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10 - Conclusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Alessandro Duranti
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

One of the challenges in writing any textbook – and this one is certainly no exception – is the need to build a continuous narrative out of what are often only fragments of stories, originally told to different audiences and for different purposes. Like any other search for thematic or theoretical continuity, the writing of a book on any field of inquiry entails an attempt to construct both an object of study and a method out of usually quite diverse traditions. If the work is done properly, readers should be able to see a synthesis or at least a common thread that ties together the different traditions and projects an image whose outline can be easily recognized, critically appraised, and remembered. If the work is done poorly, readers might see bits and pieces but be unable to make them into a whole. In this concluding chapter, I will take up the challenge of facing the question of the whole. I will do this by foregrounding some of the questions raised and some of the ones just implied throughout the previous chapters. I will not engage, however, in an attempt to summarize what I wrote in previous chapters. While looking back, I will try to give a sense of the future, a future that hopefully some of my readers will be involved in constructing.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • Conclusions
  • Alessandro Duranti, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Linguistic Anthropology
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511810190.011
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  • Conclusions
  • Alessandro Duranti, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Linguistic Anthropology
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511810190.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusions
  • Alessandro Duranti, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Linguistic Anthropology
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511810190.011
Available formats
×