143126466
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Art of Language Invention by : David J. Peterson

Download or read book The Art of Language Invention written by David J. Peterson and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From language creator David J. Peterson comes a creative gui de to language constructio, offering an overview of language creation, covering its history from Tolkien's creations and Klingon to today's thriving global community of conlangers. He provides the essential tools necessary for inventing and evolving new languages, using examples from a variety of languages including his own creations.

The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature

Download The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313033455
Total Pages : 673 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature by : Eva M. Sartori

Download or read book The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature written by Eva M. Sartori and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-07-30 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earliest known literary productions by women living in Europe were probably written by French writers. As early as the 12th century, women troubadours in the south of France were writing poems. French women continued writing through the ages, their number increasing as education became more available to women of all classes. And yet, of the great number of works by women writers who preceded the current feminist movement, very few have survived. A few writers such as Marie de France, George Sand, and Simone de Beauvoir became part of the canon. But critics, mostly male, had judged the works of only a few women writers worthy of recognition. As part of the feminist move to reclaim women writers and to rethink literary history, scholars in French literature began to take a new look at women writers who had been popular during their lifetimes but who had not been admitted into the canon. This reference book provides extensive information about French women writers and the world in which they lived. Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries for authors; literary genres, such as the novel, poetry, and the short story; literary movements, such as classicism, realism, and surrealism; life-cycle events particular to women, such as menstruation and menopause; events and institutions which affected women differently than men, such as revolutions, wars, and laws on marriage, divorce, and education. The volume spans French literature from the Middle Ages to the present and covers those writers who lived and worked mainly in France. The entries are written by expert contributors and each includes bibliographical information. The entries focus on each writer's awareness of how her gender shaped her outlook and opportunities, on how categorizations, structures, and terms used to describe literary works have been defined for women, and the ways in which women writers have responded to these definitions. The volume begins with a feminist history of French literature and concludes with a selected, general bibliography and a chronology of women writers.

Verbal Hygiene

Download Verbal Hygiene PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136342079
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (363 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Verbal Hygiene by : Deborah Cameron

Download or read book Verbal Hygiene written by Deborah Cameron and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Verbal Hygiene, Deborah Cameron takes a serious look at popular attitudes towards language and examines the practices by which people attempt to regulate its use. Instead of dismissing the practice of ‘verbal hygiene’, as a misguided and pernicious exercise, she argues that popular discourse about language values – good and bad, right and wrong – serves an important function for those engaged in it. A series of case studies deal with specific examples of verbal hygiene: the regulation of ‘style’ by editors, the teaching of English grammar in schools, the movements for and against so-called ‘politically correct’ language and the advice given to women on how they can speak more effectively. This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword which looks at how the issues covered in the case studies have developed over time and a new afterword which discusses new concerns which have emerged in the last 15 years, from the regimentation of language in the workplace to panics about immigration and terrorism, which are expressed in linguistic terms. Addressed to linguists, to professional language-users of all kinds, and to anyone interested in language and culture, Verbal Hygiene calls for legitimate concerns about language and value to be discussed, by experts and lay-speakers alike, in a rational and critical spirit.

Imaginary Languages

Download Imaginary Languages PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262547155
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Imaginary Languages by : Marina Yaguello

Download or read book Imaginary Languages written by Marina Yaguello and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the practice of inventing languages, from speaking in tongues to utopian schemes of universality to the discoveries of modern linguistics. In Imaginary Languages, Marina Yaguello explores the history and practice of inventing languages, from religious speaking in tongues to politically utopian schemes of universality to the discoveries of modern linguistics. She looks for imagined languages that are autonomous systems, complete unto themselves and meant for communal use; imaginary, and therefore unlike both natural languages and historically attested languages; and products of an individual effort to lay hold of language. Inventors of languages, Yaguello writes, are madly in love: they love an object that belongs to them only to the extent that they also share it with a community. Yaguello investigates the sources of imaginary languages, in myths, dreams, and utopias. She takes readers on a tour of languages invented in literature from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including that in More’s Utopia, Leibniz’s “algebra of thought,” and Bulwer-Lytton’s linguistic fiction. She examines the linguistic fantasies (or madness) of Georgian linguist Nikolai Marr and Swiss medium Hélène Smith; and considers the quest for the true philosophical language. Yaguello finds two abiding (and somewhat contradictory) forces: the diversity of linguistic experience, which stands opposed to unifying endeavors, and, on the other hand, features shared by all languages (natural or not) and their users, which justifies the universalist hypothesis. Recent years have seen something of a boom in invented languages, whether artificial languages meant to facilitate international communication or imagined languages constructed as part of science fiction worlds. In Imaginary Languages (an updated and expanded version of the earlier Les Fous du langage, published in English as Lunatic Lovers of Language), Yaguello shows that the invention of language is above all a passionate, dizzying labor of love.

