Construing Experience Through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to Cognition (Open Linguistics (Paperback)) - Softcover

Halliday, M.A. K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826488927 ISBN 13: 9780826488923

Publisher: Continuum, 2006

Synopsis

The British theologian and New Testament scholar Austin Farrer was a member of "the Oxford Christians", conversing frequently with C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and T. S. Eliot. A. N. Wilson has called Farrer "the one true genius of the Church of England in the 20th century". Farrer's theory about the Synoptic Problem remains one the most debated theories of Synoptic relationships in contemporary New Testament scholarship. The editors have put together a book that makes the practical, spiritual meaning of Farrer's thought available to those who desire to integrate serious thinking with faithful life. Contributors to the volume include Ann Loades (University of Durham), Diogenes Allen (Princeton Theological Seminary), Julian N. Hartt (University of Virginia), Charles Hefling (Boston College), and O.C. Edwards (Seabury-Western Theological Seminary).David Hein is Professor and Chair of Religion and Philosophy at Hood College and the author of Noble Powell and the Episcopal Establishment in the Twentieth Century. Edward Hugh Henderson is Professor of Philosophy at Louisiana State University and co-editor with Brian Hebblethwaite of Divine Action: Studies Inspired by the Philosophical Theology of Austin Farrer.

About this title

Synopsis

This is a study edition of this important work by M A K Halliday. The subject of this book is how human beings construe their experience of the world. The construction of experience is usually thought of as knowledge, represented in the form of conceptual taxonomies, schemata, scripts and the like. The authors offer an interpretation that is complementary to this, treating experience not as knowing but as meaning; and hence as something that is construed in language. In other words, the concern is with the construal of human experience as a semantic system; and since language plays the central role not only in storing and exchanging experience but also in construing it, language is taken as the interpretative base. The focus of the book is both theoretical and descriptive. The authors consider it important that theory and description should develop in parallel, with constant interchange between the two. The major descriptive component is an account of the most general features of the ideational semantics of English, which is then exemplified in two familiar text types (recipes and weather forecasts). There is also a brief reference to the semantics of Chinese.

Theoretical issues are raised throughout as they become relevant to the discussion, with the theoretical base being drawn from systemic functional linguistics. Both the theoretical and descriptive proposals offered in the book are compared and contrasted with approaches deriving from Al, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics.

About the Author

M.A.K. Halliday is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney.

Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0826488927
• ISBN 13: 9780826488923
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 672