| Plastic Glasses and Church Fathers: Semantic Extension from the Ethnoscience Tradition Contributor(s): Kronenfeld, David (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0195094077 ISBN-13: 9780195094077 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $83.60 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 1996 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - General - Reference |
| Dewey: 401.41 |
| LCCN: 95010092 |
| Lexile Measure: 1610 |
| Physical Information: 0.95" H x 6.45" W x 9.53" (1.14 lbs) 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Meaning seems to shift from context to context; how do we know when someone says grab a chair that an ottoman or orange crate will do, but when someone says let's buy a chair, they won't? In Plastic Glasses and Church Fathers, Kronenfeld offers a theory that explains both the usefulness of language's variability of reference and the mechanisms which enable us to understand each other in spite of the variability. Kronenfeld's theory, rooted in the tradition of ethnoscience (or cognitive anthropology), accomplishes three things. First, it distinguishes prototypic referents from extended referents. Second, it describes the various bases of semantic extensions. Finally it details how we use the situational context of usage, the linguistic context of opposition and inclusion, and the conceptual context of knowledge about the world to interpret communicative events. |
