The Development of Language de Geoff Williams

The Development of Language: Functional Perspectives on Species and Individuals

Geoff Williams

Annabelle Lukin

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 21 mar 2006

This book presents a unique range of interdisciplinary work on questions of language development and evolution. It makes visible the significant contribution which meaning-oriented linguistics is making to debates about the origins of language - from the perspective of language evolution in the species as well as language development in the child. As well as linguistics in the systemic functional, or Hallidayan, tradition, the book offers contributions from primatology, psychiatry, sociology and education.

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Cuprins

1. Emerging language - Annabelle Lukin and Geoff Williams2. On grammar as the driving force from primary to higher-order consciousness - M. A. K. Halliday3. The evolution of language: a systemic functional exploration of phylogenetic phases - Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen4. Language, apes, and meaning-making - Jared P. Taglialatela, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Duane M. Rumbaugh, James Benson, William Greaves5. Agency, individuation, and meaning-making: reflections on an episode of bonobo-human interaction - Paul J. Thibault6. The 'interpersonal first' principle in child language development7. The world in words: semiotic mediation, tenor, and ideology - Ruqaiya Hasan8. Two forms of human language - Russell Meares and Gavin Sullivan9. Changing the rules, changing the game: a sociocultural perspective on second language learning in the classroom - Pauline Gibbons10. How our meanings change: school contexts and semcantic evolution - David G. Butt11. Ontogenesis and grammatics: functions of metalanguage in pedagogical discourse - Geoff Williams

Recenzii

This book's major themes are highly integrated across the various contributions, reflecting faithfully the rich complexity of such a holistic model of language as SFL. The methods of study (naturalistic and contextualized), the major concepts - system and semiosis, function as metafunction, dimensionalism, and the role of context in relation to meaning and the individual - and the applications of these notions to domains like education, primate studies and psychology, are all woven together into a satisfying and challenging whole. The book is stimulating without being over reliant on arcane terminology, and it also keeps open the possibilities for further development and modification of this approach to language.' ~ W. N. Winser, Research Fellow, University of Adelaide, Australia