A revised, updated edition of S. I. Hayakawas classic work on semantics. He discusses the role of language, its many functions, and how language shapes our thinking. Introduction by Robert MacNeil; Index.
Foreword
A Semantic ParableI
Book One THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
1 Language and SurvivalII II
2 Symbols 24
3 The Language of Reports 38
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(更多)
Foreword
A Semantic ParableI
Book One THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
1 Language and SurvivalII II
2 Symbols 24
3 The Language of Reports 38
4 Contexts 54
5 The Language of Social Cohesion 69
6 The Double Task of Language 82
7 The Language of Social Control 100
8 The Language of Affective Communication 117
9 Art and Tension 143
Book Two LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT
10 How We Know What We Know 165
11 The Little Man Who Wasn't There 186
12 The Society Behind Our Symbols 196
13 Clasification 208
14 The Two-Valued Orientation 221
15 The Great Snafu 248
16 Rats and Men 271
17 Towards Order Within and Without 291
Selected Bibliography xi
Acknowledgments xv
Index xvii
· · · · · · (收起)
A book which I wish I had read it earlier. The writer is marvellous at following the principles he clarified in the book: climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction so easily and smoothly.
Jacque Fresco推荐。学院风中的精品，长句结构非常扎实，逻辑清晰连贯。说理举例都落在实处，没有一处陈词滥调。文章基于两点假设，一是人类的基本生存策略是种群内使用语言的合作，二是如果语言造成冲突升级，那么说者听者至少一方做法欠妥。不认可对方的观点时，不要急于否认，而要说“Tell me more”。复杂世界的答案不是二元，而是多元甚至无限元。在辩论陷入僵局时，不妨沿抽象层级向下移动，关注具...Jacque Fresco推荐。学院风中的精品，长句结构非常扎实，逻辑清晰连贯。说理举例都落在实处，没有一处陈词滥调。文章基于两点假设，一是人类的基本生存策略是种群内使用语言的合作，二是如果语言造成冲突升级，那么说者听者至少一方做法欠妥。不认可对方的观点时，不要急于否认，而要说“Tell me more”。复杂世界的答案不是二元，而是多元甚至无限元。在辩论陷入僵局时，不妨沿抽象层级向下移动，关注具体现实(extensional)而不是脑海里的固有观念(intensional)。问题如“我们有没有实现民主”，被作者称为废话问题。(展开)
题目来自本书的序言。 一切开始于语言，语言学，却着眼于心理学。 带有迷惑性的书名，尤其是英文（Language In Thought And Action）差点让人相信这又是一本把简单的问题复杂化的语言学，语义学说教式教科书，然而一气呵成读完后却被其深入浅出的讲解，以及简洁理智的世界观，...
(展开)
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to ...
2020-02-18 14:00
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to test it. Are these new and exciting principles or human insights as general as they appear to be? Are they true in many different cultural or historical contexts? Do they need revision or refinement or correction? How do the principles or attitudes apply in specific cases and under different conditions? As he asks himself these and other questions, he may find that his newly discovered system is quite as important as he originally thought it to be, but,along with his increased sense of power, he also gets a deep sense of how much more there is to be learned.
As we have seen. scientists have special ways of talking about the phenomena they deal with,special “maps” to describe the “territories” with which they are concerned. On the basis of these maps, they make predictions; when things turn out as predicted, they regard their maps as “true”. If things do not turn out as predicted, however, they discard their maps and make new ones; that is, th...
2020-02-18 13:59
As we have seen. scientists have special ways of talking about the phenomena they deal with,special “maps” to describe the “territories” with which they are concerned. On the basis of these maps, they make predictions; when things turn out as predicted, they regard their maps as “true”. If things do not turn out as predicted, however, they discard their maps and make new ones; that is, they act on new sets of hypotheses that suggest new courses of action. Again they check their map with the territory. If the new one does not check, they cheerfully discard it and make still more hypotheses, until they find some that work. These they regard as “true”, but “true” for the time being only. When, later on, they find new situations in which they do not work, they are again ready to discard them, to re-examine the extensional world, and to make still more new maps that again suggest new courses of action.
