- Home
- Book Series
- Benjamins Current Topics
Benjamins Current Topics
Special issues of established journals tend to circulate within the orbit of the subscribers of those journals. For the Benjamins Current Topics series a number of special issues of various journals have been selected containing salient topics of research with the aim of finding new audiences for topically interesting material, bringing such material to a wider readership in book format.
1 - 20 of 124 results
-
-
The Acquisition of French as a Second Language
Editor(s): Christina Lindqvist and Camilla BardelPublication Date May 2014More LessWithin the field of second language acquisition, interest in the acquisition of French as a second language has a long-standing tradition, especially in the European context. The aim of this book is to offer a synthesis of current research within this area. It contains contributions from different researchers in the field, including studies on the acquisition of grammar, formulaic language, lexis and pragmatic devices, and covering interlanguage development from beginner level up to very advanced, presumably near-native levels of proficiency. The learners in the studies reported in the volume represent different L1 backgrounds and age groups. The chapters shed light on current issues in research on second language acquisition from different theoretical perspectives, and contribute to a better understanding of L2 French and SLA in general. The volume should be of interest for students, teachers and researchers of L2 French and SLA.
Originally published in Language, Interaction and Acquisition 3:1 (2012).
-
-
-
Advances in Frame Semantics
Editor(s): Mirjam Fried and Kiki NikiforidouPublication Date December 2013More LessThis volume presents some of the latest research in Frame Semantics, including work in computational lexicography as developed within the FrameNet project. Using varied material from English, Italian, and Japanese, the contributions collectively expand the theoretical, conceptual, and computational apparatus of Frame semantics, by studying a range of issues concerning not only lexical structure, associated with cognitive frames, but also the less studied interactional frames and their relationship to grammatical organization. While addressing a number of linguistic phenomena, such as verbs of visual perception, metaphoric language, subordinating connectives, paraphrasing, honorifics, certain pragmatic particles, basic speech acts, and the semantic structuring of legal texts, the analyses also highlight the broader question of integrating frames within rich lexical and grammatical descriptions, whether in the context of lexicon-building resources, models for knowledge representation, experimental modeling of language acquisition and processing, conceptual metaphor theory, paraphrase research, or the communicative grounding of linguistic structure.
Originally published in Constructions and Frames Vol. 3:1 (2011) and Vol. 2:2 (2010).
-
-
-
Advances in Research on Semantic Roles
Editor(s): Seppo Kittilä and Fernando ZúñigaPublication Date June 2016More LessEspecially in functional-typological linguistics, semantic roles have been studied thoroughly, because they constitute a good starting point for any study on argument marking due to their semantically defined nature. However, the very concept of semantic roles is far from being without problems, and there is still no consensus on how the roles are best defined. In this volume, the notion will be discussed from novel perspectives with the aim of providing new insights into our understanding of semantic roles. Two of the papers deal with semantic role clusters, one with semantic roles in verbless constructions, one with diachrony of semantic roles and two with individual semantic roles that have not been studied in too much detail in previous studies. The book may not offer answers to all questions the readers may have, but at least it raises interesting further questions relevant to arriving at a better understanding of semantic roles.
Originally published in Studies in Language Vol. 38:3 (2014).
-
-
-
Application-Driven Terminology Engineering
Editor(s): Fidelia Ibekwe-SanJuan, Anne Condamines and Teresa CabréPublication Date March 2007More LessA common framework under which the various studies on terminology processing can be viewed is to consider not only the texts from which the terminological resources are built but particularly the applications targeted. The current book, first published as a Special Issue of Terminology 11:1 (2005), analyses the influence of applications on term definition and processing. Two types of applications have been identified: intermediary and terminal applications (involving end users). Intermediary applications concern the building of terminological knowledge resources such as domain-specific dictionaries, ontologies, thesaurus or taxonomies. These knowledge resources then form the inputs to terminal applications such as information extraction, information retrieval, science and technology watch or automated book index building. Most of the applications dealt with in the book fall into the first category. This book represents the first attempt, from a pluridisciplinary viewpoint, to take into account the role of applications in the processing of terminology.
