- Home
- Books
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.
1 - 20 of 65 results
Subject
- Theoretical linguistics [30] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-theor
- Syntax [17] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-syntax
- Pragmatics [15] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-prag
- Historical linguistics [14] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-hl
- Discourse studies [13] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-disc
- Sociolinguistics and Dialectology [12] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-socio
- Germanic linguistics [11] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-germ
- Semantics [9] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-seman
- Generative linguistics [6] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-gener
- Psycholinguistics [6] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-psylin
- English linguistics [5] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-eng
- Romance linguistics [5] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-rom
- Typology [5] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-typ
- Cognition and language [4] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-cogn
- Corpus linguistics [4] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-corp
- Communication Studies [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/comm-cgen
- Bilingualism [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-bil
- Cognitive linguistics [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-cogpsy
- Language acquisition [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-la
- Morphology [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-morph
- Romance literature & literary studies [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lit-rom
- Philosophy [3] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/phil-gen
- Consciousness research [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/cons-gen
- Computational & corpus linguistics [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-comput
- Contact Linguistics [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-cont
- Functional linguistics [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-funct
- Languages of North America [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-noam
- Phonology [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-phon
- Slavic linguistics [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-slav
- Writing and literacy [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-writ
- Medieval literature & literary studies [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lit-med
- Theoretical literature & literary studies [2] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lit-theor
- General studies in art & art history [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/art-gen
- Altaic languages [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-alta
- Austro-Asian languages [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-austast
- Bibliographies in linguistics [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-biblio
- Comparative linguistics [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-comp
- Creole studies [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-creo
- Dialogue studies [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-dial
- Language teaching [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-educ
- Evolution of language [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-evo
- History of linguistics [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-hol
- Language disorders & speech pathology [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-ladis
- Phonetics [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-phot
- Uralic languages [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lin-ural
- English literature & literary studies [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lit-engl
- German literature & literary studies [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/lit-germli
- Cognitive psychology [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/psy-cogpsy
- Translation studies [1] http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/tran-transl
- More Hide
Year
- 2025 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2025
- 2024 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2024
- 2023 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2023
- 2022 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2022
- 2021 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2021
- 2020 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2020
- 2019 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2019
- 2018 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2018
- 2017 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2017
- 2016 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2016
- 2015 [4] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2015
- 2014 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2014
- 2013 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2013
- 2011 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2011
- 2010 [4] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2010
- 2009 [4] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2009
- 2008 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2008
- 2007 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2007
- 2006 [4] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2006
- 2005 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2005
- 2004 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2004
- 2003 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2003
- 2002 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 2002
- 1999 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1999
- 1998 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1998
- 1997 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1997
- 1994 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1994
- 1993 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1993
- 1992 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1992
- 1990 [2] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1990
- 1983 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1983
- 1979 [1] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1979
- 1978 [3] http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/yearOfPublication 1978
- More Hide
-
-
Vagueness as an Implicitating Persuasive Strategy
Author(s): Giorgia MannaioliPublication Date January 2025More LessThe book presents an integrated model of vagueness as an implicit and persuasive strategy, pervasive in everyday language use and public discourse. It considers three macro-dimensions of the phenomenon: linguistic-theoretical, psychological, and social-discursive.
It shows how vagueness can be strategically employed to elude recipients’ critical evaluation of intended contents, to deresponsibilize the source and make their arguments unchallengeable.
It explores the semiotic, semantic, pragmatic and psycholinguistic nature of vagueness, and looks at its use in contemporary public (with a focus on Italian) discourse.
It also delves into under-explored aspects of the phenomenon such as: the continuum of intentionality in the use of vague expressions; the evolutionary significance of vagueness; its implicitating and persuasive functions; the phenomenon of vagueness by implicature; the interaction between vague expressions and context precisation; the cognitive functioning of vague expressions; the use of vagueness in contemporary persuasive vs. non-persuasive text types; gender-based differences in the use of vagueness in public discourse.
