Putting aside questions of truth and falsehood, the old "talk is cheap" maxim carries as much weight as ever. Indeed, perhaps more. For one need not be an expert in irony or sarcasm to realize that people don't necessarily mean what they say. Phrases such as "Yeah, right" and "I couldn't care less" are so much a part of the way we speak--and the way we live--that we are more likely to notice when they are absent (for example, Forrest Gump ). From our everyday dialogues and conversations ("Thanks a lot !") to the ...
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Putting aside questions of truth and falsehood, the old "talk is cheap" maxim carries as much weight as ever. Indeed, perhaps more. For one need not be an expert in irony or sarcasm to realize that people don't necessarily mean what they say. Phrases such as "Yeah, right" and "I couldn't care less" are so much a part of the way we speak--and the way we live--that we are more likely to notice when they are absent (for example, Forrest Gump ). From our everyday dialogues and conversations ("Thanks a lot !") to the screenplays of our popular films ( Pulp Fiction and Fargo ), what is said is frequently very different from what is meant. Talk is Cheap begins with this telling observation and proceeds to argue that such "unplain speaking" is fundamentally embedded in the way we now talk. Author John Haiman traces this sea-change in our use of language to the emergence of a postmodern "divided self" who is hyper-conscious that what he or she is saying has been said before; "cheap talk" thus allows us to distance ourselves from a social role with which we are uncomfortable. Haiman goes on to examine the full range of these pervasive distancing mechanisms, from clich???s and quotation marks to camp and parody. Also, and importantly, this text highlights several new ways in which the English language is evolving (and has evolved) in response to our postmodern world view. In other words, this study shows us how what we are saying is gradually separating itself from how we say it. As provocative as it is timely, the book will be fascinating reading for students of linguistics, literature, communication, anthropology, philosophy, and popular culture.
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Add this copy of Talk is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution to cart. $2.00, very good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Oxford University Press, USA.
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Fine. 0195115252. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY-customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery.; 9.16 X 6.09 X 0.73 inches; 232 pages.
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Fine- 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 220 pages, illustrated. "Haiman's book represents the very best kind of work (being done) in cultural studies today. It constitutes a provocative-and refreshingly unpretentious-inquiry into human behavior (mainly linguistic but also non-linguistic)." FINE-SOFTCOVER.
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Add this copy of Talk is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution to cart. $30.00, like new condition, Sold by Sutton Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Norwich, VT, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Oxford University Press, 1998.
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