What does it mean to drive a Cadillac? What does `cuckoo' suggest about the bird? -- two examples explored in this investigation of the history of language signs and of what philosophers, linguists, and others have had to say about them. Rudi Keller shows how signs emerge, function, and develop in the permanent process of language change. He recombines thoughts and ideas from Plato to the present day to create a new theory of the meaning and evolution of icons and symbols. By assuming no prior knowledge and by developing his argument from first principles, Rudi Keller has written a basic text which includes all the necessary features: easy style, good organization, original scholarship, and historical depth. This is a non-technical book which will interest linguists, philosophers, students of communications and cultural studies, semioticians/semanticists, sociologists, and anthropologists.

About the Author
Rudi Keller is Professor of German Linguistics at Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf.

Reviews
... the patient reader will find much to provoke thought and will lead, we expect, to the application of some of the material set out by Keller to more concrete problems. * Cognitive Linguistics *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198237952
Author Rudi Keller
Format Paperback
Page Count 276
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 422g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 16mm