[SydPhil] History and Philosophy of Linguistics Reading group ­ Tuesday August 14

[Nick Riemer]

History and Philosophy of Linguistics Reading group

Next meeting: Tuesday, August 14, 5.30–7pm, Woolley S361

Reading: Sally McConnell-Ginet 2008. Words in the World: How and Why Meanings Can Matter
Language, Volume 84:  497-527

Abstract
Why do people care about the meaning(s)/significance associated with a word? Does it make
sense to advocate or to criticize a certain form-meaning association? This article argues that words
do real cognitive and social work as they are deployed in social practice and that it is primarily
through words and their histories of use that culture links to language. It is not semantic representations
as such that matter but the (mostly extralinguistic) reference and conceptual baggage words
acquire in their discursive world travels. Lexical significance shifts and is contested as part of
shifting and contested customs, institutions, and ideologies.

Reading available by signing up to http://hplinguistics.pbworks.com.

Enquiries: nick.riemer at sydney.edu.au

All welcome!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20120809/a7bcf232/attachment-0002.html>