Abstract

In this unique and enlightening work, Robert Lord searches for the true measure of language. Influenced by the writers Owen Barfield and Mikhail Bakhtin, Lord attempts to see language in a new way. After exposing linguistic misconceptions, the author promotes two "modes" by which one can view language. Readers are taught first to understand the common awareness that exists between all human beings--from shared feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and values. Secondly, readers learn that a spoken (and written) communication is humans' attempt to create a life together. Lord argues that this communicatation is what allows for personal freedom, creativity, human development. The author's approach is thoroughly analytical, yet surprisingly humanistic. Contents: Acknowledgements; Preface: Language and Being: An Introduction; The Shared Word; Logos and Poesis; Communicating and Relating; Semiotic Being; Origins; Words, People and Things; What is Meaning?; Meaning and Symbol; A Manner of Speaking; Word, Meaning and Context; Speaking and Writing; The Book; Language in Literature; Style and Being; The Word as Artefact; Words in Relation; The Lexicon; Words in Time; Afterword; On Being Human; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Subject Index; Personal Name Index.