Literature elevates the mind...good literature, that is!
R.V. Young is a Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of English at North Carolina State University. He wrote this primer for college students as a part of the ISI Guides to the Major Disciplines series. Young believes, and encourages the reader to consider, that literature needs to be part of the diet of every student wanting to learn and explore the meaning of life. Young's premise is that literature, approached both with caution and abandon, literally elevates the mind, and thus, the person. He proceeds to give a brief summary of various authors and books that every student should consider for their own personal library beginning (of course) with Homer and ending with T.S. Eliot. Young ends with an incredible bibliographical appendix of various authors and titles that would be a great place to begin for readers wanting to expand their horizons and read a wide variety of books.
The book encourages the reader to read more, and I can see how a person could be discouraged and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the books listed - obviously the reader needs to be able to digest these suggestions and take small bites into the large apple of good literature.
Lukacs' fluid writing style is this book's greatest merit. He points out a great deal of classical and modern history of outstanding merit and durability. This booklet, however, is published by the ISI's publishing house. Reading it is like being flung back into the academic culture of East Coast Universities in the 1950s. The sensation is bizarre, and horribly exclusionary. Almost any other introduction to the discipline for undergraduates would be better by showing that non-European, non-Christian stories also have merit. History is not only the study of personal and national heritage, but the trials and value of all human cultures, even those not personally relevant. The book lacks such generosity, often termed imaginative sympathy. Too bad.
The Dynamics of Language, Volume 35: An Introduction For the whole of the last half-century, most theoretical syntacticians have assumed that knowledge of language is different from the tasks of speaking and understanding. There have been some dissenters, but, by and large, this view still holds sway.
This book takes a different view: it continues the task set in hand by Kempson et al (2001) of arguing that the common-sense intuition is correct that knowledge of language consists in being able to use it in speaking and understanding. The Dynamics of Language argues that interpretation is built up across as sequence of words relative to some context and that this is all that is needed to explain the structural properties of language. The dynamics of how interpretation is built up is the syntax of a language system. The authors' first task is to convey to a general linguistic audience with a minimum of formal apparatus, the substance of that formal system. Secondly, as linguists, they set themselves the task of applying the formal system to as broad an array of linguistic puzzles as possible, the languages analysed ranging from English to Japanese and Swahili.
*Argues that knowledge in language consists of being able to use it in speaking and understanding
*Analyses a variety of languages, from English to Japanese and Swahili
*Appeals to a wide audience in the disciplines of language, linguistics, anthropology, education, psychology, cognitive science, law, media studies, and medicine
What Is Anthropology? Leading anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen shows how anthropology is a revolutionary way of thinking about the human world. Perfect for students, but also for those who have never encountered anthropology before, this book explores the key issues in an exciting and innovative way. Eriksen explains how to see the world from below and from within - emphasising the importance of adopting an insider's perspective. He reveals how seemingly enormous cultural differences actually conceal the deep unity of humanity.
Language and Learning: Philosophy of Language in the Hellenistic Age The sophistication and diversity of Hellenistic traditions addressing problems of language will make the study of those linguistic theories an intriguing subject to all students of the history of language theory in general. A novice in Hellenistic philosophy will also find that the study of the different schools’ concern with language and linguistic phenomena provides an excellent introduction to the doctrines of the various schools, since it sheds light on their epistemology as well as on their logical, ethical and physical presuppositions.
There are three main centres of interest that received special attention from all schools in the Hellenistic age and its aftermath.
(1) There is the question of the origin of language or languages. Though the notion of a ‘wise inventor’ of language was generally treated with disfavour, the problem of the etymology of linguistic expressions and their reference to reality posed a challenge to all philosophical schools.
(2) Special attention was also given to the question of the interdependence between language and thought in general, particularly in view of the importance attributed to rhetoric and other forms of self-expression.
(3) Last, but not least, is the concern with the question in what sense ‘language’ can be treated as a technical subject with rules of its own, so that grammar is not merely a matter of empirical research and linguistic observation.
