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Daniel Dor
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The Instruction of Imagination: Language as a Social Communication Technology (Foundations of Human Interaction)

by Dr. Daniel Dor (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
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The book suggests a new perspective on the essence of human language. This enormous achievement of our species is best characterized as a communication technology - not unlike the social media on the Net today - that was collectively invented by ancient humans for a very particular communicative function: the instruction of imagination. All other systems of communication in the biological world target the interlocutors' senses; language allows speakers to systematically instruct their interlocutors in the process of imagining the intended meaning - instead of directly experiencing it. This revolutionary function has changed human life forever, and in the book it operates as a unifying concept around which a new general theory of language gradually emerges. Dor identifies a set of fundamental problems in the linguistic sciences - the nature of words, the complexities of syntax, the interface between semantics and pragmatics, the causal relationship between language and thought, language processing, the dialectics of universality and variability, the intricacies of language and power, knowledge of language and its acquisition, the fragility of linguistic communication and the origins and evolution of language - and shows with respect to all of them how the theory provides fresh answers to the problems, resolves persistent difficulties in existing accounts, enhances the significance of empirical and theoretical achievements in the field, and identifies new directions for empirical research. The theory thus opens a new way towards the unification of the linguistic sciences, on both sides of the cognitive-social divide.
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  1. ISBN-10
    9780190256623
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0190256623
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    August 14, 2015
  5. Part of series
    FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN INTERACTION
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
  8. Print length
    280 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Daniel Dor received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University, and he is currently head of the Department of Communication, Tel Aviv University. He has written extensively on a wide variety of issues: the relationship between semantics and syntax, the pragmatics of newspaper headlines, the emergence of a new sociolinguistic regime on the Internet, the construction of political ideology in the language of the media, and the cultural-biological evolution of language and its speakers.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0190256621
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (August 14, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780190256623
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190256623
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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Daniel Dor

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top review from the United States

solaris
5.0 out of 5 stars groundbreaking
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2018
you will never think of language again in the same way... daniel dor has an important mind that people should pay attention to. he works out in this beautifully written book an entire replacement for the Chomskian edifice. compelling. convincing. important. read it!!
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