Vico, Metaphor, and the Origin of Language

by Marcel Danesi

Overview

"... serious scholars of Vico as well as glottogeneticists will find
much of value in this excellent monograph." -- New Vico
Studies

"... a provocative, well-researched argument which
might find reapplication in the fields of anthropology, semiotics, archeology,
psychology or even philosophy." -- Theological Book
Review

Danesi returns to the work of the 18th-century Italian
philosopher Giambattista Vico to create a persuasive, original account of the
evolution and development of language, one of the deep mysteries of human existence.
The Vichian reconstruction of the origin of language is described at length, then
evaluated in light of contemporary research in the cognitive, social, and biological
sciences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253113702
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	09/22/1993
Series:	Advances in Semiotics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1220L (what's this?)
File size:	816 KB

About the Author

MARCEL DANESI is Professor of Semiotics and Italian at the University of Toronto. Among his previous books are Applied Psycholinguistics, Robert A. Hall and American Structuralism, and Loanwords and Phonological Methodology.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

I. Glottogenetic Theories and Research: A Brief SketchTraditional Glottogenetic TheoriesScientific ApproachesThe Shape of Contemporary Glottogenetic TheoriesThe Current State of Knowledge

II. The Primitive Mind: A Vichian ReconstructionVico and Anglo-American SciencePrevious Work on Vico: A Schematic SurveyThe New ScienceBasic Vichian NotionsThe Primitive Mind

III. Language and the Imagination: The Vichian Glottogenetic ScenarioThe Vichian ApproachReconstructing the Primal SceneAfter the Primal Scence

IV. The Dawn of Language: The Iconicity and Visual Mimesis HypothesesThe Nature of IconicityThe Research on Imagery, Iconicity, and GestureIconic Representation

V. From Language to Speech: The Audio-Oral Osmosis HypothesisAudio-Oral OsmosisThe Ontogenesis of SpeechLanguage and Speech

VI. From Percepts to Concepts: The Metaphoricity HypothesisThe Nature of MetaphorMetaphor and Concept-FormationMentation, Narrativity, and Myth

VII. The Sociobiological-Computationist Viewpoint: A Vichian CritiqueThe Vichian Scenario RevisitedRevisting the Genetic Perspectivecomputationism

REFERENCESINDEX