-
-
-
Applying Cognitive Linguistics
Editor(s): Ana María Piquer-Píriz and Rafael Alejo-GonzálezPublication Date August 2018More LessIn recent years, Cognitive Linguistics (CL) has established itself not only as a solid theoretical approach but also as an important source from which different applications to other fields have emerged. In this volume we identify some of the current, most relevant topics in applied CL-oriented studies – analyses of figurative language (both metaphor and metonymy) in use, constructions and typology –, and present high-quality research papers that illustrate best practices in the research foci identified and their application to different fields including intercultural communication, the psychology of emotions, second and first language acquisition, discourse analysis and translation studies. It is also shown how different methodologies –the use of linguistic corpora, psycholinguistic experiments or discourse analytic procedures– can shed some light on the basic premises of CL as well as providing insights into how CL can be applied in real world contexts. Finally, all the studies included in the volume are based on empirical data and there are some analyses of languages other than English (Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Danish, German and Polish), thus overcoming the contentions that CL-theoretically-based research is often based on linguistic intuition and focused only on the English language.
We hope that the present volume will not only contribute to a better understanding of how CL can be applied but that it will also help to encourage, even further, more robust empirical research in this field.
Originally published as a special issue of Review of Cognitive Linguistics 14:1 (2016).
-
-
-
Approaches to Learning, Testing and Researching L2 Vocabulary
Editor(s): Stuart WebbPublication Date August 2020More LessThis volume brings together a collection of chapters focused on the learning, testing, and researching of L2 vocabulary by leading international researchers including Paul Nation, Batia Laufer, Frank Boers, Elke Peters, Ana Pellicer-Sánchez, Anna Siyanova-Chanturia, and Stuart Webb. Questions that are examined include: Is it useful to read a book to learn vocabulary? Which types of input encountered outside of the classroom contribute most to vocabulary knowledge? What are the most useful words to learn to understand the academic spoken language in mathematics, biology, and engineering lectures? Does writing words contribute to vocabulary learning? What should a test measuring the skill of guessing from context consist of? Should loan words be included in vocabulary tests? How should we evaluate vocabulary learning that occurs through watching captioned video? How has eye-tracking been used in vocabulary research? Together, the chapters in this volume highlight innovation in vocabulary studies and many directions for researching, testing, and learning words. Originally published as special issue of ITL – International Journal of Applied Linguistics 169:1 (2018)
-
-
-
Aptitude for Interpreting
Editor(s): Franz Pöchhacker and Minhua LiuPublication Date October 2014More LessFirst published as a Special Issue of Interpreting (issue 10:1, 2011) and complemented with two articles published in Interpreting issue 16:1, 2014, this volume provides a comprehensive view of the challenge of identifying and measuring aptitude for interpreting. Following a broad review of the existing literature, the array of eight empirical papers captures the multiple dimensions of aptitude, from personality traits and soft skills such as motivation, anxiety and learning styles to aspects of cognitive performance. The populations studied, with experimental as well as survey research designs, include students and professionals of sign language interpreting as well as spoken-language interpreting, and valuable synergies emerge. While pointing to the need for much further work, the papers brought together in this volume clearly represent the cutting edge of research into aptitude for interpreting, and should prove a milestone on the way toward supplying educators with reliable methods for testing applicants to interpreter training programs.
