Principles of Human Evolution presents an in-depth
introduction to paleoanthropology and the study of human evolution.
Focusing on the fundamentals of evolutionary theory and how these apply
to ecological, molecular genetic, paleontological and archeological
approaches to important questions in the field, this timely textbook
will help students gain a perspective on human evolution in the context
of modern biological thinking.
The second edition of this
successful text features the addition of Robert Foley, a leading
researcher in Human Evolutionary Studies, to the writing team. Strong
emphasis on evolutionary theory, ecology and behavior and scores of new
examples reflect the latest evolutionary theories and recent
archaeological finds. More than a simple update, the new edition is
organized by issue rather than chronology, integrating behavior,
adaptation and anatomy. A new design and new figure references make
this edition more accessible for students and instructors.
Dialogue as a Means of Collective Communication offers a cross-disciplinary approach to examining dialogue as a communicative medium. Presented in five parts, the book takes the reader on a journey of exploring the power and potential of dialogue as a means for communication. In particular, this volume comes at a time when the global society's attention has been directed to creating more productive conversations in the name of world peace and harmony. It provides a unique new work on dialogue that brings the reader into a "dialogue with dialogue", offering an opportunity to understand the communicative potential of dialogue.
In the book, readers are introduced to five sections: Section I examines the historical and cultural perspectives of conversation. This examination helps to create a foundation for a deeper study of the emergent and salient aspects of conversation as it relates to cultural creativity and human systems design. Sections II offers the reader an examination of dialogue through different philosophical and theoretical perspectives as well as methodological ideas related to conversation. Section III explores different modalities of conversation and the application of design conversation within and across various types of design settings and human experiences. Section IV examines the field of practice as related to use of different forms of conversation. Here various authors will share their different approaches to conversation and their reflections and insights in using conversation in a variety of settings. Concluding the book, Section V reflectively examines the authors' contributions to the book and provides the reader with a focus on the future.
Stewart Shapiro's ambition in Vagueness in Context is to develop a comprehensive account of the meaning, function, and logic of vague terms in an idealized version of a natural language like English. It is a commonplace that the extensions of vague terms vary according to their context: a person can be tall with respect to male accountants and not tall (even short) with respect to professional basketball players. The key feature of Shapiro's account is that the extensions of vague terms also vary in the course of conversations and that, in some cases, a competent speaker can go either way without sinning against the meaning of the words or the non-linguistic facts. As Shapiro sees it, vagueness is a linguistic phenomenon, due to the kinds of languages that humans speak; but vagueness is also due to the world we find ourselves in, as we try to communicate features of it to each other.
Objects of Metaphor puts forward a philosophical account of metaphor radically different from those currently on offer. Powerful and flexible enough to cope with the syntactic complexity typical of genuine metaphor, it offers novel conceptions of the relationship between simile and metaphor, the notion of dead metaphor, and the idea of metaphor as a robust theoretic kind. Without denying that metaphor can sometimes be merely ornamental, Guttenplan justifies the view of metaphor as fundamental to language and the study of language. His book will be of great interest not only to philosophers in this field, but also to those working across psychology and linguistics.
The Discourse of Advertising is a very readable book that is well suited for undergraduate students whatever their academic background (literature, linguistics, cultural studies, communication studies, etc.). The balance between theory and practice is excellent. Advertising examples are mostly recent, and taken from a variety of supports (e.g. billboards, Internet, TV, magazines). The application of theoretical concepts to ads and literature provides a better understanding of these concepts, and especially allows for the distinction between the two genres. An excellent introductory tool not only to the field of advertising but also to the larger field of discursive studies in general, provided that instructors complete it with examples of ads particularly meaningful for their students..
