Browse Books
To browse by subfields of a subject, please start on the Subjects tab in the navigation bar/menu, then filter by subject-subcategory and by content type.
Information on Forthcoming Books can be found on the benjamins.com website.
/search?showRelevance=false&showRelevance=false&showSortByTitle=true&showSortByTitle=true&page=5&value99=i&value99=i&option99=pub_indexLetter&option99=pub_indexLetter&facetOptions=&facetNames=
81 - 100 of
215
results
Filter :
Filter by subject:
Filter by publication date:
Iconicity : East meets West
Feb 2015
Book
Editor(s):
Masako K. Hiraga,
William J. Herlofsky,
Kazuko Shinohara and
Kimi Akita
Iconicity: East Meets West presents an intersection of East-West scholarship on Iconicity. Several of its chapters thus deal with Asian languages and cultures or a comparison of world languages. Divided into four categories: general issues; sound symbolism and mimetics; iconicity in literary texts; and iconic motivation in grammar the chapters show the diversity and dynamics of iconicity research ranging from iconicity as a driving force in language structure and change to the various uses of images diagrams and metaphors at all levels of the literary text in both narrative and poetic forms as well as on all varieties of discourse including the visual and the oral.
Israeli Peace Discourse : A cultural approach to CDA
Feb 2015
Book
Author(s):
Dalia Gavriely-Nuri
What role do language and discourse play in the advancement of peace? What is the connection between a given society’s “peace language” and the repeated failure of peace initiatives involving it? At the heart of this book lie these basic questions and the attempt to shed light on them from new angles. The book focuses on an analysis of Israeli peace discourse and indicates the need for change in this discourse in order to promote a “culture of peace”. It presents the process of peace-estrangement a set of linguistic discursive and cultural devices intended for creating doubt regarding the positive meaning associated with the concept of peace. The approach adopted in this book is the Cultural Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CCDA). This approach aims at exposing the cultural codes embedded in the discourse which contribute to reproducing abuses of social power. The analytic chapters focus on different historical periods since the beginning of the 20th century to this day and deal with various genres found in diverse corpora such as Knesset records and school textbooks.
Impersonals and other Agent Defocusing Constructions in French
Jan 2015
Book
Author(s):
Michel Achard
This book investigates French impersonals as a functional category. Any structure whose agent is defocused and whose predicate describes a situation stable enough to be generally available should be considered impersonal. In addition to il impersonals the category also includes demonstrative (ce/ça) middle (se) and indefinite (on) structures. These different forms belong to the same functional category because they systematically code general and predictable events that cannot be imputed to a specific cause. Because generality and predictability are gradual notions impersonals can only be identified within the context of specific constructional islands which therefore constitute the organizing principle of the French impersonal category.
Conducted in Cognitive Grammar the analysis follows the functional tradition in expanding the scope of French impersonals beyond il constructions but also proposes a way of precisely delineating the category. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in impersonal constructions and French linguistics.
Conducted in Cognitive Grammar the analysis follows the functional tradition in expanding the scope of French impersonals beyond il constructions but also proposes a way of precisely delineating the category. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in impersonal constructions and French linguistics.
Idiomatic Constructions in Italian : A Lexicon-Grammar approach
Nov 2014
Book
Author(s):
Simonetta Vietri
This study is devoted to the analysis of Italian idioms with either ordinary or support verbs (also called light verbs). The research focuses on the exhaustive description of idioms and is based on their systematic classification according to the principles of the Lexicon-Grammar methodology developed by Maurice Gross (1975 1979 and further). A thorough examination of the literature shows strong disagreement on the acceptability of some idiomatic constructions. For this reason the Web was used as a corpus to verify judgments on the supposed ungrammatical constructions. This approach showed that idiomatic constructions which have always been considered ungrammatical are instead perfectly acceptable if contextualized. The results obtained include the following: passive is not a "special case" when it concerns idioms and idiomatic constructions show the same complexity as non-idiomatic constructions.