-
-
-
Aptitude-Treatment Interaction in Second Language Learning
Editor(s): Robert M. DeKeyserPublication Date April 2021More LessThis volume brings together seven empirical studies about aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI), i.e., about how (second language) learners with different aptitudes match or don’t match with different educational treatments; and aptitude-testing interactions, i.e., about how learners with different aptitudes perform better or worse depending on the way their knowledge and skills are tested. The authors are all established researchers or rising stars in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), who believe that little can be said about the effectiveness of teaching and testing methods or techniques without taking individual differences into account. Many of the studies corroborate in SLA what has become a central finding in the psychological and educational research about ATI: the more a method puts the burden of information processing on the student, the bigger the role of the corresponding aptitudes. The kinds of findings documented in this volume contribute to a scientific basis for the art of language teaching that will become increasingly useful as emerging technologies make adaptation to individuals and groups more feasible. Originally published as special issue of Journal of Second Language Studies 2:2 (2019).
-
-
-
Argumentation and Health
Editor(s): Sara Rubinelli and Francisca Snoeck HenkemansPublication Date July 2014More LessIn recent years, there has been a growing interest in the role of argumentation in the health care domain. Argumentation and Health is a collection of essays by argumentation theorists reflecting on the way in which the institutional context of health care shapes the argumentative interaction. The volume provides for the first time an overview of the most important recent developments and achievements of the study of argumentation in medical and public oriented health communication. In Argumentation and Health , attention is paid to argumentation in different forms of health communication, such as the medical consultation, direct-to-consumer drug advertising, health brochures and health risk communication.
This book is of interest to argumentation theorists, (health) communication scholars, healthcare practitioners, students of medicine and health-related fields, and all other researchers and practitioners interested in the function and characteristics of argumentation in health communication. Originally published in Journal of Argumentation in Context, Vol. 1:1 (2012).
-
-
-
Argumentation in Political Deliberation
Editor(s): Marcin Lewiński and Dima MohammedPublication Date July 2015More LessThe goal of this volume is to further the examination of the role, shape, and quality of argumentation in political deliberation. The chapters collected in the volume employ the concepts and methods developed within argumentation theory to investigate the specifics of political discourse across various deliberative arenas: from debates in the European Parliament, consensus conferences and public hearings in France, discussions in Dutch online forums, to exchanges of comments in online versions of British newspapers. In this way, the studies reveal the inner workings of argumentative interactions that constitute deliberative discourse – and thus importantly contribute to the study of public deliberation. This should be of interest to the students of argumentation, deliberation, and political discourse. In addition, the volume problematizes and theorizes some vital issues related to the study of situated argumentation, thus advancing the study of argumentation in context.
Originally published in Journal of Argumentation in Context, Vol. 2:1 (2013).
-
-
-
Audiovisual Translation
Editor(s): Yves Gambier and Sara Ramos PintoPublication Date June 2018More LessThe exponential growth of Audiovisual Translation (AVT) in the last three decades has consolidated its place as an area of study within Translation Studies (TS). However, AVT is still a young domain currently exploring a number of different lines of inquiry without a specific methodological and theoretical framework.
This volume discusses the advantages and drawbacks of ten approaches to AVT and highlights the potential avenues opened up by new methods. Our aim is to jumpstart the discussion on the (in)adequacy of the methodologies imported from other disciplines and the need (or not) for a conceptual apparatus and framework of analysis specific to AVT.
This collective work relates to recent edited volumes that seek to take stock on research in AVT, but it distinguishes itself from those publications by promoting links in what is now a very fragmented field. Originally published as a special issue of Target 28:2 (2016).
-
-
-
Audiovisual Translation in Applied Linguistics
Editor(s): Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin, Jennifer Lertola and Noa TalavánPublication Date November 2020More LessIn recent years, interest in the application of audiovisual translation (AVT) techniques in language teaching has grown beyond unconnected case studies to create a lively network of methodological intertextuality, cross-references, reviews and continuation of previous trials, ultimately defining a recognisable and scalable trend. Whilst the use of AVT as a support in language teaching is not new, this volume looks at a different application of AVT, with learners involved in the audiovisual translation process itself, performing tasks such as subtitling, dubbing, or audio describing. It therefore presents a sample of the current research in this field, with particular reference to case studies that either have a large-scale or international dimension, or can be scaled and replicated in various contexts. It is our hope that these contributions will arouse the interest of publishers of language learning material and other stakeholders and ultimately lead to the mainstreaming of AVT in language education. Originally published as special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 4:1 (2018).
