by Douglas Walton, Chris Reed, Fabrizio Macagno (2008)
"This book provides a systematic analysis of many common argumentation schemes and a compendium of ninety-six schemes. The study of these schemes, or forms of argument that capture stereotypical patterns of human reasoning, is at the core of argumentation research. Surveying all aspects of argumentation schemes from the ground up, the book takes the reader from the elementary exposition in the first chapter to the current state of the art in the research efforts to formalize and classify the schemes, outlined in the last three chapters. It provides a systematic and comprehensive account, with notation suitable for computational applications that increasingly make use of argumentation schemes."--Jacket.
Clare Painter
"This book presents a rich naturalistic case study of one child's use of language from two-and-a-half to five years, drawing on systemic functional theory to argue that cognitive development is essentially a linguistic process and offering a new description and interpretation of linguistic and cognitive developments during this period."--Jacket.
Lydia H. Liu
The problem of translation has become increasingly central to critical reflections on modernity and its universalizing processes. Approaching translation as a symbolic and material exchange among peoples and civilizations and not as a purely linguistic or literary matter, the essays in Tokens of Exchange focus on China and its interactions with the West to historicize an economy of translation. Rejecting the familiar regional approach to non-Western societies, the contributors to this volume contend that "national histories" and "world history" must be read with absolute attention to the types of epistemological translatability that have been constructed among various modern languages and cultures. By studying the production and circulation of meaning as value in areas including history, religion, language, law, visual art, music, and pedagogy, the essays consider exchanges between Jesuit and Protestant missionaries and the Chinese between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and focus on the interchanges occasioned by the spread of capitalism and imperialism. Concentrating on ideological reciprocity and nonreciprocity in science, medicine, and cultural pathologies, the contributors also posit that such exchanges often lead to racialized and essentialized ideas about culture, sexuality, and nation. The collection then turns to the role of language itself as a site of the universalization of knowledge in the contemplation of such processes as the invention of Basic English and the global teaching of the English language. By focusing on the moments wherein meaning-value is exchanged in the translation from one language to another, the essays highlight the circulation of the global in the local as they address the role played by historical translation in the universalizing processes of modernity and globalization.
Victor Lee and Prajna Das Gupta
Children's Cognitive and Language Development gives a detailed coverage of the period from middle childhood to adolescence. The first chapter introduces the major theoretical influences on modern studies of cognitive development, setting the scene for more detailed analyses of these and other theories. In the following chapters both classical and modern developmental research in a variety of areas are covered including language, intelligence, drawing, and mathematical and scientific thinking. Compared to standard texts, the scope of the book is considerable, including the influence of current trends such as constructivist theories. In addition, specially commissioned chapters by leading researchers in the field provide different, more specialized perspectives. Readers are encouraged to take a critical, interactive stance throughout.
Ben Witherington III
Witherington provides an introduction to the ancient art of persuasion and its use within the various New Testament documents. More than just an exploration of the use of the ancient rhetorical tools and devices, this guide introduces the reader to all that went into convincing an audience about some subject. Witherington makes the case that rhetorical criticism is a more fruitful approach to the NT epistles than the oft-employed approaches of literary and discourse criticism. Familiarity with the art of rhetoric also helps the reader explore non-epistolary genres. In addition to the general introduction to rhetorical criticism, the book guides readers through the many and varied uses of rhetoric in most NT documents--not only telling readers about rhetoric in the NT, but showing them the way it was employed. --From publisher's description.