Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied MeaningIn this latest book, J. Marshall Unger exposes the historical, scientific, cultural, and practical flaws accompanying the widespread belief that Chinese characters embody pure, language-less meaning. Whether one is interested in Chinese characters from the standpoint of language, literature, semiotics, psychology, history, cultural studies, or computers, Ideogram contains new ideas and insights that are sure to challenge preconceptions and provoke thought. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - pbjwelch - LibraryThingAny volume on Chinese that combines wit with hard facts is a winner on my list. I loved this book. Author Unger quotes Dave Barry ("Dave does Japan"--the chapter that made me laugh out loud), punches ... Read full review
Contents
In the basement under the Chinese Room | 131 |
Converging strands can ideogram be salvaged? | 151 |
Notes | 169 |
References | 177 |
Index | 191 |
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Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning J. Marshall Unger Limited preview - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
According actually alphabet American approach associated become behavior brain called Chapter China Chinese characters claim combination communication contains context course culture DeFrancis depends discussion distinction educated English example exist experience explains express fact Figure forms function given graphic Gregg Harris human idea ideograms important individual Japan Japanese kanji kind language letter linguistic logical look matter meaning memorize mind Myth native natural nese objects percent perhaps person phonetic picture play position possible practice present Press probability problem reader reason refer represent rules script sense short shorthand shows signs similar simply single situation sound South Korea speakers speech stand stroke structure student symbols Table techniques theory thing thought tion University words writing system written York
Popular passages
Page 116 - If a test to detect a disease whose prevalence is 1/1000 has a false positive rate of 5%, what is the chance that a person found to have a positive result actually has the disease, assuming that you know nothing about the person's symptoms or signs?
Page 172 - it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.
Page 57 - Writing of kanji in 1929, he proclaimed: (The combination] of two hieroglyphs of the simplest series is to be regarded not as their sum, but as their product, ie, as a value of another dimension, another degree; each, separately, corresponds to an object, to a fact, but their combination corresponds to a concept. From separate hieroglyphs has been fused— the ideogram. By the combination of two "depictables" is achieved the representation of something that is graphically undepictable.
Page 154 - ... abstraction, productive only in connection with certain particular practical and theoretical goals. This abstraction is not adequate to the concrete reality of language. 2, Language is a continuous generative process implemented in the social-verbal interaction of speakers. 3. The laws of the generative process of language are not at all the laws of individual psychology, but neither can they be divorced from the activity of speakers. The laws of language generation are sociological laws.
Page 57 - But this is— montage! Yes. It is exactly what we do in the cinema, combining shots that are depictive, single in meaning, neutral in content, into intellectual contexts and series.
Page 155 - Language is a continuous generative process implemented in the social-verbal interaction of speakers. 3 . The laws of the generative process of language are not at all the laws of individual psychology, but neither can they be divorced from the activity of speakers. The laws of language generation are sociological laws. 4. Linguistic creativity does not coincide with artistic creativity nor with any other type of specialized ideological creativity. But, at the same time, linguistic creativity cannot...
Page 57 - The copulation (perhaps we had better say, the combination) of two hieroglyphs of the simplest series is to be regarded not as their sum, but as their product, ie as a value...
Page 57 - ... hieroglyphs of the simplest series is to be regarded not as their sum, but as their product, ie, as a value of another dimension, another degree; each, separately, corresponds to an object, to a fact, but their combination corresponds to a concept. From separate hieroglyphs has been fused— the ideogram. By the combination of two "depictables" is achieved the representation of something that is graphically undepictable.
Page 154 - Language is a stable, immutable system of normatively identical linguistic forms which the individual consciousness finds ready-made and which is incontestable for that consciousness. 2.. The laws of language are the specifically linguistic laws of connection between linguistic signs within a given, closed linguistic system. These laws are objective with respect to any subjective consciousness. 3. Specifically linguistic connections have nothing in common with ideological values (artistic, cognitive,...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning |
| Author | J. Marshall Unger |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Hawaii Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0824827600, 9780824827601 |
| Length | 214 pages |
| Subjects | › › Foreign Language Study / Chinese Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Semantics |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |