Linguistic Dynamics: Discourses, Procedures, and Evolution (Research in Text Theory)

Cloth hardcover, viii + 366 pages. Foreign institute's stamps (stamped lower and upper outer page edges, the title page, lower margin of one text page; flyleaf with a stamp and a couple of dates, one crossed-out in black pen; an inventory number on the front pastedown, a price in pen inside the rear board). Else interior is clean and bright throughout, untanned, with unmarked text; firmly bound. Issued without a dust jacket. -- A collection of scholarly essays that advocates for a "dynamic" approach to linguistics. It challenges the traditional "static" view of language as a fixed structure, arguing instead that language must be studied as an evolving, procedural system of human action and communication. Editor Thomas T. Ballmer posits that while a structural "skeleton" of linguistics is necessary, it remains "dead and sterile" without incorporating the dynamics of change. The book covers a wide span of linguistic phenomena, from unconscious diachronic changes in sound and meaning to consciously controlled speech acts and complex social interactions. The text is organized into sections that explore different facets of linguistic movement and procedure. Part I Procedural Linguistics focuses on the cognitive and strategic processes of communication. Teun A. van Dijk contributes on Strategic Discourse Comprehension, examining how individuals process meaning in real-time. Christopher Habel explores Referential Nets, looking at how knowledge structures function within a dynamic system. Eikmeyer & Rieser provide a procedural grammar analysis of fragments of Black English Discourse. Part II Quantitative and Algebraic Dynamics applies mathematical frameworks to language. Gabriel Altmann discusses the Dynamic Approach to Language, while Nowakowska offers an algebraic approach to discourse goals. Part III Language Change addresses the evolutionary and historical aspects of linguistics. Rudi Keller presents a theory of linguistic change, focusing on the rules that drive the evolution of speech. The volume is cited for its early efforts to bridge Theoretical Linguistics with Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. It highlights that the complexity of discourse analysis forces linguistics to look beyond sentential limitations and consider the "everything" of communication, including context and social dynamics. -- Contents: Part I: Procedural Linguistics -- Strategic Discourse Comprehension / T.A. van Dijk; Referential Nets as Knowledge Structures / C.U. Habel; Procedural Grammar for a Fragment of Black English Discourse / H.-J. Eikmeyer & H. Rieser; Part II: Quantitative and Algebraic Dynamics -- On the Dynamic Approach to Language / G. Altmann; Text as a Unit and Co-References / L. Hrebicek; An Algebraic Approach to Discourses and their Goals / M. Nowakowska; Part III: Language Change -- Towards a Theory of Linguistic Change / R. Keller; Rules and the Dynamics of Language / B. Strecker; Not by Nature nor by Intention: The Normative Power of Language Signs / H.J. Heringer; Tension and Suspense: On the Biogenesis and the Semiogenesis of the Detective Novel, Soccer and Art / W.A. Koch; The Psychology of Context Change / Th. T. Ballmer; Name & subject index.…