Nature Word

The theme of Nature Word is the intelligence of the heart, the innate, functional consciousness, or way of thinking, that is in harmony with nature and able to understand life and living things.

A collection of essays on the word by colleagues, students, and teachers of linguist Paul Kiparsky that reflects his distinctive focus and his influence on the field. Paul Kiparsky's work in linguistics has been wide-ranging and fundamental. His contributions as a scholar and teacher have transformed virtually every subfield of contemporary linguistics, from generative phonology to poetic theory. This collection of essays on the word--the fundamental entity of language--by Kiparsky's colleagues, students, and teachers reflects the distinctive focus of his own attention and his influence in the field. As the editors of the volume observe, Kiparsky approaches words much as a botanist approaches plants, fascinated equally by their beauty, their structure, and their evolution. The essays in this volume reflect these multiple perspectives. The contributors discuss phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics bearing on the formal composition of the word; historical linguistic developments emphasizing the word's simultaneous idiosyncratic character and participation in a system; and metrical and poetic forms showing the significance of Kiparsky's ideas for literary theory. Collectively they develop the overarching idea that the nature of the word is not directly observable but nonetheless inferable. Contributors Stephen R. Anderson, Arto Anttila, Juliette Blevins, Geert Booij, Young-mee Yu Cho, Cleo Condoravdi, B. Elan Dresher, Andrew Garrett, Carlos Gussenhoven, Morris Halle, Kristin Hanson, Bruce Hayes, Larry M. Hyman, Sharon Inkelas, S. D. Joshi, René Kager, Ellen Kaisse, Aditi Lahiri, K. P. Mohanan, Tara Mohanan, Cemil Orhan Orgun, Christopher Piñón, William J. Poser, Douglas Pulleyblank, J. A. F. Roodbergen, Háj Ross, Patricia Shaw, Galen Sibanda, Donca Steriade, John Stonham, Stephen Wechsler, Dieter Wunderlich, Draga Zec

The careers and ideas of four figures of monumental importance in the history of American conservation--George Perkins Marsh, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Wesley Powell--are explored in A Word for Nature. Robert Dorman offers lively portraits of each of these early environmental advocates, who witnessed firsthand the impact of economic expansion and industrial revolution on fragile landscapes from the forests of New England to the mountains of the West. By examining the nineteenth-century world in which the four men lived--its society, economy, politics, and culture--Dorman sheds light on the roots of American environmentalism. He provides an overview of the early decades of both resource conservation and wilderness preservation, discussing how Marsh, Thoreau, Muir, and Powell helped define the issues that began changing the nation's attitudes toward its environment by the early twentieth century. Dorman's readings of works including Marsh's Man and Nature, Thoreau's The Maine Woods, Muir's The Mountains of California, and Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid Region reveal their authors' influence on environmental thought and politics even up to the present day.

This goal allies her with poets from Spain's symbolist past, who acknowledge the insufficiency of language yet pursue elusive meaning. Canelo's poetry advances their struggle, since, through a method ecofeminist Carol Bigwood has called "nonlinguistic silent presencing," she is able to finesse an apparent fusion between nature and the word."--Jacket.

Dorman delves into the activities and writings of four early environmental philosophers, revealing how the intellectual literary efforts of Marsh and Thoreau led to the campaigns to institutionalize preservation and conservation of Muir and Powell.