Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics Books

Book Synopsis"Goes a long way toward showing a lay audience the value, integrity, and aesthetic sensibility of black culture, and moreover the conflicts which arise when its values are treated as deviant version of majority ones."--Marjorie Harness Goodwin, "American Ethnologist"

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Book SynopsisBlank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French is a brilliant and altogether convincing analysis of the way in which Western writers, from Homer to the twentieth century have . . . imposed their language of desire on the least-known part of the world and have called it 'Africa.' There are excellent readings here of writers ranging from Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Sade, and Céline to Conrad and Yambo Ouologuem, but even more impressive and important than these individual readings is Mr. Miller's wide-ranging, incisive, and exact analysis of 'Africanist' discourse, what it has been and what it has meant in the literature of the Western world.James Olney, Louisiana State University

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Book SynopsisEssays examine the way stories are told, understood, and used to represent and make sense of the world.

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Book SynopsisUsing data from more than ten years of research, David McNeill shows that gestures do not simply form a part of what is said and meant but have an impact on thought itself. Hand and Mind persuasively argues that because gestures directly transfer mental images to visible forms, conveying ideas that language cannot always express, we must examine language and gesture together to unveil the operations of the mind.

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Book SynopsisThere are few forms in which so much authority has been invested with so little reflection as the sentence. Though a fundamental unit of discourse, it has rarely been an explicit object of inquiry, often taking a back seat to concepts such as the word, trope, line, or stanza. To understand what is at stake in thinking--or not thinking--about the sentence, Jan Mieszkowski looks at the difficulties confronting nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors when they tried to explain what a sentence is and what it can do. From Romantic debates about the power of the stand-alone sentence, to the realist obsession with precision and revision, to modernist experiments with ungovernable forms, Mieszkowski explores the hidden allegiances behind our ever-changing stylistic ideals. By showing how an investment in superior writing has always been an ethical and a political as well as an aesthetic commitment, Crises of the Sentence offers a new perspective on our love-hate relationship with this fun