Input and Experience in Bilingual Development
Oct 2014
Book
Editor(s):
Theres Grüter and
Johanne Paradis
Children acquiring two languages either simultaneously or sequentially have more variation in their linguistic input than their monolingual peers. Understanding the nature and consequences of this variability has been the focus of much recent research on childhood bilingualism. This volume constitutes the first collection of research solely dedicated to the topic of input in childhood bilingualism. Chapters represent a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of childhood bilingualism covering a variety of language combinations and sociocultural contexts in Europe Israel North and South America. As a reflection of the field’s current understanding of the intricate relationship between experience and development in children growing up with two or more languages this volume will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working with bi- and multilingual learners in various sociolinguistic and educational contexts.
Interacting with Objects : Language, materiality, and social activity
Sept 2014
Book
Editor(s):
Maurice Nevile,
Pentti Haddington,
Trine Heinemann and
Mirka Rauniomaa
Objects are essential for how together people create and experience social life and relate to the physical environment around them. Interacting with Objects: Language materiality and social activity presents studies which use video recordings of real-life settings to explore how objects feature in social interaction and activity. The studies consider many objects (e.g. paper documents food a camera art furniture and even the human body) across various situations such as shopping visiting the doctor interviews and meetings surgery and instruction in dance craft or cooking. Analyses reveal in precise detail how as people interact objects are seen touched and handled heard created transformed planned imagined shared discussed or appreciated. With the companion collection Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond multitasking the book advances understanding of the complex organisation and accomplishment of social interaction especially the significance of embodiment materiality participation and temporality. By focussing on objects in and for actual occasions of human action Interacting with Objects: Language materiality and social activity will interest many researchers and practitioners in language and social interaction communication and discourse design and also more widely within anthropology sociology psychology and related disciplines.
The (Ir)reversibility of English Binomials : Corpus, constraints, developments
Sept 2014
Book
Author(s):
Sandra Mollin
This book focuses on binomials (word pairs such as heart and soul rich and poor or if and when) and in particular on the degree of reversibility that English binomials demonstrate. Detailed and innovative corpus linguistic analyses investigate the correlates of the degree of reversibility linguistic constraints that influence the ordering and reversibility of binomials and the diachronic development of reversibility. In addition judgment data are analyzed for their convergence and divergence with corpus data regarding degrees of reversibility. The book thus establishes reversibility as a complex characteristic of the binomial construction at the same time throwing light on general questions in phraseology lexicalization language structure and language processing.
Intersubjectivity and Intersubjectification in Grammar and Discourse : Theoretical and descriptive advances
Aug 2014
Book
Editor(s):
Lieselotte Brems,
Lobke Ghesquière and
Freek Van de Velde
Recent years saw a growing interest in the study of subjectivity as the linguistic expression of speaker involvement. Intersubjectivity defined by Traugott as "the linguistic expression of a speaker/writer's attention to the hearer/reader" on the other hand has so far received little explicit attention in its own right let alone systematic definition and operationalization. Intersubjectivity and seemingly related notions such as interpersonal meaning appraisal stance and metadiscourse frequently appear in cognitive-functional accounts as well as historical and more applied approaches. These domains offer (partly) conflicting uses of 'intersubjectivity' differ in the overall scope of the concept and the phenomena it may cover.This book brings together contributions from a variety of different approaches with the aim of disentangling the current web of intertwined notions of intersubjectivity. Rather than focusing on the potentially conflicting views the volume aspires to resolve some of the conceptual puzzle by cross-fertilization between the different views and spark discussion on how to operationalize 'intersubjectivity' in linguistic research. Originally published in English Text Construction 5:1 (2012).
Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages
May 2014
Book
Editor(s):
Kristin Bech and
Kristine Gunn Eide
The contributions of this volume offer new perspectives on the relation between syntax and information structure in the history of Germanic and Romance languages focusing on English German Norwegian French Spanish and Portuguese and both from a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. In addition to discussing changes in individual languages along the syntax–information structure axis the volume also makes a point of comparing and contrasting different languages with respect to the interplay between syntax and information structure. Since the creation of increasingly sophisticated annotated corpora of historical texts is on the agenda in many research environments methods and schemes for information structure annotation and analysis of historical texts from a theoretical and applied perspective are discussed.