The Anticolonial Linguistics of Nikolai Marr

Download The Anticolonial Linguistics of Nikolai Marr PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040182771
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Anticolonial Linguistics of Nikolai Marr by : Matthew Carson Allen

Download or read book The Anticolonial Linguistics of Nikolai Marr written by Matthew Carson Allen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-11-08 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The archaeologist, philologist, and Linguistics theoretician Nikolai Marr (1865-1934) has attracted increasing scholarly attention as a pivotal figure of late-tsarist and early Soviet cultural politics and as an early anticolonial theorist. He remains, however, an elusive thinker who is much written about but seldom read. This volume offers a representative selection of Marr’s writing from several stages of his life translated here for the first time into English. The selection of texts allows the reader to trace the key evolving and interconnected preoccupations that animate Marr’s vast oeuvre: his anti-nationalist valorization of the cultural and linguistic hybridity of the Caucasus, his denunciation of the imperialist complicity of Western European comparative linguistics, his anti-Darwinian emphasis on mixture and convergence in place of filial descent within the history of languages, and his unorthodox theories of linguistic origins in gesture rather than speech. Key Marrist terms such as ‘Japhetidology’, or the rejection of the prevalent theory of an Indo-European language family, are clarified. The volume contains original essays that contextualize Marr’s work within the history of linguistics, showing the indebtedness and applicability of his ideas to traditions that are frequently held to be unrelated to one another: Russian proto-structuralism, French deconstruction, and Indian subaltern thought. This book was originally published as a special issue of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.

Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language

Download Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230610056
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (36 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language by : S. Higley

Download or read book Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language written by S. Higley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-12-09 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lingua Ignota, "brought forth" by the twelfth-century German nun Hildegard of Bingen, provides 1012 neologisms for praise of Church and new expression of the things of her world. Noting her visionary metaphors, her music, and various medieval linguistic philosophies, Higley examines how the "Unknown Language" makes arid signifiers green again. This text, however, is too often seen in too narrow a context: glossolalia, angelic language, secret code. Higley provides an edition and English translation of its glosses in the Riesencodex (with assistance from the Berlin MS) , but also places it within a history of imaginary language making from medieval times to the most contemporary projects in efforts to uncover this woman s bold involvement in an intellectual and creative endeavor that spans centuries.

Oeuvres

Download Oeuvres PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.B/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Oeuvres by : Molière

Download or read book Oeuvres written by Molière and published by . This book was released on 1739 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

All Puns Intended

Download All Puns Intended PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351198130
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis All Puns Intended by : Walter D. Redfern

Download or read book All Puns Intended written by Walter D. Redfern and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-02 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The 19th century in France spawned numerous 'fous litteraires, one of them being Jean-Pierre Brisset (1837-1919). An individualist among individualists, he dismantled the existing French tongue, reshaping it to suit his own grandiose purposes, which were to explain afresh the development of human beings (from frogs) and of their language (from croaks). Continuous and ubiquitous punning was a unique feature of his writing. In this study, Redfern examines such themes as the nature of literary madness, the phenomenon of deadpan humour, the role of analogy, and the place of institutional religion in Brisset's creative rewriting of the creation."

Language

Download Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 996 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Language by : George Melville Bolling

Download or read book Language written by George Melville Bolling and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 996 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Society in v. 1-11, 1925-34. After 1934 they appear in Its Bulletin.

Interlinguistics

Download Interlinguistics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110886111
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Interlinguistics by : Klaus Schubert

Download or read book Interlinguistics written by Klaus Schubert and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

The Works of Moliere, French and English

Download The Works of Moliere, French and English PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Works of Moliere, French and English by : Molière

Download or read book The Works of Moliere, French and English written by Molière and published by . This book was released on 1748 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Women, Language and Linguistics

Download Women, Language and Linguistics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134786204
Total Pages : 570 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (347 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Women, Language and Linguistics by : Julia S. Falk

Download or read book Women, Language and Linguistics written by Julia S. Falk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rather than the standard American story of an increasingly triumphant march of scientific inquiry towards structural phonology, Women, Language and Linguistics reveals linguistics where its purpose was communication; the appeal of languages lay in their diversity; and the authority of language lay in its speakers and writers. Julia S Falk explores the vital part which women have played in preserving a linguistics based on the reality and experience of language; this book finally brings to light a neglected perspective for those working in linguistics and the history of linguistics.