Textual Politics: Discourse And Social Dynamics

Textual Politics: Discourse And Social Dynamics PDF Author: Jay L. Lemke
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135748241
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Texts record the meanings we make: in words, pictures and deeds, and politics chronicles our uses of power in shaping social relationships large and small. Textual politics is about meaning - the meaning we make with words and with the symbolic values of every object and action.; The book begins with an introduction which discusses the relationship between Discourse And The Notions Of Power And Ideology. These Concepts Are Then applied to major issues: the social construction of class, gender and individuality; the rhetoric of polarizing social controversies religious fundamentalism vs. gay rights; and the abuse of technical language in policy arguments educational research vs. conservative politics. The book ends with chapters which extend the theory to processes of large- scale social change and apply it to the challenges facing education and political action in the new global information century.

Textual Politics

Textual Politics PDF Author: Jay L. Lemke
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
ISBN: 9780748402151
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
In the last ten years, there has been increased interest among students, scholars and practitioners in such fields as media and communications studies, education, cultural studies and social and cultural theory in the role of language and discourse. Textual Politics examines the role of language in social controversies and in processes of social and cultural change. The chapters discuss the relationship between discourse and the notions of power and ideology, and analyse how language is used to make expert opinion seem indisputable or controversial political views seem natural. The author reviews and re-evaluates work on language and social processes including the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Michael Halliday, James Paul Gee and Gunther Kress, and offers a new theory of 'ecosocial systems'

Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body

Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body PDF Author: Paul Thibault
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441171185
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
"Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body" is an exploration of a multimodal theory of cognitive science. Using linguistic theories first developed by Saussure and more latterly by M. A. K. Halliday, Paul Thibault analyses how social and biological systems interact to produce meaning. This fascinating study will be of interest to undergraduates and academics researching cognitive linguistics and advanced semiotics. The book engages with the current dialogue between the human and life sciences to ask questions about the relationship between the physical, biological aspects of a human being, and the sociocultural framework in which a human being exists. Paul J. Thibault argues that we need to understand both the semiotic, discursive nature of meaning making, and the physical context in which this activity takes place. The two are inseparable, and hence the only way we can understand our subjective experience of our environment and our perceptions of our inner states of mind is by giving equal weight to both frameworks. This 'ecosocial semiotic' theory engages with linguistics, semiotics, activity theory, biology and psychology. In so doing, the book produces a new way of looking at how a human being makes sense of his or her environment, but also how this environment shapes such meanings.

Agency and Consciousness in Discourse

Agency and Consciousness in Discourse PDF Author: Paul Thibault
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1847142664
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
In the past two decades there has been considerable interest in the ways in which subjects are positioned in discursive practice. This interest has entailed a focus on the role of language and discourse in the processes in and through which subjects are constituted in discourse. However, questions of agency and how it relates to consciousness have received less attention. This book explores the ways in which agency and consciousness are created through transactions between self and other. The book argues that it is necessary to regard body-brain interactions in the context of the social and discursive practices which act upon human bodies. These issues of agency and individuation are explored in relation to infant semiosis, as well as in relation to children's symbolic play. Thibault looks at the importance of the self-referential moral conscience in relation to the interpersonal dimension of all acts of meaning-making. This conscience is also connected to the development of a self-referential viewpoint which the book argues is connected to the ecosocial semiotic systems of thinking about consciousness as a complex system operating on many different levels. The author discusses and evaluates the work of linguists, psychologists, biologists, semioticians, and sociologists such as Basil Bernstein, Mikhail Bakhtin, J. J. Gibson, M. A. K. Halliday, Walter Kauffman, Lakoff & Johnson, Jay Lemke, Jean Piaget and Stanley Salthe, to develop a new theory of agency and consciousness.

Projecting the Future Through Political Discourse

Projecting the Future Through Political Discourse PDF Author: Patricia L. Dunmire
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027206325
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
This monograph examines the rhetorical nature and function of representations of the future in political discourse, focusing on political actors use of hegemonic images of future reality to achieve their political goals. It argues that a key ideological dimension of political rhetoric lies in politicians use of projections of the future to legitimate policies and actions. This argument is grounded in systemic-functional and critical discourse analyses of the Bush Doctrine, the U.S. policy response to the September 11 terrorist attacks which sanctioned a preemptive military posture. By focusing on the discursive construction of the future, this project addresses a lacunae in critical discourse studies and calls attention to the crucial role that the discourse and practice of futurology has played in post-Cold War politics and society. It will be of value to scholars interested in the discourses of politics, the war on terror, U.S. national security, and futurology."

Discourses of Post-Bureaucratic Organization

Discourses of Post-Bureaucratic Organization PDF Author: Rick Iedema
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027296480
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This book considers the discourses that come into play in organizational change. The book outlines the tensions that arise for people having to enact change, and analyzes the ways in which they position themselves in changing organizational environments. The book takes a social semiotic perspective on discourse, organization and change. Here, discourse encompasses not only the multi-modal resources that people mobilize in organizational (inter)action, but also the practices and transformative dynamics afforded by those resources. The organizational changes highlighted in the book revolve around three dimensions of work that are increasingly coming to the fore: participation, boundary-spanning and knowledging. These dimensions are explored through case studies, including a health planning project, an initiative to standardize work practices, and the tension between paper-based and IT-based reporting. The book addresses the relevance of this discourse perspective to organizational research more broadly, by investigating organization as a dynamic of ‘resemiotizations’. Cover illustration by John Reid

Language Learner Narrative

Language Learner Narrative PDF Author: Helen O’Sullivan
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9401210349
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Increasing numbers of people have contact with other cultures and languages. Language Learner Narrative examines representations of this phenomenon in literary texts using an applied linguistic approach. This analysis of written narratives of language learning and cross-cultural encounter complements objective studies in intercultural communication and second language acquisition research. Kant’s use of the term Mündigkeit in his essay “What is Enlightenment?” is used to frame the complex issues of language, identity, meaning and reality presented by the texts. Augmented by Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of linguistic capital, this framing forms a counterpoint to the positioning of these authors as “avatar[s] of poststructuralist wisdom” (Eva Hoffman). The work includes a uniquely detailed linguistic analysis of Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Mutter Zunge, and further texts by other widely studied and less familiar authors (Yoko Tawada, Eva Hoffman, Vassilis Alexakis, Zé Do Rock). It also lists literary sources of language learner narrative. Through its fundamental examination of what and how language means to us as individuals, this volume will be of wide appeal to students and researchers in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, intercultural communication and literary studies.

Modeling Biblical Language

Modeling Biblical Language PDF Author: Stanley E. Porter
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004309365
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
Modeling Biblical Language collects the best linguistic scholarship of present and former members of the McMaster Divinity College Linguistics Circle, addressing a variety of interpretive and theoretical issues facing Old/New Testament studies from the perspective of modern linguistic theory.

The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis

The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis PDF Author: James Paul Gee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136672923
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 709

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Book Description
Approaches to discourse analysis -- Register and genre -- Developments in spoken discourse -- Educational applications -- Institutional applications -- Identity, culture and discourse.

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics PDF Author: Ulrich Ammon
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110141892
Category : Sociolinguistics
Languages : de
Pages : 897

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Book Description