Interlanguage : Forty years later
Apr 2014
Book
Editor(s):
ZhaoHong Han and
Elaine Tarone
Few works in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) can endure multiple reads but Selinker's (1972) "Interlanguage" is a clear exception. Written at the inception of the field this paper delineates a disciplinary scope; asks penetrating questions; advances daring hypotheses; and proposes a first-ever conceptual and empirical framework that continues to stimulate SLA research. Sparked by a heightened interest in this founding text on its 40th anniversary 10 leaders in their respective fields of SLA research collectively examine extrapolations of the seminal text for the past the present and the future of SLA research. This book offers a rare resource for novices and experts alike in and beyond the field of SLA.
Information Structure and Reference Tracking in Complex Sentences
Mar 2014
Book
Editor(s):
Rik van Gijn,
Jeremy Hammond,
Dejan Matić,
Saskia van Putten and
Ana Vilacy Galucio
This volume is dedicated to exploring the crossroads where complex sentences and information management – more specifically information structure and reference tracking – come together. Complex sentences are a highly relevant but understudied domain for studying notions of IS and RT. On the one hand a complex sentence can be studied as a mini-unit of discourse consisting of two or more elements describing events situations or processes with its own internal information-structural and referential organization. On the other hand complex sentences can be studied as parts of larger discourse structures such as narratives or conversations in terms of how their information-structural characteristics relate to this wider context. The book offers new perspectives for the study of the interaction between complex sentences and information management and moreover adds typological breadth by focusing on lesser studied languages from several parts of the world.
Increased Empiricism : Recent advances in Chinese Linguistics
Dec 2013
Book
Editor(s):
Zhuo Jing-Schmidt
Increased Empiricism: Recent advances in Chinese Linguistics showcases recent trends in the co-development of theory and empiricism in Chinese linguistics. The volume tackles a wide range of theoretical and empirical problems in multiple subfields including sociolinguistics discourse analysis lexical semantics pragmatics phonetics and phonology corpus linguistics and Chinese second language acquisition. The contributions do not fall neatly into two sections traditionally labeled “theoretical” and “empirical”. Rather theoretical discussions are buttressed by empirical evidence and empirical analyses lead to theoretical generalizations. Furthermore the volume transcends the functional-formal division showing that empiricism not only empowers functional-typological and sociolinguistic research but can also have a place in formally oriented linguistic analysis.
Interpreting in a Changing Landscape : Selected papers from Critical Link 6
Nov 2013
Book
Editor(s):
Christina Schäffner,
Krzysztof Kredens and
Yvonne Fowler
This book of selected papers from the Critical Link 6 conference addresses the impact of a rapidly changing reality on the theory and practice of community interpreting. The recent social political and economic developments have led to phenomena of direct concern to the field for example multilingualism in traditionally monolingual societies the emergence of rare language pairs or new language-related problems in immigration application procedures social welfare institutions and prisons. Responding to the need for critical reflection as well as practical solutions the papers in this volume approach the changing landscape of community interpreting in its diversity. They deal with political social cultural institutional ethical technological professional and educational aspects of the field and will thus appeal to academics practitioners and policy-makers alike. Specifically they explore topics such as interpreting roles communication strategies ethics vs. practice interpreting vs. culture brokering interpreting strategies in different interactional contexts and interpreter training and education.
Introduction to Healthcare for Interpreters and Translators
Sept 2013
Book
Author(s):
Ineke H.M. Crezee
“Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” (Mitchell Kapor n.d.). Medical concepts and terminology can be very confusing for the uninitiated interpreter or translator. This book will allow interpreters and translators to quickly read up on healthcare settings familiarizing themselves with anatomy physiology medical terminology and frequently encountered conditions investigations and treatment options. Health translators working on medical reports will be able to find commonly used abbreviations. Those who have been asked to translate health information material into community languages will be able to gain a good basic overview of related background information and crosscultural issues. Those who teach health interpreters or translators will find this book helpful for structuring their curriculum. Information is presented in a consistent logical and informative manner intended to support rather than overwhelm.Crezee was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to interpreter and translator education in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
Insular Toponymies : Place-naming on Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island
Aug 2013
Book
Author(s):
Joshua Nash
How do people name places on islands? Is toponymy in small island communities affected by degrees of connection to larger neighbours such as a mainland? Are island (contact) languages and mainland languages different in how they are used in naming places? How can we conceptualise the human-human interface in the fieldwork situation when collecting placenames on islands? This book offers answers relevant to toponymists linguists island studies scholars and anthropologists. It focuses on two island environments within Australia – Norfolk Island South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula Kangaroo Island South Australia – and puts forward a number of novel findings relevant to Australian linguistics and the linguistics and toponymy of islands anywhere.
