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This book envisions the study of bare noun phrases as a field of research in its own right rather than an accessory matter in the wider domain of nominal determination. Combining insights from different theoretical backgrounds and extending the empirical coverage of bare noun phenomena the ten contributions provide new perspectives on long-standing but still actively debated problems as well as investigations into previously ignored issues. The volume focuses on the wide range of bare noun phenomena in Romance languages including Spanish Catalan Brazilian and European Portuguese Italian and French; but also widens its inherently comparative perspective to languages such as Bulgarian and Modern Hebrew. The authors discuss the importance of cross-linguistic patterns in the modeling of the syntax and semantics of noun phrases and of common noun denotations the role of information structure as well as that of discourse traditions and coordination.

In addition to the hands sign languages make extensive use of nonmanual articulators such as the body head and face to convey linguistic information. This collected volume focuses on the forms and functions of nonmanuals in sign languages. The articles discuss various aspects of specific nonmanual markers in different sign languages and enhance the fact that nonmanuals are an essential part of sign language grammar. Approaching the topic from empirical theoretical and computational perspectives the book is of special interest to sign language researchers typologists and theoretical as well as computational linguists that are curious about language and modality. The articles investigate phenomena such as mouth gestures agreement negation topicalization and semantic operators and discuss general topics such as language and modality simultaneity computer animation and the interfaces between syntax semantics and prosody.

Originally published in Sign Language & Linguistics 14:1 (2011).

This volume brings together current research by international scholars on the varieties of English spoken in Ireland. The papers apply contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches and frameworks to a range of topics. A number of papers explore the distribution of linguistic features in Irish English including the evolution of linguistic structures in Irish English and linguistic change in progress employing broadly quantitative sociolinguistic approaches. Pragmatic features of Irish English are explored through corpus linguistics-based analysis. The construction of linguistic corpora using written and recorded material form the focus of other papers extending and analyzing the growing range of corpus material available to researchers of varieties of English including diaspora varieties. Issues of language and identity in contemporary Ireland are explored in several contributions using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The volume will be of interest to linguists generally and to scholars with an interest in varieties of English.

Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) considers how people can interact with robots in order to enable robots to best interact with people. HRI presents many challenges with solutions requiring a unique combination of skills from many fields including computer science artificial intelligence social sciences ethology and engineering. We have specifically aimed this work to appeal to such a multi-disciplinary audience. This volume presents new and exciting material from HRI researchers who discuss research at the frontiers of HRI. The chapters address the human aspects of interaction such as how a robot may understand provide feedback and act as a social being in interaction with a human to experimental studies and field implementations of human–robot collaboration ranging from joint action robots practically and safely helping people in real world situations robots helping people via rehabilitation and robots acquiring concepts from communication. This volume reflects current trends in this exciting research field.

Research on nominalization a process that gives rise to referring expressions has always played a central role in linguistic investigations. Over the years there has also been growing evidence that nominalization constructions often extend to non-referential domains. They participate in noun-modifying expressions (e.g. genitive and relative clauses) subordinate clauses and topic constructions finite structures with the nominalizers reanalyzed as TAM markers and stance constructions with evaluative attitudinal evidential and epistemic overtones. This volume brings together historical and crosslinguistic evidence from more than 20 different languages representing six different language families spanning the Asian continent and the Pacific and Indian oceans to elucidate the strategies and grammaticalization pathways that give rise to both referential and non-referential uses of nominalization constructions. This collection highlights the diversity of strategies and at the same time the robust cyclical nature of change within and across languages. The combined diachronic and typological analyses in this volume are particularly valuable for linguistic research on diachronic morphosyntax and linguistic ‘universals’ and are also an important supplementary cross-referencing tool for linguistic investigations of versatile and ubiquitous morphemes in under-documented languages.