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Book SynopsisWith the prevalence of smartphones, massive data storage, and search engines, we might think of today as the height of the information age. In reality, every era has faced its own challenges of storing, organizing, and accessing information. While they lacked digital devices, our ancestors, when faced with information overload, utilized some of the same techniques that underlie our modern interfaces: they visualized and spatialized data, tying it to the emotional and sensory spaces of memory, thereby turning their minds into a visual interface for accessing information. In Excavating the Memory Palace, Seth David Long mines the history of Europe's arts of memory to find the origins of today's data visualizations, unearthing how ancient constructions of cognitive pathways paved the way for modern technological interfaces. Looking to techniques like the memory palace, he finds the ways that information has been tied to sensory and visual experience, turning raw data into lucid knowledTrade Review"This project fills a gap in the current scholarship on the canon of memory, its fascinating inception and history, and implications for re-theorizing it within our contemporary technological context. Long's argument is historically deep and complex, building upon the iconic historical work of luminaries such as Carruthers, Yates, and others. He presents a theory that sees memory not as the isolated processes of brains in jars, but as the dynamic, social, outward-facing practice that has informed rhetorical output since antiquity, and continues to do so today. This is an insightful critique of today's data-driven practices of digital rhetoric, reminding the reader of the subjective, highly malleable set of choices that go into the selection, juxtaposition, combination, and scale of data manipulation." -- Ben McCorkle, author of Rhetorical Delivery as Technological Discourse: A Cross-Historical Study“Long investigates the rhetorical canon of memory in a fascinating way that pushes the boundaries in both theory and method. He offers rich examples and anecdotes, ranging from ancient Greece and the Middle Ages to the present, and he breathes new life into how we conceive of memory, initiating a welcome empirical methodology for rhetorical theory that a range of researchers will find refreshing.” -- John R. Gallagher, author of Update Culture and the Afterlife of Digital Writing“Just what happened to ars memoria? Long takes readers on an investigative journey of research and recovery, starting at the twilight of the Roman agora and ending with present-day digital networks. He tells the story of how the iconoclasts and their imageless memory systems changed the way rhetoricians recall the fourth canon and the significant social and historical implications for today’s digital world of visualized data. In an era of rapidly circulating news, Long’s book is a must read for humanists and pedagogues interested in questions about where, how, why, and what we remember.” -- Jim Ridolfo, coeditor of Rhet Ops: Rhetoric and Information Warfare"Long’s book is a timely reminder that there are both great promises and great dangers lurking in new technologies, but that these cannot be appreciated without a historical sensibility. No matter how new-fangled technologies may seem, they will raise similar questions as in the past about what it is for us, as humans, to know." * International Journal of Law in Context *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Memory vs. Mnemonic Chapter 1. Arts of Memory in the Agora Chapter 2. Arts of Memory in the Monastery Chapter 3. The Memory Palace in Ruins Chapter 4. The Memory Palace Modernized Chapter 5. Theory and Practice of a Digital Ars Memoria Chapter 6. The Social Memory Palace Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisWe tend to think of rhetoric as a solely human art. After all, only humans can use language artfully to make a point, the very definition of rhetoric. Yet when you look at ancient and early modern treatises on rhetoric, what you find is surprising: they're crawling with animals. With Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw, Debra Hawhee explores this unexpected aspect of early thinking about rhetoric, going on from there to examine the enduring presence of nonhuman animals in rhetorical theory and education. In doing so, she not only offers a counter-history of rhetoric but also brings rhetorical studies into dialogue with animal studies, one of the most vibrant areas of interest in humanities today. By removing humanity and human reason from the center of our study of argument, Hawhee frees up space to study and emphasize other crucial components of communication, like energy, bodies, and sensation. Drawing on thinkers from Aristotle to Erasmus, Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw tells a new story of the discipline's history and development, one animated by the energy, force, liveliness, and diversity of our relationships with our partners in feeling, other animals.Trade Review“In Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw, Hawhee goes back to the birth of rhetoric, in classical texts, including Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Rhetoric, and close in the early Renaissance, when these works enjoyed a revival.” * Times Literary