Innovative Research and Practices in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism
Aug 2013
Book
Editor(s):
John W. Schwieter
This volume brings together theoretical perspectives and empirical studies in second language (L2) acquisition and bilingualism and discusses their implications for L2 pedagogy. The book is organized into three sections that focus on prominent linguistic and cognitive theories and together provide a compelling set of state-of-the-art works. Part I consists of studies that give rise to innovative applications for second language teaching and learning and Part II discusses how findings from cognitive research can inform practices for L2 teaching and learning. Following these two sections Part III provides a summative commentary of the theories explored in the volume along with suggestions for future research directions. The book is intended to act as a valuable reference for scholars applied linguists specialists in pedagogy language educators and anyone wishing to gain an overview of current issues in SLA and bilingualism.
Irony and Humor : From pragmatics to discourse
Jul 2013
Book
Editor(s):
Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo and
M. Belén Alvarado Ortega
Irony and Humor: From pragmatics to discourse is a complete updated panorama of linguistic research on irony and humor based on a variety of perspectives corpora and theories. The book collects the most recent contributions from such diverse approaches as Relevance Theory Cognitive Linguistics General Theory of Verbal Humor Neo-Gricean Pragmatics or Argumentation. The volume is organized in three parts referring to pragmatic perspectives mediated discourse and conversational interaction. This book will be highly relevant for anyone interested in pragmatics discourse analysis as well as social sciences.
Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language : New edition of the 1993 English translation by Niels Ege
Apr 2013
Book
Author(s):
Rasmus Rask
This edition constitutes a reprint of Niels Ege’s English translation of Rasmus Rask’s prize essay of 1818 which appeared as volume XXVI in the Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague in 1993. The prize essay was published in Danish in 1818. In contrast to other works by Rask notably his introduction to the study of Icelandic it was never reissued until Louis Hjelmslev published a corrected version in Danish as part of his edition of Rask’s selected works. While Rask lived a substantial part of the book was translated into German. The present work is however the only translation of the work into English and indeed into any other language. It is to be hoped that the field of the history of linguistics will hereby receive a new impetus to scrutinize the early beginnings of Indo-European scholarship. But just as importantly the translation of this work of genius reveals that even if details in the substantial treatment of the various branches of language have now been superseded the theoretical parts of the book are still worth reading by all linguists for their own sake.
Iconic Investigations
Mar 2013
Book
Editor(s):
Lars Elleström,
Olga Fischer and
Christina Ljungberg
The contributions to Iconic Investigations deal with linguistic or literary aspects of language. While some studies analyze the cognitive structures of language others pay close attention to the sounds of spoken language and the visual characteristics of written language. In addition this volume also contains studies of media types such as music and visual images that are integrated into the overall project to deepen the understanding of iconicity – the creation of meaning by way of similarity relations. Iconicity is a fundamental but relatively unexplored part of signification in language and other media types. During the last decades the study of iconicity has emerged as a vital research area with far-reaching interdisciplinary scope and the volume should be of interest for students and researchers interested in scholarly fields such as semiotics cognitive linguistics conceptual metaphor studies poetry intermediality and multimodality.
The Interplay of Variation and Change in Contact Settings
Mar 2013
Book
Editor(s):
Isabelle Léglise and
Claudine Chamoreau
This volume is at the cross-roads between two research traditions dealing with language change: contact linguistics and language variation and change. It starts out from the notion that linguistic variation is still a little researched area in most contact-induced language change studies. Intending to fill this gap it offers a rich panorama of case studies and approaches dealing with linguistic variation in contact settings. It concentrates both on monolingual data tracing variation and contact beneath surface homogeneity and on bilingual data such as code-switching and other forms of variation to trace their underlying regularities. It investigates the relationship between variation and change in language contact settings. <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The book will be relevant for students and researchers in contact linguistics sociolinguistics language variation and change sociology of language descriptive linguistics and linguistic typology.