-
-
-
Case Studies in Fluid Construction Grammar
Editor(s): Luc Steels and Katrien BeulsPublication Date October 2019More LessConstruction grammar enjoys great popularity among empirical linguists, typologists, psycholinguists, and language educators, because it puts meaning and function of language at the forefront of linguistic analysis. This book shows that construction grammar gives us also a powerful new way to conceive and implement operational parsing and production systems, which could be used as a basic component of a wide range of Artificial Intelligence applications, such as dialog systems, language tutoring applications, or translation assistants. The book focuses on a particular formalism, Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG), that has emerged recently as a solid platform for writing and testing grammars from a constructional point of view. It introduces the basics of FCG and illustrates its use through a number of case studies all centering around the verb phrase. The case studies consider the verb phrase in different languages (Dutch, English, Spanish, Russian) and examine different challenging linguistic phenomena, ranging from word order flexibility, language change, and language acquisition, to the complex semantics of the verb phrase, particularly for aspect. The book is intended for those who want a first contact with FCG and see how different non-trivial analyses of language phenomena can be expressed. It is also an excellent first step for those who want to explore FCG to build language applications.
Originally published as special issue of Constructions and Frames 9:2 (2017).
-
-
-
Cognition Distributed
Editor(s): Itiel E. Dror and Stevan HarnadPublication Date December 2008More LessOur species has been a maker and user of tools for over two million years, but "cognitive technology" began with language. Cognition is thinking, and thinking has been "distributed" for at least the two hundred millennia that we have been using speech to interact and collaborate, allowing us to do collectively far more than any of us could have done individually. The invention of writing six millennia ago and print six centuries ago has distributed cognition still more widely and quickly, among people as well as their texts. But in recent decades something radically new has been happening: Advanced cognitive technologies, especially computers and the Worldwide Web, are beginning to redistribute cognition in unprecedented ways, not only among people and static texts, but among people and dynamical machines. This not only makes possible new forms of human collaboration, but new forms of cognition. This book examines the nature and prospects of distributed cognition, providing a conceptual framework for understanding it, and showcasing case studies of its development. This volume was originally published as a Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition (14:2, 2006).
-
-
-
Cognitive Sociolinguistics
Editor(s): Martin Pütz, Justyna A. Robinson and Monika ReifPublication Date May 2014More LessThis volume is intended to be a contribution to the rapidly growing field of research into Cognitive Sociolinguistics which draws on the convergence of methods and theoretical frameworks typically associated with Cognitive Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. The papers in this volume, written by internationally renowned scholars in the fields of sociolinguistics (e.g. Labov) and cognitive sociolinguistics, seek to explore and systematize the key theoretical and epistemological bases for the emergence of this socio-cognitive paradigm. More specifically, the papers, originally published in Review of Cognitive Linguistics 10:2 (2012), focus on terms and concepts which are foundational to the discussion of Cognitive Sociolinguistics such as the role of cognition in the sociolinguistic enterprise; the social recontextualization of cognition; variability in cognitive systems; usage-based conceptions of language; pragmatic variation and cultural models of thought; cultural conceptualizations and lexicography as well as cognitive processing models and perceptual dialectology. All the papers are anchored in instrumental empirical data analysis.
The volume provides a welcome contribution to the field for anyone interested in Cognitive Linguistics and its new developments. The seven papers included in this book were originally presented at the 34th International LAUD Symposium on Cognitive Sociolinguistics, which took place in March 2010 at the University of Koblenz-Landau (Germany).