......
It has been said that knowledge is power, but effective knowledge is that which includes knowledge of the limitation of one’s knowledge.
In the life of many primitive and warlike peoples, whose existence is a perpetual fight with the elements, with enemies, with wild animals, or with hostile spirits supposed to reside in natural objects, the two-valued orientation appears to be the normal orientation. Every act of a man’s life in such a society is strictly governed by ritual necessity or taboo. There is, as cultural anthropolog...
2020-02-18 13:57
In the life of many primitive and warlike peoples, whose existence is a perpetual fight with the elements, with enemies, with wild animals, or with hostile spirits supposed to reside in natural objects, the two-valued orientation appears to be the normal orientation. Every act of a man’s life in such a society is strictly governed by ritual necessity or taboo. There is, as cultural anthropologists have shown, little freedom in some types of primitive existence, since strict compulsions about “good” and “bad” govern every detail of life. One must, for example, hunt and fish in specified ways with specified ceremonials in order to achieve success; one must avoid walking on people’s shadows; one must avoid stirring the pot from right to left instant of left to right; one must avoid calling people by their given names lest the name be overheard by evil spirits. A bird flying over the village is either “good luck” or “bad luck”.Nothing is meaningless or accidental under such evaluative systems, because everything one sees, if it comes to notice at all must be accounted for under one of the two values.
The trouble with such thought, of course, is that there is never any way of evaluating any new experience, process, or object other than by such terms as“good magic” or “bad magic”. Any departure from custom is discouraged on the ground that it is “unprecedented” and therefore “bad magic”. For this reason, many primitive peoples have apparently static civilizations in which each generation duplicates almost exactly the ways of life of previous generations— hence they become what is know as “backward” peoples. They have in their language no means of progressing towards new evaluations, since all things are viewed only in terms of two sets of values.
If people want agricultural cooperatives to operate oil wells, they will get the courts to define the activity in such a way as to make it possible. If the public at large doesn’t care, the decision whether a harmonica player is or is not a “musician” will be made by the stronger trade union. The question whether aspirin is or is not a “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictiona...
2020-02-18 13:56
If people want agricultural cooperatives to operate oil wells, they will get the courts to define the activity in such a way as to make it possible. If the public at large doesn’t care, the decision whether a harmonica player is or is not a “musician” will be made by the stronger trade union. The question whether aspirin is or is not a “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictionary definition of “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictionary definition of “drug” nor by staring long and hard at an aspirin tablet. It will be decided on the basis of where and under what conditions people want to buy their aspirin.
One reason for Mits's failure to get any further in thinking about language is the belief that words are not really important: what is important is the "ideas” they stand for. But what is an idea if it is not the verbalization of a cerebral itch? This has seldom occurred to Mits. The fact that the implications of one set of terms may lead inevitably into blind alleys, while the implications of...
2017-05-06 09:54
One reason for Mits's failure to get any further in thinking about language is the belief that words are not really important: what is important is the "ideas” they stand for. But what is an idea if it is not the verbalization of a cerebral itch? This has seldom occurred to Mits. The fact that the implications of one set of terms may lead inevitably into blind alleys, while the implications of another set of terms may not; the fact that the historical or sentimental associations of some words make calm discussion impossible; the fact that language has a multitude of different kinds of use and that great confusion arises from mistaking one kind of use for another; the fact that a person speaking a language of a structure entirely different from that of English, such as Japanese, Chinese, or Turkish, may not even think the same thoughts as an English-speaking person-these are unfamiliar notions to Mits, who has always assumed that the important thing is to get one's ideas straight first, after which the words take care of themselves.
Whether he realizes it or not, however, Mits is affected every hour of his life not only by the words he hears and uses but also by his unconscious assumptions about language.引自第11页
The trouble is that, as Susanne K. Langer has said, “The symbol-making function is one of man's primary activities. . . . It is the fundamental process of the mind, and goes on all the time.” One may try to live a simple life with little concern for symbols of affluence, social status, and the like, but one soon discovers that the rejection of symbolism is itself symbolic. Wearing a necktie i...