Supplement *"Hawhee's complex, nuanced, important argument will inform both the study of rhetoric (and its history) and the more recent turn to animal studies, providing the latter with historical background stretching back as far as Aristotle....Highly recommended." * Choice *“Lively enough for advanced undergraduates with some classical training, as well as graduate courses in the history of rhetoric (or a contemporary theory unit on stylistics). Researchers interested in the classics, animals, or theory in general will of course value this fine-grained approach that turns up many illuminating ideas.” * Rhetoric Review *“An illuminating exposition on the deep relationship between language and nonhuman animals. . . .Hawhee’s book succeeds at introducing a fascinatingly new approach to animal studies and rhetoric.” * The British Society for Literature and Science *“This is an important work for students of the history and theory of rhetoric. Hawhee makes an exemplary case of the human-animal relationship as a rhetorical model for sensation and perception, providing readers with a conceptual vocabulary that enables a rigorous discussion of nonrational elements of rhetoric. What follows is an explanation and pedagogy of style that is more concretely and pragmatically rhetorical than any scholarship to date.” * Gregory Clark, author of Civic Jazz: American Music and Kenneth Burke on the Art of Getting Along *“In Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw, Hawhee not only offers an important new historical perspective on rhetoric but also develops an understanding that can account for the full complexity involved in an act of persuasion. Focusing on the centrality of animals for both the practice and teaching of rhetoric in ancient and pre-modern times, she illuminates with admirable clarity the collaborative relationship of logos and alogos, making evident the force of feeling and sensation in the creation and communication of understanding. Her study both invites and compels us to rethink what rhetoric is and leads to a significantly richer understanding of the multi-dimensional activity of mind that we call thought. Challenging the standard opposition of rational and non-rational, she shows how these two aspects often work in necessary collaboration to produce a fuller and more nuanced understanding. In addition, she demonstrates the reach of rhetoric’s appreciation of nature in the shaping of the progymnasmata not only as a rich source of pedagogical training and cultural imagination but also as an equally important disciplined attention to empirical observation that contributed to the rise of modern science. This is a wonderful book that enlarges the way that we can think about rhetoric and that powerfully reconnects the human with the rest of the animal kingdom, establishing a continuum that better explains what it means to be a sentient creature responsive to environments of threat and possibility.” -- James L. Kastely * author of The Rhetoric of Plato's Republic: Democracy and the Philosophical Problem of Persuasion *“Animals flourish in and insects infest rhetorical theory, but who before Hawhee ever noticed? Her zoo of nonhuman animals tells us a lot about another animal whose animality has also been long neglected: the human animal. Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw puts the animal back into Aristotle’s political animal via a tour d’horizon of the core curriculum in the western world. Against the idealized rationalism of some models of deliberation and the pejorative denunciation of rhetoric as basely emotional, animals in Hawhee’s artful hands show us a way to a rhetoric that is at once feeling, sensing, thinking, and artful—aesthetic in the original sense.” * John Durham Peters, author of The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media *“In Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw, Hawhee offers an original and compelling counter-history of premodern rhetorical theory and practice in which the alogos shared by all animal beings is situated at the very heart of language education and human communications. Indeed, in Hawhee’s luminous rereadings, sensation is depicted as the condition for logos (as speech and reason), as well as for animal signaling. Putting rhetorical studies into productive conversation with contemporary issues raised by animal studies and affect theory, Hawhee gracefully demonstrates that nonhuman animals scurry through premodern rhetorical texts neither as anthropomorized representations nor as the dangerous supplements of human logos, but as zoostylistic teachers: language about animal liveliness both enlivens the senses and testifies to the absolutely fundamental role of sensation in any deliberation and every rational-critical discourse.” * Diane Davis, author of Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations *Table of ContentsNote on Translations and Primary Sources Acknowledgments Introduction: Feeling Animals 1 Aristotle and Zōa Aisthētika 2 Zoostylistics after Aristotle 3 Beast Fables, Deliberative Rhetoric, and the Progymnasmata 4 Looking Beyond Belief: Paradoxical Encomia and Visual Inquiry 5 Nonhuman Animals and Medieval Memory Arts 6 Accumulatio, Natural History, and Erasmus’s Copia Conclusion: At the Feet of Rhetorica Notes Bibliography of Primary Sources Bibliography of Secondary Sources Index