-
-
-
Cognitive Technologies and the Pragmatics of Cognition
Editor(s): Itiel E. DrorPublication Date August 2007More LessTechnology has long been a helpful aid in human cognitive activities. With its growing sophistication and usage, technology is now taking a more intrinsic and active role in human cognition. The shift from an external aid to being an internal component of cognitive processing reflects a revolution in technology, cognition, and their interaction. The creation of such ‘cognitive technologies’ transforms the traditional instrumental function of technology to a constitutive role that shapes and defines cognition itself. This book, which was originally published as a Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition 13:3 (2005), explores the new horizon of these ‘cognitive technologies’ and their interactions with humans.
-
-
-
Construction Grammar across Borders
Editor(s): Tiago Timponi Torrent, Ely Edison da Silva Matos and Natália Sathler SigilianoPublication Date July 2022More LessSince its foundation in the 1980's, Construction Grammar has been crossing the traditionally imposed borders. From superimposed levels of analysis to the lexicon-grammar continuum, the constructionist approach to language has been built by, quoting Charles Fillmore, "the insistence on seeing specific grammatical patterns as serving given semantic (and often pragmatic) purposes, and in the effort to construct a uniform theory capable of presenting both the simplest and most general aspects of language and the large world of complex grammatical structures". In this volume, five chapters derived from the plenary talks at the 9th International Conference on Construction Grammar provide a sample of the bridges the insistence and effort of construction grammarians have built in the past three decades with other analytical models – namely Cognitive Grammar and Collostructional Analysis –, perspectives – Diachronic Construction Grammar – and applications – Language Pedagogy and Natural Language Understanding.
Originally published as special issue of Constructions and Frames 12:1 (2020).
-
-
-
Constructions across Grammars
Editor(s): Martin Hilpert and Jan-Ola ÖstmanPublication Date March 2016More LessUp to now, most research in Construction Grammar has focused on single languages, most notably English. This volume aims to broaden the scope of Construction Grammar towards issues in bi- and multilingualism, second language learning, and generalizations across different languages and language varieties. The contributions in this volume show that speakers entertain generalizations across their repertoire of languages, which holds important implications for a multilingual Construction Grammar.
Originally published in Constructions and Frames 6:2 (2014).
-
-
-
Contemporary Discourses of Hate and Radicalism across Space and Genres
Editor(s): Monika KopytowskaPublication Date November 2017More LessThis unique volume brings together various academic voices and critical reflections on discursive manifestations of hate and radicalism in contemporary public discourses. The authors venture into an array of socio-political contexts and public spaces, providing a compelling overview of similarities and divergences, continuities and discontinuities, outward hatred and the “politics of denial”, the use of collective symbols and construction of individual identities. Multiple genres are taken under scrutiny, including blogs, forums, internet websites and newspaper coverage, political speeches and debates, news reports and broadcast interactions, with a view to capturing the themes and pragma-rhetorical strategies within texts abundant with radical and hateful messages. In addition to examining discourse dynamics and the underlying logic of such texts, the contributors to this monograph explore the ideological motivations and the consequences they might have for social actions on both an individual and collective level.
Highly relevant in the contemporary world, divided by conflicts, power and resource struggles, right-wing extremism, and crusades against the imaginary Other, the book presents state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research that should be of interest to specialists in pragmatics, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, as well as media and communication studies.
Originally published as a special issue of Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3:1 (2015).
-
-
-
Contrastive Pragmatics
Editor(s): Karin AijmerPublication Date June 2011More LessWe have recently seen a broadening of pragmatics to new areas and to the study of more than one language. This is illustrated by the present volume on Contrastive Pragmatics which brings together a number of articles originally presented at the 10th International Pragmatics Conference in Göteborg in 2007. The contributions deal with pragmatic phenomena such as speech acts, discourse markers and modality in different language pairs using theoretical approaches such as politeness theory, Conversation Analysis, Appraisal Theory, grammaticalization and cultural textology. Also discourse practices and genres may differ across cultures as illustrated by the study of TV news shows in different countries. Contrastive pragmatics also includes the comparative study of pragmatic phenomena from a foreign language perspective, a new area with implications for language teaching and intercultural communication. The contributions to this volume were originally published in Languages in Contrast 9:1 (2009).
-