-
-
-
Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest
Editor(s): Ilaria Fiorentini and Chiara ZanchiPublication Date October 2024More LessThis book aims to address a gap in the existing literature on the relationship between vagueness and ambiguity, as well as on their differences and similarities, both in synchrony and diachrony, and taking into consideration their relation to language use. The book is divided into two parts, which address specific and broader research questions from different perspectives. The former part examines the differences between ambiguity and vagueness from a bird-eye perspective, with a particular focus on their respective functions and roles in language change. It also presents innovative linguistic resources and tools for the study of these phenomena. The second part contains case studies on vagueness and ambiguity in language change and use. It considers different strategies and languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Medieval Latin, and Old Italian. The readership for this volume is broad, encompassing scholars in a range of disciplines, including pragmatics, spoken discourse, conversation analysis, discourse genres (political, commercial, notarial discourse), corpus studies, language change, pragmaticalization, and language typology.
-
-
-
Valence Changes in Zapotec
Editor(s): Natalie Operstein and Aaron Huey SonnenscheinPublication Date December 2015More LessZapotec languages present a wide range of lexical, morphological, phonological, and syntactic means of indicating valence changes. Despite their significant theoretical interest, detailed descriptions of valence-changing phenomena in Zapotec are rare, comparative studies are practically non-existent, and Zapotec contributions to the general typology of valence-changing phenomena still remain largely untapped. The present volume addresses this imbalance by being the first to explore Zapotec valence-changing constructions in depth, and to highlight their broad comparative, typological, and theoretical significance. This book contains both write-ups of contributions to the Special Session on Valence-Changing Devices in Zapotecan (annual meeting of SSILA, 2012) and specially commissioned chapters. It will be of interest to Zapotecanists, Otomangueanists, Mesoamericanists, typologists, morphologists, syntacticians, semanticians, and general linguists with an interest in valence-changing phenomena, and may also be used as supplementary reading in field methods and typology courses.
-
-
-
Valence, Semantic Case, and Grammatical Relations
Editor(s): Werner AbrahamPublication Date January 1978More LessThe papers in this volume have been grouped in three thematic parts: Valence which plays a key concept in the syntactic classification of verbs and adjectives, provides a necessary link for decoding and encoding grammatical relations, and is an important requisite for the evaluation of formal languages for the purpose of describing and explaining phenomena of natural language. The second group of papers concerns the notion of (deep) case and the implications of tracing a grammatical theory on semantic case. The final series of papers is distinguished by the degree of accent it puts on the link between linguistic surface phenomena, including semantic case, and grammatical relations, in the sense that it has been postulated by Universal Grammar.
-
-
-
Variation and Change
Editor(s): Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef VerschuerenPublication Date November 2010More LessThe ten volumes of the Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, cultural, interactional, or discursive angles, this sixth volume focuses on the dynamic aspects of language and reviews the relevant developments in variationist and diachronic scholarship. The areas explored in the volume concern several general themes: specific methodological approaches, from comparative reconstruction to evolutionary pragmatics; issues in intra-lingual variation in terms of standard and non-standard varieties; cross-linguistic variation, including its cross-cultural dimension; and the study of diachronic relations across linguistic patterns, including changes in all areas of pragmatic patterns and categories. The contributions document two prominent and interrelated trends that shape contemporary variationist and diachronic research. One, it has moved from situating change within context-independent systems toward incorporating patterns of language use and the speaker’s role in language change. And two, it has reoriented its focus away from cataloguing instances of variation and toward seeking theoretically informed accounts that aim at explaining variation and change. On the whole, the volume argues for accepting and developing actively a systematic connection between research in diachrony, synchronic variation, and typology, while also incorporating the socio-cognitive perspective in linguistic analysis as a particularly promising source of useful methodology and explanatory models.
-
-
-
Variation and Change in Morphology
Editor(s): Franz Rainer, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Dieter Kastovsky and Hans Christian LuschützkyPublication Date February 2010More LessThe papers in this volume derive from the 13th International Morphology Meeting (Vienna 2008). They all address the main topic of the meeting, viz. variation and change in morphology. Inflectional and derivational morphology are represented on equal terms. The focus is on cases of language-internal variation, such as pattern competition, base variation, form–function mismatches, or morphological pleonasm. Other recurring themes are language contact as a cause of variation, the output-orientedness of morphological patterns, and linguistic economy.The contributions cover a wide variety of languages, both Indo-European (Romance, Germanic and Slavic; Latin, Lithuanian and Romani) and non-Indo-European (Hungarian, Maay, Chinese).
