ISI Library

Annotation: This book was initiated by a graduate course of Elin Sütiste about semiotics of Roman Jakobson (1896–1982), given in the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu. The contributions include articles by the doctoral students as well as co-lectures, visiting scholars and colleagues. These seminars affirmed that Jakobson was truly an ambitious, forward-thinking scholar who exerted himself to establish semiotics as a discipline. Though Jakobson identified himself as a philologist, he played a pivotal role in the development and institutionalization of semiotics. Jakobson’s ability to grasp the potential of new ideas and to inspire others was remarkable. Juri Lotman has commented that “Wherever his fate of a mid-20th-century man took him, everywhere Jakobson attracted a group of scientists that soon grew into a scientific centre of global importance”.

Identifier: 9789949036301

Status: Available

Annotation: this book explores why language operates the way it does, why it is acquired the way it is, how it evolved in the first place, and why it is that some phenomena in language are universal while others are not.

Identifier: 9783034322508

Status: Available

Other title information: René Thom’s Semiotic Heritage

Annotation: The central concern of this volume is semiogenesis, i.e. the evolution and differentiation of meaningful («pregnant») forms in the field of symbolic systems – from bio-communication to language and cultural forms like music, art, architecture or urban forms. The basic questions are: How are meanings created and further differentiated? Where do they come from? What kind of forces drive their unfolding? How can complex cultural forms be understood based on simple morphodynamic principles? Applications concern the perception of forms by animals and humans, the categorization of forms e.g. in a lexicon, and predication or other complex symbolic behaviors which show up in grammar or in cultural artifacts like the unfolding of urban centers.

Identifier: 9783034304672

Status: Available

Other title information: Corso Introduttivo con tavole sinottiche

Annotation: Per imparare a tradurre occorre molta esperienza ma l'attivià practica va fin dall'inizio inquadrata in un contesto teorico di riferimento che fornisca alcuno principi metodologici. Questo volume rispomde a tale esigenza collocandosi al livellos preparatorio delgli studi universitari nel campo della traduzione. Learning to translate requires a lot of experience, but the practical activity must be framed from the beginning in a theoretical context of reference that provides some methodological principles. This volume responds to this need by placing itself at the preparatory level of university studies in the field of translation. (translated with google translate)

Identifier: 8820329352

Status: Available

Annotation: Bickerton argues that each of the properties distinguishing human intelligence and consciousness from that of other animals can be shown to derive straightforwardly from properties of language. In essence, language arose as a representational system, not a means of communication or a skill, and not a product of culture but an evolutionary adaptation.

Identifier: 1857285417

Status: Available

Other title information: Abstracts and materials from the first international interdisciplinary symposium on language and prehistory Ann Arbor, 8-12 November, 1988

Annotation: Abstracts and materials from the first international interdisciplinary symposium on language and prehistory Ann Arbor, 8-12 November, 1988

Identifier: 3883397083

Status: Available

Notes: series edited by Harald Clahsen and William Rutherford

Annotation: This state-of-the-art volume presents an outstanding collection of 22 studies on current issues facing research in second-language acquisition (SLA). The editors sought contributions for this volume from seasoned veterans of SLA like Lydia White and Susan Gass, from well-known researchers in linguistics and/or first-language acquisition like Haj Ross and Harald Clahsen, and from relative newcomers to the field like India Plough and Jean-Marc Dewaele. The topics covered range from the role of universals at various levels of second-language (L2) knowledge.

Identifier: 9027224668

Status: Available

Other title information: its structure and use

Annotation: A textbook covering all of the core concepts of linguistics, icluding phonetics, morphology, syntax and semantics, as well as pragmatics and other fields covering communication and language in use. The book comes with examples covering different languages, and many excercises and resources for further self-study.

Identifier: 0155078275

Status: Available

Other title information: A Critical Account of Structuralism and Russian Formalism

Annotation: Fredric Jameson’s survey of Structuralism and Russian Formalism is, at the same time, a critique of their basic methodology. He lays bare the presuppositions of the two movements, clarifying the relationship between the synchronic methods of Saussurean linguistics and the realities of time and history.

Identifier: 9780691013169

Status: Available