Intertexts : writings on language, utterance, and context / William F. Hanks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanks, William F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and culture--Mexico--Yucatán (State).

Language and culture.

Maya language.

Social aspects.

Mexico--Yucatán (State).

Discourse analysis.

Indexicals (Semantics).

Maya language--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

v, 327 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.

Summary:

Over the past two decades, William Hanks has explored the dynamics of verbal interaction and how speakers and listeners make meaning through language. Using both theory and empirical description, Hanks's writings analyze linguistic form, speech processes, and sociocultural context. His commitment to interdisciplinary research stems from his joint training in linguistics and anthropology and embraces elements from philosophy, literary theory, and history.

This book brings together papers written over the last decade, organized around the three central themes that have emerged in Hanks's work: indexicality and referential practices, discourse genres and textuality, and the historical embeddedness of language. Together, they present the main elements of a coherent, synthetic approach to language in context. The linguistic, ethnographic, and historical material through which Hanks argues his approach comes from his field research among Maya speakers in Yucatan, Mexico, and from archival work on the historical development of Maya discourse under Spanish colonial rule. Several of the papers originally appeared in journals and edited volumes abroad and appear here for the first time in English.

Contents:

Part I Indexicality and Referential Practices

Chapter 2 Foundations of Indexical Context: Social Mediations of the Body 19

Chapter 3 Metalanguage and Pragmatics of Deixis 69

Part II Genre and Textuality

Chapter 4 Authenticity and Ambivalence in the Text: A Colonial Maya Case 103

Chapter 5 Discourse Genres in a Theory of Practice 133

Chapter 6 Text and Textuality 165

Chapter 7 The Five Gourds of Memory 197

Part III Meaning in History

Chapter 8 Copresence and Alterity in Maya Ritual Practice 221

Chapter 9 Intertexuality of Space in Yucatan 249

Chapter 10 Language and Discourse in Colonial Yucatan 271.

Notes:

Collection of previously published (1986-1996) articles and essays.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0847687406

0847687414

OCLC:

41580402