E-Book Overview
In 1888, Mark Twain reflected on the writer's special feel for words to his correspondent, George Bainton, noting that "the difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter." We recognize differences between a politician who is "willful" and one who is "willing" even though the difference does not cross word-stems or parts of speech. We recognize that being "held up" evokes different experiences depending upon whether its direct object is a meeting, a bank, or an example. Although we can notice hundreds of examples in the language where small differences in wording produce large reader effects, the authors of The Power of Words argue that these examples are random glimpses of a hidden systematic knowledge that governs how we, as writers or speakers, learn to shape experience for other human beings.Over the past several years, David Kaufer and his colleagues have developed a software program for analyzing writing called DocuScope. This book illustrates the concepts and rhetorical theory behind the software analysis, examining patterns in writing and showing writers how their writing works in different categories to accomplish varying objectives. Reflecting the range and variety of audience experience that contiguous words of surface English can prime, the authors present a theory of language as an instrument of rhetorically priming audiences and a catalog of English strings to implement the theory. The project creates a comprehensive map of the speaker and writer's implicit knowledge about predisposing audience experience at the point of utterance. The book begins with an explanation of why studying language from the standpoint of priming--not just meaning--is vital to non-question begging theories of close reading and to language education in general. The remaining chapters in Part I detail the steps taken to prepare a catalog study of English strings for their properties as priming instruments. Part II describes in detail the catalog of priming categories, including enough examples to help readers see how individual words and strings of English fit into the catalog. The final part describes how the authors have applied the catalog of English strings as priming tools to conduct textual research.
E-Book Content
THE POWER OF WORDS Unveiling the Speaker and Writer's Hidden Craft THE POWER OF WORDS Unveiling the Speaker and Writer's Hidden Craft David Kaufer Suguru Ishizaki Brian Butler Jeff Collins Foreword by Todd Oakley LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, NJ 07430 Cover design by Kerry Ishizaki Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The power of words : unveiling the speaker and writer’s hidden craft/ David Kaufer …[et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8058-4783-9 (c. : alk paper) 1. English language--Semantics. 2. English language--Spoken English. 3. English language--Written English. 4. Written communication. 5. Oral communication. I. Kaufer, David S. PE1585.P69 2004 401’.43--dc21 ISBN 1-4106-0974-X Master e-book ISBN 2003049234 To Nancy and Dan, D.K. To My Family, S.I. To Michelle, Paul, and Sam, B.B. To Kathy, J.C. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ix Preface<