Communication, Meaning and Misconceptions: How to Help, Heal and Hurt with Language

This book covers several related topics anchored in the idea of how meaning is created. The central focus in the book is, however, on how language awareness may help us communicate smoothly and solve social problems. The book takes up language misconceptions and their social significance, and promotes the view that regarding meaning (and language in general) as open and flexible, rather than closed and rigid, may lead to critical thinking, innovation, and creativity. The book covers topics such as words and things, words and emotions, fake news and hate speech, and it has been written in the form of short informal dialogues to engage readers and make linguistic concepts accessible.

Karol Janicki is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Foreign Languages at theUniversity of Bergen, Norway. His recent research interests have focused on language and conflict, lay people’s language problems, language and education, general semantics, applied cognitive linguistics, and socio-political aspects of language.