Written by an international assembly of leading philosophers, this volume provides a survey of contemporary philosophy of language. As well as providing a synoptic view of the key issues, figures, concepts and debates, each essay makes new and original contributions to ongoing debate.
How do social situations influence language use, discourse and conversation? This book is the first monograph to present a multidisciplinary theory of context and the way context influences language use and discourse.
Van Dijk presents a new theory of context that explains how text and talk are adapted to their social environment. He argues that instead of the usual direct relationship being established between society and discourse, this influence is indirect and depends on how language users themselves 'define' the communicative situation.
Once signed languages are recognized as natural human languages, a world of exploration opens up. Signed languages provide a powerful tool for investigating the nature of human language and language processing, the relation between cognition and language, and the neural organization of language.
For nearly half a century, Professor M. A. K. Halliday has been enriching the discipline of linguistics with his keen insights into the social semiotic phenomenon we call language. This ten-volume series presents the seminal works of Professor Halliday. This third volume includes papers that explore different aspects of language from a systemic functional perspective. The papers are organized into three sections: the place of linguistics as a discipline; linguistics and language; and language as social semiotic.
