Re: more on genres (CHAT and SFL)

vera p john-steiner (vygotsky who-is-at unm.edu)
Tue, 27 Aug 1996 10:18:41 -0600 (MDT)

Gordon,
I really appreciate your clear distinction between language and other
semiotic means, particularly in their relevance to classroom practices.
I do think that non-language semiotic means can also have both
communicative and representational functions (for instance, musical notation)
but we tend to ignore the latter. There are also interesting issues
concerning conventionalization as related to the latter, for instance,
Laban notations for dance. It is not a mode of representation shared by
all choreographers, and it is supplemented, since videotaping, with more
iconing modes.
Vera

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Vera P. John-Steiner
Department of Linguistics
Humanities Bldg. 526
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-6353 or 277-4324
Internet: vygotsky who-is-at triton.unm.edu
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