2017-05-06 09:46
The trouble is that, as Susanne K. Langer has said, “The symbol-making function is one of man's primary activities. . . . It is the fundamental process of the mind, and goes on all the time.” One may try to live a simple life with little concern for symbols of affluence, social status, and the like, but one soon discovers that the rejection of symbolism is itself symbolic. Wearing a necktie is symbolic, but not wearing a necktie is equally symbolic. Parents and children have had bitter quarrels in recent years over hair styles-long, short, spiked, shaved. Such quarrels are not really about hair but about the symbolic meanings involved in how hair is worn.
Perhaps some of us would like to escape the complexity of human life for the relative simplicity of such lives as dogs and cats lead. But the symbolic process, which makes possible the absurdities of human conduct, also makes possible language and therefore all the human achievements dependent upon language. The fact that more things can go wrong with motor cars than with wheelbarrows is no reason for going back to wheelbarrows. Similarly, the fact that the symbolic process makes complicated follies possible is no reason to return to a cat-and-dog existence. To understand the symbolic process is to be able to use it to advantage; not to understand it is to remain forever its victim.引自第16页
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to ...
2020-02-18 14:00
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to test it. Are these new and exciting principles or human insights as general as they appear to be? Are they true in many different cultural or historical contexts? Do they need revision or refinement or correction? How do the principles or attitudes apply in specific cases and under different conditions? As he asks himself these and other questions, he may find that his newly discovered system is quite as important as he originally thought it to be, but,along with his increased sense of power, he also gets a deep sense of how much more there is to be learned.
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to ...
2020-02-18 14:00
An immature person, discovering a new intellectual system or philosophy that somehow meets his needs, tends to adopt it uncritically, to repeat endlessly the verbal formulas with which he has been provided, and to resent any imputation that anything more needs to be discovered. The mature reader, on the other hand, pleased and excited as he may be by the“great book” he has found, is eager to test it. Are these new and exciting principles or human insights as general as they appear to be? Are they true in many different cultural or historical contexts? Do they need revision or refinement or correction? How do the principles or attitudes apply in specific cases and under different conditions? As he asks himself these and other questions, he may find that his newly discovered system is quite as important as he originally thought it to be, but,along with his increased sense of power, he also gets a deep sense of how much more there is to be learned.
As we have seen. scientists have special ways of talking about the phenomena they deal with,special “maps” to describe the “territories” with which they are concerned. On the basis of these maps, they make predictions; when things turn out as predicted, they regard their maps as “true”. If things do not turn out as predicted, however, they discard their maps and make new ones; that is, th...
2020-02-18 13:59
As we have seen. scientists have special ways of talking about the phenomena they deal with,special “maps” to describe the “territories” with which they are concerned. On the basis of these maps, they make predictions; when things turn out as predicted, they regard their maps as “true”. If things do not turn out as predicted, however, they discard their maps and make new ones; that is, they act on new sets of hypotheses that suggest new courses of action. Again they check their map with the territory. If the new one does not check, they cheerfully discard it and make still more hypotheses, until they find some that work. These they regard as “true”, but “true” for the time being only. When, later on, they find new situations in which they do not work, they are again ready to discard them, to re-examine the extensional world, and to make still more new maps that again suggest new courses of action.
......
It has been said that knowledge is power, but effective knowledge is that which includes knowledge of the limitation of one’s knowledge.
In the life of many primitive and warlike peoples, whose existence is a perpetual fight with the elements, with enemies, with wild animals, or with hostile spirits supposed to reside in natural objects, the two-valued orientation appears to be the normal orientation. Every act of a man’s life in such a society is strictly governed by ritual necessity or taboo. There is, as cultural anthropolog...
2020-02-18 13:57
In the life of many primitive and warlike peoples, whose existence is a perpetual fight with the elements, with enemies, with wild animals, or with hostile spirits supposed to reside in natural objects, the two-valued orientation appears to be the normal orientation. Every act of a man’s life in such a society is strictly governed by ritual necessity or taboo. There is, as cultural anthropologists have shown, little freedom in some types of primitive existence, since strict compulsions about “good” and “bad” govern every detail of life. One must, for example, hunt and fish in specified ways with specified ceremonials in order to achieve success; one must avoid walking on people’s shadows; one must avoid stirring the pot from right to left instant of left to right; one must avoid calling people by their given names lest the name be overheard by evil spirits. A bird flying over the village is either “good luck” or “bad luck”.Nothing is meaningless or accidental under such evaluative systems, because everything one sees, if it comes to notice at all must be accounted for under one of the two values.