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Book SynopsisIn the first two volumes of this work, Paul Ricoeur examined the relations between time and narrative in historical writing, fiction, and theories of literature. This final volume, a comprehensive reexamination and synthesis of the ideas developed in volumes 1 and 2, stands as Ricoeur's most complete and satisfying presentation of his own philosophy.

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Book SynopsisThis work examines apophatic discourse, which embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. With reference to Greek, Christian and Islamic texts, Sells offers a critical account of how apophatic language works.

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Book SynopsisWith the emergence of democracy in the city-state of Athens in the years around 460 BC, public speaking became an essential skill for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils - and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law. In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing virtuoso performances and a host of practical manuals for the layman. While many of these were little more than collections of debaters'' tricks, the Art of Rhetoric held a far deeper purpose. Here Aristotle (384-322 BC) establishes the methods of informal reasoning, provides the first aesthetic evaluation of prose style and offers detailed observations on character and the emotions. Hugely influential upon later Western culture, the Art of Rhetoric is a fascinating consideration of the force of persuasion and sophistry, and a compelling guide to the principles behind oratorical skill.Table of ContentsThe Art of Rhetoric - Aristotle Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Hugh Lawson-TancredPrefaceIntroduction:1. The Importance of Ancient Rhetoric2. The Historical Background to the Rhetoric3. Rhetoric as Techne4. Psychology in the Rhetoric5. Style and Composition6. The Rhetorical Legacy of Aristotle7. The TranslationTHE ART OF RHETORICSection One: IntroductoryChapter 1.1. The Nature of RhetoricPART ONE: DEMONSTRATIONSection Two: The Genres of OratoryChapter 1.2. The Definition of RhetoricChapter 1.3. The GenresSection Three: DeliberationChapter 1.4. The Province of DeliberationChapter 1.5. HappinessChapter 1.6. The Good and the ExpedientChapter 1.7. Relative ExpediencyChapter 1.8. ConstitutionsSection Four: DisplayChapter 1.9. Display OratorySection Five: LitigationChapter 1.10. InjusticeChapter 1.11. PleasureChapter 1.12. The Criminal MindChapter 1.13. Crime and PunishmentChapter 1.14. Relatively Serious CrimesChapter 1.15. Non-technical ProofsPART TWO: EMOTION AND CHARACTERSection Six: EmotionChapter 2.1. The Role of Emotion and CharacterChapter 2.2. AngerChapter 2.3. CalmChapter 2.4. Friendship and EnmityChapter 2.5. Fear and ConfidenceChapter 2.6. ShameChapter 2.7. FavourChapter 2.8. PityChapter 2.9. IndignationChapter 2.10. EnvyChapter 2.11. JealousySection Seven: CharacterChapter 2.12. YouthChapter 2.13. Old AgeChapter 2.14. PrimeChapter 2.15. BirthChapter 2.16. WealthChapter 2.17. PowerPART THREE: UNIVERSAL ASPECTSSection Eight: Common TopicsChapter 2.18. The Role of Common TopicsChapter 2.19. The Topics of PossibilityChapter 2.20. ExampleChapter 2.21. MaximChapter 2.22. EnthymemeChapter 2.23. Demonstrative Common TopicsChapter 2.24. Illusory TopicsChapter 2.25. RefutationChapter 2.26. AmplificationSection Nine: StyleChapter 3.1. Historical PreliminaryChapter 3.2. ClarityChapter 3.3. FrigidityChapter 3.4. SimileChapter 3.5. PurityChapter 3.6. AmplitudeChapter 3.7. ProprietyChapter 3.8. RhythmChapter 3.9. SyntaxChapter 3.10. Wit and MetaphorChapter 3.11. VividnessChapter 3.12. Suitability to GenreSection Ten: CompositionChapter 3.13. Narration and ProofChapter 3.14. The IntroductionChapter 3.15. PrejudiceChapter 3.16. NarrationChapter 3.17. Proof and RefutationChapter 3.18. AltercationChapter 3.19. The EpilogueNotesBibliography

