What lies behind the language we use as counsellors and psychotherapists? How does language fit into a therapeutic context? Can we truly say what we mean, and hear what is said, in the consulting room? This book takes apart, lays out and repositions the most basic of therapeutic tools – the language used to communicate between therapist and client. It begins with a summary of the different schools of thought on language acquisition from infancy onwards. It addresses ways in which philosophical and social contexts may impact on the thoughts and words available for speech. Following this it focuses on the detail of the words spoken in a consulting room, and considers dialogue in the arts therapies, where speech may not be the primary tool for understanding. The book also examines what happens when words fail, how symbols are essential for communication, and whether the emphasis on words in the talking therapies has limited the range of communication in the consulting room. An example of this limitation is offered in an extended discussion of gender and language. The book addresses counsellors and psychotherapists from all major theoretical orientations, from psychodynamic therapies through to humanistic and existential approaches, maintaining an overview that is relevant to an integrative position. Written for students of counselling and psychotherapy as well as practitioners who want to develop their skills and awareness, Words and Symbols engages the reader in understanding the essence of therapeutic communication.

Reflections on architecture and the exchange of information in the spaces and places of the city, from the necessity of skyscrapers in an age of Web sites to cities as talent magnets, from architectural bling to the neo-minimalism of the new MoMA. The meaning of a message, says William Mitchell, depends on the context of its reception. "Shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater produces a dramatically different effect from barking the same word to a squad of soldiers with guns," he observes. In Placing Words, Mitchell looks at the ways in which urban spaces and places provide settings for communication and at how they conduct complex flows of information through the twenty-first century city. Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information -- from one device to another in the urban scene -- creates a digital network that also exists in physical space. Placing Words examines this emerging system of spaces, flows, and practices in a series of short essays -- snapshots of the city in the twenty-first century. Mitchell questions the necessity of flashy downtown office towers in an age of corporate Web sites. He casts the shocked-and-awed Baghdad as a contemporary Guernica. He describes architectural makeovers throughout history, listing Le Corbusier's Fab Five Points of difference between new and old architecture, and he discusses the architecture of Manolo Blahniks. He pens an open letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending architectural features to include in torture chambers. He compares Baudelaire, the Parisian flaneur, to Spiderman, the Manhattan traceur. He describes the iPod-like galleries of the renovated MoMA and he recognizes the camera phone as the latest step in a process of image mobilization that began when artists stopped painting on walls and began making pictures on small pieces of wood, canvas, or paper. The endless flow of information, he makes clear, is not only more pervasive and efficient than ever, it is also generating new cultural complexities.

Through real-life situations, children will be introduced to the vocabulary of math words and symbols. Fundamental vocabulary such as "greater than" and "less than," and the meaning of symbols such as +, _, =, are all explained with engaging photographs and easy-to-understand text.

Classic study discusses number sequence and language and explores written numerals and computations in many cultures. "The historian of mathematics will find much to interest him here both in the contents and viewpoint, while the casual reader is likely to be intrigued by the author's superior narrative ability." -Library Journal.282 illustrations. 1969 edition.

"Written as a satire on the comic devices cartoonists use, [this] book quickly became a textbook for art students. Walker researched cartoons around the world to collect this international set of cartoon symbols. The names he invented for them now appear in dictionaries."--Page 4 of cover

Shouldn't all dictionaries start with AAAA and end with ZZZZZZZTZZZTZZZ? Ka-BOOM! does: it's a collection of sound effects from comic books, each one rigorously defined and cross referenced. Nowhere has the art of onomatopoeia been raised to higher heights than in the humble comic book.

Discusses the elements of a sign, and looks at pictograms, alphabets, calligraphy, monograms, text type, numerical signs, symbols, and trademarks.

The Study of Language is quite simply the best introduction to the field available today.

Explains the use of symbolism in opera, interprets scenes from Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Stravinsky, and Britten, and stresses the importance of staging an opera in accord with the composer's intended use of symbols