Books by "Michael A. Lerner"
6 books found
Obana and Haugh question the extent to which commonly accepted theories in pragmatics can readily explain sociopragmatic phenomena in Japanese. Studies of Japanese in pragmatics have often challenged the cross-linguistic relevance of dominant theories. However, they have also inadvertently perpetuated stereotypes about the Japanese. It is often been assumed, for instance, that Japanese people are less strategic, more polite and more reliant on tacit forms of communication than speakers of other languages. But the Japanese are not as polite as one might think. The aim of this book is thus to question those folk assumptions around politeness, impoliteness, irony and indirectness while at the same time emphasizing that close examination of sociopragmatic phenomena in Japanese yields important empirical insights that combat common theoretical assumptions in pragmatics. The content is structured in three parts, in which the authors highlight a key building block of a theory of sociopragmatics. Part I focuses on indexing through the lens of chapters on honorifics, routine formula and politeness strategies. Part II focuses on evaluating through the lens of chapters on giving/receiving expressions and honorific irony. Finally, Part III focuses on relating through the lens of chapters on joint utterances and off record requests. Throughout the chapters the authors draw attention to ways in which these three dimensions are invariably intertwined in various ways. This book is not simply a collection of studies that promotes our understanding of the sociopragmatics of a particular language, but goes deeper and challenges what many have taken for granted in pragmatics. It proposes a framework for exploring sociopragmatic phenomena, building on the key sociopragmatic axes of indexing, evaluating and relating, and offers fresh new perspectives on time-honoured phenomena in pragmatics. It will interest scholars and postgraduate students in pragmatics, particularly those specializing in: politeness, impoliteness, indirectness and irony. The book explains what Japanese terms mean, and all the Japanese examples are morphologically-glossed. Therefore, teachers (and advanced learners) of Japanese at all levels will benefit from the book as it will enrich their knowledge of the Japanese language.
Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms
by Michael Berkman, Eric Plutzer
2010 · Cambridge University Press
Who should decide what children are taught in school? This question lies at the heart of the evolution-creation wars that have become a regular feature of the US political landscape. Ever since the 1925 Scopes 'monkey trial' many have argued that the people should decide by majority rule and through political institutions; others variously point to the federal courts, educational experts, or scientists as the ideal arbiter. Berkman and Plutzer illuminate who really controls the nation's classrooms. Based on their innovative survey of 926 high school biology teachers they show that the real power lies with individual educators who make critical decisions in their own classrooms. Broad teacher discretion sometimes leads to excellent instruction in evolution. But the authors also find evidence of strong creationist tendencies in America's public high schools. More generally, they find evidence of a systematic undermining of science and the scientific method in many classrooms.
Silence takes on meaning based on the contexts of its occurrence. This is especially true in social interactions, where silence after "lemme think" is very distinct from silence after "will you marry me?" This book examines a particular form of silence, the conversational lapse. Using methods from Conversation Analysis (CA), the author analyzes hundreds of lapses in naturally occurring social occasions, focusing on how they emerge, what people do during the silence, and how they restart conversation afterwards. Overall, the research shows lapses to be a particular kind of silence with particular relevancies for the social situations of which they are a part.
A study of the effect that the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1967 to the early 1980s had on left-wing activism in America. The Arab-Israeli conflict constituted a serious problem for the American Left in the 1960s: pro-Palestinian activists hailed the Palestinian struggle against Israel as part of a fundamental restructuring of the global imperialist order, while pro-Israeli leftists held a less revolutionary worldview that understood Israel as a paragon of democratic socialist virtue. This intra-left debate was in part doctrinal, in part generational. But further woven into this split were sometimes agonizing questions of identity. Jews were disproportionately well-represented in the Movement, and their personal and communal lives could deeply affect their stances vis-à-vis the Middle East. The Movement and the Middle East offers the first assessment of the controversial and ultimately debilitating role of the Arab-Israeli conflict among left-wing activists during a turbulent period of American history. Michael R. Fischbach draws on a deep well of original sources—from personal interviews to declassified FBI and CIA documents—to present a story of the left-wing responses to the question of Palestine and Israel. He shows how, as the 1970s wore on, the cleavages emerging within the American Left widened, weakening the Movement and leaving a lasting impact that still affects progressive American politics today. Praise for The Movement and the Middle East "Michael R. Fischbach boldly takes us into the vexed heart of debates on the American Left, exploding after the Six-Day War of 1967, over the Palestinian struggle against the state of Israel. Fischbach ably navigates the moral passion, ideological wrangling, and exquisite agony of the entire conflict. His bracing message is of the perils of intransigence and the enduring ability of the Israel-Palestine debate to further divide an already weakened American Left." —Jeremy Varon, The New School, author of Bringing the War Home "In an engaging narrative, Michael Fischbach makes a wonderful contribution to our understanding of the shifting positions, alliances, and tensions among American leftist groups on the Israel-Palestine conflict in the 1960s and 1970s. The Movement and the Middle East will have a great impact on contemporary activism, illuminating the growing support for Palestinian liberation over the decades." —Pamela Pennock, University of Michigan–Dearborn
A new integrative conceptual model of prejudice - the layered perspective of cultural intolerance - is presented in the volume. This model is used to analyze the communication of prejudice in a variety of guises such as racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism and classism. Drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives, the first two chapters present the model and theoretical foundation for the book. Subsequent chapters examine specific foci of prejudice including personal prejudice in relationships, organizations, and the media. A series of personal narratives are included to illustrate specific types and instances of prejudice.
First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.