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Book Synopsis''Identity'' is a central organizing feature of our social world. Across the social sciences and humanities, it is increasingly treated as something that is actively and publicly accomplished in discourse. This book defines identity in its broadest sense, in terms of how people display who they are to each other. Each chapter examines a different discursive environment in which people do ''identity work'': everyday conversation, institutional settings, narrative and stories, commodified contexts, spatial locations, and virtual environments. The authors describe and demonstrate a range of discourse and interaction analytic methods as they are put to use in the study of identity, including ''performative'' analyses, conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis, positioning theory, discursive psychology and politeness theory. The book aims to give readers a clear sense of the coherence (or otherwise) of these different approaches, the practical steps taken in analysis, and their situation within broader critical debates. Through the use of detailed and original ''identity'' case studies in a variety of spoken and written texts in order, the book offers a practical and accessible insight into what the discursive accomplishment of identity actually looks like, and how to go about analyzing it.Trade ReviewThe book provides an excellent overview and synthesis of a variety of approaches to exploring identity in discourse and along the way reviews the contemporary state of the methodological debates. Media International Australia This well-presented and easy to access text makes a valuable contribution to this developing field of discourse and identity. Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Benwell and Stokoe have produced an indispensable guide for any student or scholar interested in discourse and identity. This is a deft and highly accessible overview of a complex emerging body of knowledge. The authors move confidently, with great panache, from social theory to the micro details of linguistic analysis, taking in the latest work on spatial, virtual and commodified identities along the way. A neat and illuminating example can be found on every page, along with an important insight and an original line of argument. Discourse and Identity is the first scholarly map of the field and is a 'must own book' for every identity researcher. -- Professor Margaret Wetherell, Director ESRC Identities Programme, Social Sciences, Open University Discourse and Identity is a richly detailed and usefully opinionated guidebook to a growing area of scholarship. Engaging with a range of current theories and methods of discourse analysis, the book offers a critical overview of the ways in which researchers have approached the concept of identity. Benwell and Stokoe draw on an impressive variety of discourse contexts, from ordinary conversation among friends to magazine advertisements, from online interaction to talk about the neighbours. While Discourse and Identity illustrates a number of different approaches in depth, including discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, and several types of narrative analysis, the book's particular strength is in demonstrating the techniques and advantages of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis as tools for illuminating the workings of identity as an interactional achievement. Students and scholars alike will find the text a helpful resource in navigating the broad field of discourse and identity research. -- Mary Bucholtz, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara This is a highly original and timely volume ... This book will be an invaluable supplementary text for postgraduate students in many disciplines and a much-needed resource for scholars. -- BAAL Book Prize Reviewer Baal News Discourse and Identity is an extraordinarily ambitious and confident book ... but the two authors do manage to pull this off. I was impressed! -- BAAL Book Prize Reviewer Baal News A stimulating resource for those seeking to broaden their analytic appreciation. -- Will Turner, University of Leeds Discourse Studies This book is an excellent addition to the existing growing literature on the study of identity through discourse ... Discourse and identity succeeds in providing in an accessible way an insightful and clearly written book that will inspire many, linguists and non-linguists. But above all, it will be particularly helpful to those looking at ways of teasing out issues of identity in discourse. -- Cristina Ros i Sole, University College, London Sociolinguistic Studies The book provides an excellent overview and synthesis of a variety of approaches to exploring identity in discourse and along the way reviews the contemporary state of the methodological debates. This well-presented and easy to access text makes a valuable contribution to this developing field of discourse and identity. Benwell and Stokoe have produced an indispensable guide for any student or scholar interested in discourse and identity. This is a deft and highly accessible overview of a complex emerging body of knowledge. The authors move confidently, with great panache, from social theory to the micro details of linguistic analysis, taking in the latest work on spatial, virtual and commodified identities along the way. A neat and illuminating example can be found on every page, along with an important insight and an original line of argument. Discourse and Identity is the first scholarly map of the field and is a 'must own book' for every identity researcher. Discourse and Identity is a richly detailed and usefully opinionated guidebook to a growing area of scholarship. Engaging with a range of current theories and methods of discourse analysis, the book offers a critical overview of the ways in which researchers have approached the concept of identity. Benwell and Stokoe draw on an impressive variety of discourse contexts, from ordinary conversation among friends to magazine advertisements, from online interaction to talk about the neighbours. While Discourse and Identity illustrates a number of different approaches in depth, including discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, and several types of narrative analysis, the book's particular strength is in demonstrating the techniques and advantages of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis as tools for illuminating the workings of identity as an interactional achievement. Students and scholars alike will find the text a helpful resource in navigating the broad field of discourse and identity research. This is a highly original and timely volume ... This book will be an invaluable supplementary text for postgraduate students in many disciplines and a much-needed resource for scholars. Discourse and Identity is an extraordinarily ambitious and confident book ... but the two authors do manage to pull this off. I was impressed! A stimulating resource for those seeking to broaden their analytic appreciation. This book is an excellent addition to the existing growing literature on the study of identity through discourse ... Discourse and identity succeeds in providing in an accessible way an insightful and clearly written book that will inspire many, linguists and non-linguists. But above all, it will be particularly helpful to those looking at ways of teasing out issues of identity in discourse.Table of ContentsIntroduction; PART I: METHODS; 1. Theorising Discourse and Identity; 2. Conversational Identities; 3. Institutional Identities; 4. Narrative Identities; PART II: CONTEXTS; 5. Commodified Identities; 6.Spatial Identities; 7.Virtual Identities.

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Book SynopsisAI can assist the linguist in doing research on the structure of language. This Element illustrates this possibility by showing how a conversational AI based on a Large Language Model can assist the Construction Grammarian, and especially the Frame Semanticist.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Safety Instructions: Risks and Limitations of LLMs and Generative AI; 2. Constructions; 3. Using an AI to Help Study Constructions; 4. Limitations of LLMs for Constructional Analysis; 5. Cognitive Frames and FrameNet; 6. Prompt Engineering for Building FrameNet; 7. Final safety instructions: Risks and limitations revisited; 8. Imagining the Future of Copilots for Linguists.

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