Utility of Meaning: What Words Mean and Why

by N.J. Enfield

This book argues that the complex, anthropocentric, and often culture-specific meanings of words have been shaped directly by their history of 'utility' for communication in social life. N. J. Enfield draws on semantic and pragmatic case studies from his extensive fieldwork in Laos to investigate a range of semantic fields including emotion terms, culinary terms, landscape terminology, and honorific pronouns, among many others. These studies form...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198709838
• ISBN13: 9780198709831
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 9.3"