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  • Book
  • © 2013

Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society

  • Presents recent research in sociolinguistics and communication and applications to dynamics of language forms and structures, meaning, interpersonal communication, education and socialization
  • Presents general ideas and models of complexity and socio-complexity
  • Written by leading researcher in the field

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems (UCS)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages 1-13
  2. Introduction

    • Àngels Massip-Bonet, Albert Bastardas-Boada
    Pages 1-2
  3. Facing Complexity: Prediction vs. Adaptation

    • Carlos Gershenson
    Pages 3-14
  4. Sociolinguistics: Towards a Complex Ecological View

    • Albert Bastardas-Boada
    Pages 15-34
  5. Conversation as Emergent Function

    • Xavier Martorell
    Pages 75-84
  6. Communication Situations: A Dialogic Quiz?

    • Enric Puig-Giralt
    Pages 85-93
  7. Education, Emotion, Complexity

    • Pere Darder
    Pages 95-102
  8. The Fuzzy Complexity of Language

    • Frederic Munné
    Pages 175-196
  9. Ethics and Progress in Today’s World

    • Federico Mayor Zaragoza
    Pages 241-246
  10. Back Matter

    Pages 0--1

About this book

The “language-communication-society” triangle defies traditional scientific approaches. Rather, it is a phenomenon that calls for an integration of complex, transdisciplinary perspectives, if we are to make any progress in understanding how it works. The highly diverse agents in play are not merely cognitive and/or cultural, but also emotional and behavioural in their specificity. Indeed, the effort may require building a theoretical and methodological body of knowledge that can effectively convey the characteristic properties of phenomena in human terms.

New complexity approaches allow us to rethink our limited and mechanistic images of human societies and create more appropriate emo-cognitive dynamic and holistic models. We have to enter into dialogue with the complexity views coming out of other more ‘material’ sciences, but we also need to take steps in the linguistic and psycho-sociological fields towards creating perspectives and concepts better fitted to human characteristics.

Our understanding of complexity is different – but not opposed – to the one that is more commonly found in texts written by people working in physics or computer science, for example. The goal of this book is to extend the knowledge of these other more ‘human’ or socially oriented perspectives on complexity, taking account of the language and communication singularities of human agents in society.

 

 

Our understanding of complexity is different – but not opposed – to the one that is more commonly found in texts written by people working in physics or computer science, for example. The goal of this bookis to extend the knowledge of these other more ‘human’ or socially oriented perspectives on complexity, taking account of the language and communication singularities of human agents in society.

 

 

Editors and Affiliations

  • , Department of Catalan Philology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Àngels Massip-Bonet

  • , Department of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert Bastardas-Boada

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access