000			02269cam a22002897i 4500
001			ocn902656285
003			OCoLC
007			ta
008			210609s2015 enkab b 001 0 eng d
010			_a 2014937978
020			_a9780198709831
020			_a0198709838
035			_a(OCoLC)902656285 _z(OCoLC)908404016 _z(OCoLC)944427606
050			_aPL4236 _b.E54 2015
100	1		_aEnfield, N. J., _d1966-
245	1	4	_aThe utility of meaning : _bwhat words mean and why / _cN.J. Enfield.
260			_aOxford : _bOxford University Press, _c2015.
300			_axv, 200 p. : _bill., map.
490	1		_aOxford linguistics
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 177-195) and index.
505	0		_aUtility of meaning -- Meanings are layered -- Meanings are multiple -- Meanings are anthropocentric -- Meanings are cultural -- Meanings are distributed -- Meanings are useful.
520			_aThis book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life. N.J. Enfield draws on semantic and pragmatic case studies from his extensive fieldwork in Laos to investigate a range of semantic fields including emotion terms, culinary terms, landscape terminology, and honorific pronouns, among many others. These studies form the building blocks of a conceptual framework for understanding meaning in language. The book argues that the goals and relevancies of human communication are what bridge the gap between the private representation of language in the mind and its public processes of usage, acquisition, and conventionalization in society. Professor Enfield argues that in order to understand this process, we first need to understand the ways in which linguistic meaning is layered, multiple, anthropocentric, cultural, distributed, and above all, useful. This wide-ranging account brings together several key strands of research across disciplines including semantics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and sociology of language, and provides a rich account of what linguistic meaning is like and why.
650		4	_aLao language _xSemantics.
650		4	_aMeaning (Psychology)
830		0	_aOxford linguistics.
942			_2lcc _cBK
999			_c2543 _d2543