Bøger af W. Terrence Gordon

This McLuhan primer traces his evolution from a literary scholar to a pioneer of media studies inquiring endlessly into the relationship between culture and technology. In the 1960s, that relationship was about to change rapidly, ushering in the age dominated by electricity we live in today. Though McLuhan foresaw this, his main concern was not to predict the future but to awaken readers to understanding the effects of new technology on human interaction. Without such understanding, the very survival of literate culture would be at risk. The Woodstock generation found him cool, without necessarily grasping all he said; some scholars of note embraced his teaching, while others unleashed vitriolic criticism ¿ without necessarily grasping all he said. Everyman¿s McLuhan respects his own basic principle of always looking at and for the big picture. Did he leave the study of literature behind him when he turned his attention to media? No. How do the two coalesce in the educational program he envisaged? Why did he give as much attention to popular culture as to Elizabethan literature? The answers to such questions and many more emerge in these pages.

Linguistics For Beginners is the first book to ever make the arcane labors of linguistics accessible to general readers. It begins with a lucid definition of language and proceeds to examine how it becomes the subject matter of linguistics. Key topics include the contrast between writing and speech, and elementary lessons in analyses ranging from simple sounds to entire sentences. Absurd fictions such as Eskimos having hundreds of words for snow are exploded, and the borderlands between linguistics and philosophy are investigated.Linguistics For Beginners teaches concise lessons using wit and whimsy making for a memorable learning experience. The reader will learn about language acquisition, ancient languages, little-known languages, tonal and whistle languages, linguistic engineering, structuralism, language origins, the anthropological approach to linguistics, kinship semantics, color lexicons, geographical linguistics, and much more! Linguistics For Beginners is the key tool for linguistic students of any level.

Marshall McLuhan was dubbed a media guru when he came to prominence in the 1960s. The Woodstock generation found him cool; their parents found him perplexing. This guide offers a close reading of all of his work with a focus on tracing the systematic development of his thought.