Beyond the Symbol Model
(October 1996)
Reflections on the Representational Nature of Language John Stewart - Editor
This interdisciplinary conversation discusses the nature of language. Beyond the Symbol Model: Reflections on the Representational Nature of Language presents arguments on several sides of the contemporary debate over the representational nature of language. Contributors include philosophers, linguists, psychologists, semioticians, and communication theorists from the U. S., Canada, Britain, Northern Ireland, and Israel. The chapt...(Read More)
This book critiques semiotic accounts of the nature of language and sets forth a dialogic alternative.
This book analyzes the prominent view that language is basically a system of signs and symbols; outlines an alternative that builds on aspects of the philosophies of Heidegger, Gadamer, Buber, and Bakhtin; and employs this alternative to criticize accounts of language developed by V.N. Volosinov, Kenneth Burke, and Calvi...(Read More)
"The stories that make up the body of the text are engrossing and charming at the same time; Stewart is obviously a talented writer of fiction, among the best of contemporary Caribbean writers who have produced a very rich semi-ethnographic corpus on cultural experience in their homelands. The special interest of Stewart's work for anthropologists is that he legitimates ethnographic fiction as a form of doing ethnography in a very persuasive and sop...(Read More)
