1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910765717203321

Autore

Fortescue Michael D.

Titolo

The domain of language / / Michael Fortescue

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Copenhagen, Denmark : , : Museum Tusculanum Press, , 2002, 2004

©2004

ISBN

8763502135

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (319 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

410

Soggetti

Linguistics

Language and languages - Philosophy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes drawings by Henrik Maribo.

"Published with support from: The Faculty for the Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Københavns Universitets Almene Fond, The Danish Research Council for the Humanities" --title-page verso.

Sommario/riassunto

This book is intended as counter-evidence to the perception that Linguistics is a domain of dusty schoolroom grammar. It follows that linguistics can be characterised differently than as proponents of theoretical orientations who spend their brief breaks from their bone-dry work bashing each other over the head with their various favourite abstractions. The discipline may appear to outsiders as fragmented and - worse still - lacking in relevance to the real world outside its gates. This book demonstrates that Linguistics, in all its varied branches, can be entertaining as well as thought-provoking, and that its domain is indeed a coherent one despite all the internecine squabbling. In an unconventional way, Michael Fortescue introduces his subject as a kind of fable with a historical moral that professional linguists, as well as students, should enjoy as a useful commentary on the state of the discipline today.