"The" fifth modality : on languages that shape our motivations and cultures / by Carl W. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, Carl W.

Series:

International comparative social studies 1568-4474 ; v. 17.

International comparative social studies, 1568-4474 ; v. 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Interpersonal relations.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 191 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2008.

Summary:

This is a book about how people understand each other. Like Simmel's writings and works written by Foucault and Goffman toward the ends of their careers, this book depicts interactions as behavioral forms. Its novelty is that it grounds these forms in linguistic structure, particularly in the ubiquitous presence of modality in discourse within all mass societies. Its concluding argument is that all persons, situations, and cultures have mutual significance in accordance with four fundamental modal forms: ability (most common in the United States), necessity (most common in the socialist countries of Western Europe and Scandinavia), obligation (most common in ancient Chinese and Indic societies), and permission (most common in the Islamic world).

Contents:

On persuasion

Reading personhood

Gedankenexperiment

Individualism

Mutualism

Essentialism

Doctrinism

Another modality.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [179]-186) and index.

ISBN:

9789004162358

9004162356

OCLC:

228369917