Humor in contemporary culture is generally celebrated as a public good, yet at times is felt to produce misunderstanding and even hatred. Now available in paperback, this collection explores the ethics and aesthetics of humor, in everyday life and in media comedy. An updated introduction looks at the implications of the Brand/Ross controversy.
Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together
Words and Minds takes a lively and accessible look at how we use language to combine our mental resources and get things done. Examining everyday language and drawing on a wide range of research, but always with a light style, Neil Mercer provides a unified account of the relationship between thought and language.Mercer analyses real-life examples of language being used effectively, or otherwise, in many different settings, including workplaces and schools, the home, the internet and the courtroom, and offers practical insights into how we might improve our communication skills.Words and Minds will appeal to anyone interested in language and the psychology of everyday life.
Literacy in Everyday Life - Reading and Writing in Early Modern Dutch Diaries
Until recently, historians of reading have concentrated on book ownership and trying to map out a history of who read what. The reading experience has been a subject more difficult to research. As has been pointed out before, egodocuments can be valuable sources in this case. Following this lead, Literacy in Everyday Life focuses upon four early modern Dutch diaries in which readers document their daily life and in which they recount their reading. In the analysis, other ways in which these four readers communicated are also addressed, especially speech and writing.
Everyday Arguments - A Guide to Writing and Reading Effective Arguments
Everyday Arguments combines a highly-practical, student-oriented argument rhetoric with an anthology of illustrative readings drawn from everyday life. Part I includes thirteen chapters devoted to the actual demonstration of how to write arguments--ranging from the motives behind writing and the intended audience to effectively supporting and using logic in writing. Part II is devoted to readings that exemplify the kinds of arguments laid out in the first part of the book. Readings are divided into thematic chapters: Today's College Student, The Internet, Sports, Earning Your Living, Diet, and Reading Popular Culture.
England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225
This lively and far-reaching account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest provides a vivid picture of everyday existence, and increases our understanding of all aspects of medieval society. There are colourful details of the everyday life of ordinary men and women, with their views on the past, on sexuality, on animals, on death, the undead, and the occult. The result is a fascinating and comprehensive portrayal of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.
