Cover -- DETAILED CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Contested Subject -- PART ONE: THE MATERIALITY OF LANGUAGE -- Chapter 1: Premises and Backgrounds -- I. The Materiality of Language and the Sacralization of Texts -- II. Access to Language -- III. Limited Access in Education and Total Mediation in Society -- IV. Nominalism -- Chapter 2: Received Standards in the Study of Language -- I. Language as a Contested Subject Matter -- II. Lorenzo Valla's Challenges -- III. The Humanistic Study of Language -- IV. Language and Knowledge -- V. Condillac's Search for Origins -- VI. Many Languages and the Enlightened University -- VII. Modern Standards -- Chapter 3: Materiality and Genre -- I. Materiality from Nominalism -- II. Genre as a Language Function -- III. Wittgenstein's Second Opinion -- III-1. Sprachspiel -- III-2. Life Forms -- III-3. Family Resemblance -- III-4. Description Instead of Explanation -- III-5. Ordinary Language: Access in Plain Sight -- IV. Austin and Speech Action -- V. Bakhtin's Speech Genres and National Languages -- VI. Whorf and Linguistic Relativity -- VII. Academic Resistance to Materiality -- Chapter 4: The Unity of Language and Thought -- I. Enlightenment and Other Values -- II. Hamann, the Magician -- III. Figuration -- IV. Contradiction, Neologism -- V. Translation -- VI. Julia Kristeva and the Struggle with Gender -- VII. Materiality, the Offspring of Maternality -- Chapter 5: Materiality and the Contemporary Study of Language -- I. The Stubborn Nativist Premise -- II. Terrence Deacon and Evolutionary Explanation -- III. Studying Infantile Language Acquisition -- IV. Recognizing Affect in Language Acquisition -- V. Language Acquisition and the Integration of Body, Self, and Society -- VI. The Mutual Dependency of Naming and Predication -- Chapter 6: Recognizing Politics in the Study of Language.

I. Language, Politics, Gender -- II. Linguistics' Second Opinion -- III. Interpreting the Present -- IV. Struggles for Access to Language -- V. The Materiality of a Subaltern Dialect -- VI. Recasting the Study of Language -- PART TWO: LANGUAGE IN THE UNIVERSITY -- Chapter 7: Frustrations of Academic Language -- I. Sacralization and Abstraction -- II. The Writing of Many Books -- III. Freud's Repression and Other Limits -- IV. It's a Paradox -- V. Agonism -- VI. Protection as a Principle of Academic Governance -- Chapter 8: The Protected Institution -- I. Protection in the Early University -- II. The Men's Association -- III. Peter Abelard's Effects -- IV. University Formation as a Reaction against Abelard -- V. The Unchanging Curriculum -- VI. Changes in Reading Practices -- VII. Empirical Science and Other Troublemakers -- VIII. New Values, New Languages -- Chapter 9: The Sacred Language -- I. The Ascendancy of Latin -- II. Literacy and Access to Language -- III. Heresy and the Opposition to New Language -- III-1. Crimes of Language Use -- III-2. Wyclif and the Lollards -- III-3. Servetus and the Trinity -- IV. Witch-hunting and the Fear of Mothers' Tongues -- V. Learned Latin -- Chapter 10: Language Uses in Science, the Heir of Latin -- I. The Heir of Latin -- II. Objectification and Gender Identity -- III. Science and Objectivity -- IV. Normalizing Abstractions -- V. Instinct, Intelligence, and Other Placeholders -- VI. Laws of Nature -- VII. The Big Bang -- VIII. Intimations of Language Change in Physics -- Chapter 11: Language and Human Survival -- I. Nukespeak -- II. Instinctive Aggression, Paradoxical Violence -- II-1. Konrad Lorenz -- II-2. J. L. Talmon -- III. Explanation without Paradox: Virginia Woolf -- IV. Languages of Dependency and Survival -- Chapter 12: The Materiality of Literature and the Contested Subject.

I. The Separation of Literature from Language -- II. The Isolation of Obscene Language -- III. Obscene Literature and the Reading Public -- IV. The Double Voice and the Materiality of Literature -- V. Erotica and Political Action -- VI. Literature and the Contested Subject -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.