The volume examines the role of narratives in old and new media. Its ten contributions firstly center on the various forms and functions narratives assume in computer-mediated environments e.g. websites weblogs message boards etc. In this light past and present approaches to the description of narratives are presented and reevaluated based on their ability to capture the conceptual and methodological exigencies of new media. Secondly the volume sheds new light upon the multimodal composition of new media narratives which typically feature multiple co-occurring semiotic modes such as speech sound text static or moving images. In this vein each paper explores a wide array of authentic examples from text genres as diverse as political speeches real-time narratives and contemporary feature films. Its wide scope should not only appeal to linguists interested in the discursive and pragmatic dimension of narratives but also to scholars and students in other scientific disciplines.

A fascinating cornucopia of new ideas based on fundamentals of neurobiology psychology psychiatry and therapy this book extends boundaries of current concepts of consciousness. Its eclectic mix will simulate and challenge not only neuroscientists and psychologists but entice others interested in exploring consciousness. Contributions from top researchers in consciousness and related fields project diverse ideas focused mainly on conscious nonconscious interactions: <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>1. Paving the way for new research on basic scientific - physiological pharmacological or neurochemical - mechanisms underpinning conscious experience (‘bottom up’ approach); <br/>2. Providing directions on how psychological processes are involved in consciousness (‘top down’ approach); <br/>3. Indicating how including consciousness could lead to new understanding of mental disorders such as schizophrenia depression dementia and addiction;<br/> 4. More provocatively but still based on scientific evidence exploring consciousness beyond conventional boundaries indicating the potential for radical new thinking or ‘quantum leaps’ in neuroscientific theories of consciousness. (Series B)

This volume unifies a wide breadth of interdisciplinary studies examining the expression of motion in Slavic languages. The contributors to the volume have joined in the discussion of Slavic motion talk from diachronic typological comparative cognitive and acquisitional perspectives with a particular focus on verbs of motion the nuclei of the lexicalization patterns for encoding motion. Motion verbs are notorious among Slavic linguists for their baffling idiosyncratic behavior in their lexical semantic syntactical and aspectual characteristics. The collaborative effort of this volume is aimed both at highlighting and accounting for the unique properties of Slavic verbs of motion and at situating Slavic languages within the larger framework of typological research investigating cross-linguistic encoding of the motion domain. Due to the multiplicity of approaches to the linguistic analysis the collection offers it will suitably complement courses and programs of study focusing on Slavic linguistics as well as typology diachronic and comparative linguistics semantics and second language acquisition.

This volume deals with issues on negation patterns in languages of West Africa and the adjacent north and east. The first aim is to provide data on various aspects of negation in African languages. Although the topics addressed here reflect a great diversity of negation patterns the following typological features have been identified to be prominent in our region: conflict or even incompatibility between negation and focus use of other indirect means of negating non-indicative mood (covered under the term ‘Prohibitive’) different negation patterns in different Tense-Aspect-Moods (e.g. Imperfective vs. Perfective) lack of negative indefinites and disjunctive negative marking (often referred to as ‘double negation’). The articles presented here show that areal factors have played a significant role in the development of negation strategies in the languages of West Africa and beyond. On the other hand genetic factors seem to be less prominent.

Nearly three decades since the publication of the seminal Metaphors We Live By Cognitive Linguistics is now a mature theoretical and empirical enterprise with a voluminous associated literature. It is arguably the most rapidly expanding ‘school’ in modern linguistics and one of the most exciting areas of research within the interdisciplinary project known as cognitive science. As such Cognitive Linguistics is increasingly attracting a broad readership both within linguistics as well as from neighbouring disciplines including other cognitive and social sciences and from disciplines within the humanities. This volume contains over 20 papers by leading experts in cognitive linguistics which survey the state of the art and new directions in cognitive linguistics. The volume is divided into 5 sections covering all the traditional areas of study in cognitive linguistics as well as newer areas including applications and extensions. Sections include: Approaches to semantics; Approaches to metaphor and blending; Approaches to grammar; Language embodiment and cognition; Extensions and applications of cognitive linguistics.