The trouble with such thought, of course, is that there is never any way of evaluating any new experience, process, or object other than by such terms as“good magic” or “bad magic”. Any departure from custom is discouraged on the ground that it is “unprecedented” and therefore “bad magic”. For this reason, many primitive peoples have apparently static civilizations in which each generation duplicates almost exactly the ways of life of previous generations— hence they become what is know as “backward” peoples. They have in their language no means of progressing towards new evaluations, since all things are viewed only in terms of two sets of values.
If people want agricultural cooperatives to operate oil wells, they will get the courts to define the activity in such a way as to make it possible. If the public at large doesn’t care, the decision whether a harmonica player is or is not a “musician” will be made by the stronger trade union. The question whether aspirin is or is not a “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictiona...
2020-02-18 13:56
If people want agricultural cooperatives to operate oil wells, they will get the courts to define the activity in such a way as to make it possible. If the public at large doesn’t care, the decision whether a harmonica player is or is not a “musician” will be made by the stronger trade union. The question whether aspirin is or is not a “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictionary definition of “drug” will be decided neither by finding the dictionary definition of “drug” nor by staring long and hard at an aspirin tablet. It will be decided on the basis of where and under what conditions people want to buy their aspirin.
青青szy
北京大学出版社2015版
Vamei
北京大学出版社2015版
CellolL
北京大学出版社2015版
蜀鄙僧
盐味汽水铺
北京大学出版社2015版
Aday
北京大学出版社2015版
0 有用 洪小发 2009-12-05
很好
0 有用 Sue-Yiii 2012-12-13
不是考试在即，一定细心好好读一遍，语言太美了！
0 有用 Bunny焦虑 2014-05-31
Virginia说是她最喜欢的书>_<看不出好大概是因为都融在她课上了吧
0 有用 月夜尘埃 2015-11-23
虽说不是句句有理，但有理的那部分非常一针见血、很到位。较为通俗的理论书，不错！
0 有用 他妈的大电视🍓 2017-04-16
fourth edition
0 有用 FloatingBlue 2021-01-23
语言平实有趣但略显啰嗦
0 有用 emoli 2020-10-10
有趣。非常实用接地气的语义学。
0 有用 EstherQin 2020-07-16
一点不过时的书，每一章都会给人新的启发。
0 有用 温柔的大脸 2020-05-17
A book which I wish I had read it earlier. The writer is marvellous at following the principles he clarified in the book: climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction so easily and smoothly.
0 有用 ROTCEV 2020-02-18
Jacque Fresco推荐。学院风中的精品，长句结构非常扎实，逻辑清晰连贯。说理举例都落在实处，没有一处陈词滥调。文章基于两点假设，一是人类的基本生存策略是种群内使用语言的合作，二是如果语言造成冲突升级，那么说者听者至少一方做法欠妥。不认可对方的观点时，不要急于否认，而要说“Tell me more”。复杂世界的答案不是二元，而是多元甚至无限元。在辩论陷入僵局时，不妨沿抽象层级向下移动，关注具... Jacque Fresco推荐。学院风中的精品，长句结构非常扎实，逻辑清晰连贯。说理举例都落在实处，没有一处陈词滥调。文章基于两点假设，一是人类的基本生存策略是种群内使用语言的合作，二是如果语言造成冲突升级，那么说者听者至少一方做法欠妥。不认可对方的观点时，不要急于否认，而要说“Tell me more”。复杂世界的答案不是二元，而是多元甚至无限元。在辩论陷入僵局时，不妨沿抽象层级向下移动，关注具体现实(extensional)而不是脑海里的固有观念(intensional)。问题如“我们有没有实现民主”，被作者称为废话问题。 (展开)