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Perspectives on Language

An Introduction

  • Chapter
Meaning and Context

Part of the book series: Cognition and Language ((CALS))

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Abstract

Everybody knows, of course, what language is, what speaking is, what understanding speech is. We know that grammar tells us to talk “correctly.” But—how does language work? How do we operate to get a listener to know what we want him to know? How does language function?

Well, but surely... you do not suppose that you can learn, nor I explain, any subject of importance all in a moment; at any rate, not such a subject as language, which is, perhaps, the very greatest of all.

Plato

... this alloy of speech and action.

L. Vygotsky

The trouble with language is that it is such a complicated, many-sided phenomenon.

E. M. Uhlenbeck

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© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hörmann, H. (1986). Perspectives on Language. In: Innis, R.E. (eds) Meaning and Context. Cognition and Language. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0560-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0560-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-42296-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0560-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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