Books by Marcel Danesi

Helping you learn Italian, this edition includes hundreds of quiz and test questions, chapter-opening objectives, and specific recommendations for difficult subtopics and individual weaknesses to help you learn basic grammar structures and verb tenses, pronunciation, essential vocabulary, and how to communicate with confidence.

This book explores the many disciplinary and theoretical links between language, linguistics, and mathematics. It examines trends in linguistics, such as structuralism, conceptual metaphor theory, and other relevant theories,to show that language and mathematics have a similar structure, but differential functions, even though one without the other would not exist.

* Sudoku for both beginners and experts

The go-to introductory guide to semiotic theory and practice, this second edition features a new chapter on semiotics in the digital age and sheds light on how we grasp for meaning in the modern world.

Semiotics has had a profound impact on our comprehension of a wide range of phenomena, from how animals signify and communicate, to how people read TV commercials. This series features books on semiotic theory and applications of that theory to understanding media, language, and related subjects. The series publishes scholarly monographs of wide appeal to students and interested non-specialists as well as scholars. AAS is a peer-reviewed series of international scope.

Semiotics has had a profound impact on our comprehension of a wide range of phenomena, from how animals signify and communicate, to how people read TV commercials. This series features books on semiotic theory and applications of that theory to understanding media, language, and related subjects. The series publishes scholarly monographs of wide appeal to students and interested non-specialists as well as scholars. AAS is a peer-reviewed series of international scope.

The book provides an introduction to an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that can be called "e;global linguistics"e; (GL). GL emerges to tackle the ever-growing phenomenon of intercultural communication (IC) in today's world of international contacts. The specific aim of GL is to look at the form and contents of dialogues among speakers of different cultural backgrounds who will use a "e;default language"e; or koine (usually English) to interact, in order to detect communication breakdowns at various levels of "e;depth"e;, as well as the opportunities for developing sound intercultural communication practice. The book includes an accessible presentation of fundamental questions concerning languages and language use. Among the questions addressed are the universal design features of languages, the connection between language and conceptual systems, how people use language to coordinate their actions and interact in a variety of social contexts, and the place of language in a semiotic view of culture. The volume also addresses how language, context and culture shape the way in which we argue a point and try to persuade other people, and why intercultural argumentation is both necessary and risky.Global Linguistics: An Introduction describes fundamental notions in linguistics and cognate fields and is thus well-suited for use as a textbook in courses dealing with IC in general. At the same time, the book is of general interest to scholars in linguistics and communication studies, as it places particular emphasis on theoretical models such as argumentation theory and conceptual metaphor theory, which are generally not presented in textbooks on language and IC.

Applied Psycholinguistics examines principal linguistic theories, recent research into first-language development, second-language learning, psychometric methodology, and other important topics in a way that makes the technical literature accessible and relates it to pedagogical practice.

The Semiotics of Love brings together work on early symbolism, literary practices, and contemporary communication on the theme of romance and the idea of love to forge an understanding of the semiotic-cultural side of romance.

Using both verbal and nonverbal techniques to make its messages as persuasive as possible, advertising has become an integral component of modern-day social discourse designed to influence attitudes and lifestyle behaviors by covertly suggesting how we can best satisfy our innermost urges and aspirations through consumption. This book looks at the categories of this form of discourse from the standpoint of semiotic analysis. It deals with the signifying processes that underlie advertising messages in print, electronic, and digital form.

Why do people routinely risk their health by smoking cigarettes? Why do some females make walking a struggle by donning high heels? In a fully updated edition, the author attempts to answer such questions by explaining the discipline that endeavors to understand the human meaning quest: semiotics.

This book examines the use of cryptography in both real and fictional crimes - a topic that is rarely broached. It discusses famous crimes, such as that of the Zodiac Killer, that revolve around cryptic messages and current uses of encryption that make solving cases harder and harder.

Using the Dexter saga of novels and television programs as its basis, the book argues that a "Dexter Syndrome" has emerged whereby we no longer see a difference between real and fictional serial killers.

In this user-friendly dictionary of popular culture, over 800 A-to-Z entries provide historical information, definitions, and brief commentaries about the theories, media forms, fads, celebrities and icons, genres, and commonly-used terms relevant to the study of popular culture. Includes cross-references and a thematic table of contents.

Presents a listing of media concepts, figures, and techniques with illustrations and historical commentaries. This dictionary includes terms related to psychology, linguistics, aesthetics, computer science, semiotics, culture theory, anthropology, and those that have relevance in media studies.