Units, rules, codes, systems: this is how most linguists study language. Integrationalists such as Michael Toolan, however, focus instead on how language functions in seamless tandem with the rest of human activity. In Total Speech, Toolan provides a clear and comprehensive account of integrationalism, a major new theory of language that declines to accept that text and context, language and world, are distinct and stable categories. At the same time, Toolan extends the integrationalist argument and calls for a radical change in contemporary theorizing about language and communication.In every foundational area of linguistics—from literal meaning and metaphor to the nature of repetition to the status of linguistic rules—Toolan advances fascinating and provocative criticisms of received linguistic assumptions. Drawing inspiration from the writings of language theorist Roy Harris, Toolan brings the integrationalist perspective to bear on legal cases, the reception of Salman Rushdie, poetry, and the language of children. Toolan demonstrates that the embeddedness of language and the situation-sensitive mutability of meaning reveal language as a tool for re-fashioning and renewal.Total Speech breaks free of standard linguistics'fascinated attraction with “cognitive blueprints” and quasi-algorithmic processing to characterize language anew. Toolan's reflections on the essence of language, including his important discussion of intention, have strong implications for students and scholars of discourse analysis, literature, the law, anthropology, philosophy of language, communication theory, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics.

Toolan, Michael J

Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press

Post-contemporary interventions, Durham, N.C, North Carolina, 1996

United States, United States of America

FR, 1996

obscured text front cover

Includes bibliographical references (p. [323]-334) and index.

Units, rules, codes, this is how most linguists study language. Integrationalists such as Michael Toolan, however, focus instead on how language functions in seamless tandem with the rest of human activity. In Total Speech , Toolan provides a clear and comprehensive account of integrationalism, a major new theory of language that declines to accept that text and context, language and world, are distinct and stable categories. At the same time, Toolan extends the integrationalist argument and calls for a radical change in contemporary theorizing about language and communication.
In every foundational area of linguisticsfrom literal meaning and metaphor to the nature of repetition to the status of linguistic rulesToolan advances fascinating and provocative criticisms of received linguistic assumptions. Drawing inspiration from the writings of language theorist Roy Harris, Toolan brings the integrationalist perspective to bear on legal cases, the reception of Salman Rushdie, poetry, and the language of children. Toolan demonstrates that the embeddedness of language and the situation-sensitive mutability of meaning reveal language as a tool for re-fashioning and renewal.
Total Speech breaks free of standard linguistics fascinated attraction with cognitive blueprints and quasi-algorithmic processing to characterize language anew. Toolans reflections on the essence of language, including his important discussion of intention, have strong implications for students and scholars of discourse analysis, literature, the law, anthropology, philosophy of language, communication theory, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics.

337 pages ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-334) and index
1. On Inscribed or Literal Meaning -- 2. Metaphor -- 3. Intentionality and Coming into Language -- 4. Further Principles of Integrational Linguistics, or, On Not Losing Sight of the Language User -- 5. Relevance in Theory and Practice -- 6. Repetition -- 7. Rules

Units, rules, codes, systems: this is how most linguists study language. This book provides an account of integrationalism, a theory of language that declines to accept that text and context, language and world, are distinct and stable categories.

Michael Toolan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [323]-334) And Index.

2023-06-28