Come to Work

David Foster Wallace's Balancing Books ◽

10.7312/columbia/9780231179447.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 33-61

Author(s):

Jeffrey Severs

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

National Literature ◽

Service Economy ◽

Balance Scale ◽

Self Reliance ◽

Early Image

The Broom of the System offers a covert dialogue with Reagan’s consolidation of the neoliberal agenda around a revived version of the Protestant call to work in the 1980s, driven by fears of the effects of a service economy. I unpack this novel’s preoccupation with work, other (less reliable) forms of creating and accruing value, and connected issues of language use: my foci include the leisure-based national literature represented by Rick Vigorous, the ersatz topoi of Protestantism and self-reliance embodied by Governor Zusatz and Reverend Sykes, and the countering force of Lenore Beadsman, importantly named (in what I show to be Wallace’s continual play with initials) for the pound, unit of weight, currency, and work. Lenore is associated with value, clarity, ground, the balance scale of justice, and, in a key early image of contingency in art, the miraculous value of lottery tickets.

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Linguistic Issues in Széchenyi’s Oeuvre (Plurilingualism, Multilingualism, Mother Tongue)

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica ◽

10.1515/ausp-2016-0030 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 43-52

Author(s):

Rita Pletl

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Language Use ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

Public Life ◽

National Language ◽

National Literature ◽

Language Community ◽

A Value

Abstract Széchenyi studied the linguistic issue, the problems he faced during his public and literary activities with the caution and precision that characterize him. His inquiry into the question of language is marked by nuanced and precise terminology. The distinction between the notions of mother tongue and national language, as well as multilingualism and plurilingualism, are consistent throughout his work. In his conception, the mother tongue is the variety of a given language that is acquired by the speaker in the most intimate environment and through which he/she is linked with the communicational processes of the language community’s social interactions. The national language in his interpretation is the cultivated variety of the mother tongue, which is the language of public life and that of bourgeois national literature as well. In language use, he propagated the principle of linguistic tolerance. He considered the use of the mother tongue a right of every nation (language community). He recognized Europe’s linguistic and national diversity as a value that must be safeguarded and nurtured.

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Linguistic Competence in Aphasia

Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication ◽

10.1044/aac17.3.87 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 87-92

Author(s):

Leonard L. LaPointe

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

Linguistic Competence ◽

Careful Study ◽

Feral Children ◽

Performance Factors ◽

Performance Loss ◽

Linguistic Rules ◽

Communication Goals ◽

Aphasia Treatment ◽

And Performance

Abstract Loss of implicit linguistic competence assumes a loss of linguistic rules, necessary linguistic computations, or representations. In aphasia, the inherent neurological damage is frequently assumed by some to be a loss of implicit linguistic competence that has damaged or wiped out neural centers or pathways that are necessary for maintenance of the language rules and representations needed to communicate. Not everyone agrees with this view of language use in aphasia. The measurement of implicit language competence, although apparently necessary and satisfying for theoretic linguistics, is complexly interwoven with performance factors. Transience, stimulability, and variability in aphasia language use provide evidence for an access deficit model that supports performance loss. Advances in understanding linguistic competence and performance may be informed by careful study of bilingual language acquisition and loss, the language of savants, the language of feral children, and advances in neuroimaging. Social models of aphasia treatment, coupled with an access deficit view of aphasia, can salve our restless minds and allow pursuit of maximum interactive communication goals even without a comfortable explanation of implicit linguistic competence in aphasia.

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