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Authority, explanation, contention and register: language data and the surface search for essence

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Abstract

This paper takes the other papers in this issue as ‘data’—in other words, as a source of observation and comment—and then proceeds to further discussion, analysis and surmise. By focusing in substantial measure on the notions of authority, explanation, contention and register, ideas which occur both explicitly and tacitly in different articles here, and in conjunction with the different natures and uses to which language data are put, I attempt to explore aspects of contemporary work on language and communication and how to some varying degree a search for essence sits at its heart.

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Notes

  1. Paul Dowling’s (1998) thesis-book, definitively entitled The sociology of mathematics education, provides another instance of this. Coincidentally, Dowling has also made (different) use of the metaphor of ‘centripetal/centrifugal’, in terms of textbook forces pulling either ‘towards the academic’ or ‘away from the mathematics towards the mundane’ respectively (Dowling, 1991, p. 146).

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  1. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    David Pimm

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  1. David Pimm
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Pimm, D. Authority, explanation, contention and register: language data and the surface search for essence. ZDM Mathematics Education 46, 967–976 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0633-8

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