-
-
-
Variation and Change in Spoken and Written Discourse
Editor(s): Julia Bamford, Silvia Cavalieri and Giuliana DianiPublication Date October 2013More LessThis book focuses on aspects of variation and change in language use in spoken and written discourse on the basis of corpus analyses, providing new descriptive insights, and new methods of utilising small specialized corpora for the description of language variation and change. The sixteen contributions included in this volume represent a variety of diverse views and approaches, but all share the common goal of throwing light on a crucial dimension of discourse: the dialogic interactivity between the spoken and written. Their foci range from papers addressing general issues related to corpus analysis of spoken dialogue to papers focusing on specific cases employing a variety of analytical tools, including qualitative and quantitative analysis of small and large corpora. The present volume constitutes a highly valuable tool for applied linguists and discourse analysts as well as for students, instructors and language teachers.
-
-
-
Variation and Change in the Encoding of Motion Events
Editor(s): Juliana Goschler and Anatol StefanowitschPublication Date November 2013More LessThe linguistic typology of motion event encoding is one of the central topics in Cognitive Linguistics. A vast body of typological, contrastive, and psycholinguistic research has shown the potential, but also the limitations of the original distinction between verb-framed and satellite-framed languages. This volume contains ten original papers focusing specifically on the variation and change of motion event encoding in individual languages and language families. The authors show that some of the central claims about motion event encoding need careful re-examination and reformulation and that individual languages and language families are more variable across space and time than even a refined typology could neatly capture at this time. The volume thus contributes to a more detailed and fine-grained foundation for the investigation of conceptual causes and consequences of different motion-event encoding strategies.
-
-
-
Variation and Evolution
Editor(s): Sandro Sessarego, Juan J. Colomina-Almiñana and Adrián Rodríguez-RiccelliPublication Date August 2020More LessThis book is a collection of original studies analyzing how different internal and external factors affect Spanish language variation and evolution across a number of (socio)linguistic scenarios. Its primary goal is to expand our understanding of how native and non-native varieties of Spanish co-exist with other languages and dialects under the influence of several linguistic and extra-linguistic forces. While some papers analyze the linguistic dynamics affecting Spanish grammars from a cross-dialectal perspective, others focus more closely on the relations established between Spanish and other languages with which it is in contact. In particular, some of these studies show how power and prestige may support (or not) the use of Spanish in different social contexts and educational realities, given that the attitudes toward this language vary greatly across the Spanish-speaking world. On the one hand, in some regions, Spanish represents the variety spoken by the majority of the population, typically related to prestige and power (Spain and Latin America). On the other hand, in other contexts, the same language is conceived as a minority variety, which may or may not be associated with stigmatized immigrant groups (i.e., in the US).
-
-
-
Variation and Reconstruction
Editor(s): Thomas D. CravensPublication Date April 2006More LessThe relation of language variation to reconstructed languages and to the methodology of reconstruction has long been neglected. The articles in the present volume consider this relationship from a number of different angles, with a number of different focuses. Several of the papers discuss evidence from Germanic, either Proto-Germanic (Joseph, Schwink), or daughter languages such as Dutch (Goss & Howell), Afrikaans (Roberge), Newcastle English (Milroy), and a Wisconsin German dialect (Geiger & Salmons). Other papers look at Italian (Cravens), Spanish (Harris-Northall), and the non-Indo-European languages or families Aramaic (Miller), and Proto-Hmong-Mien (Ratliff), and the Southeast Asian languages Phan Rang Cham and Tsat (Thurgood). In doing so they bring together a number of interconnected issues which are of current concern in comparative and historical linguistics.
-
-
-
Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages
Editor(s): James N. Stanford and Dennis R. PrestonPublication Date April 2009More LessIndigenous minority languages have played crucial roles in many areas of linguistics - phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, typology, and the ethnography of communication. Such languages have, however, received comparatively little attention from quantitative or variationist sociolinguistics. Without the diverse perspectives that underrepresented language communities can provide, our understanding of language variation and change will be incomplete. To help fill this gap and develop broader viewpoints, this anthology presents 21 original, fieldwork-based studies of a wide range of indigenous languages in the framework of quantitative sociolinguistics. The studies illustrate how such understudied communities can provide new insights into language variation and change with respect to socioeconomic status, gender, age, clan, lack of a standard, exogamy, contact with dominant majority languages, internal linguistic factors, and many other topics.
-
-
-
Variation in Language
Editor(s): Petr Sgall, Jirí Hronek, Alexandr Stich and Ján HoreckýPublication Date July 1992More LessCzech, a clear case of a language having a Standard and a strong central vernacular with intensive shifting between them, offers many points of general interest to sociolinguists. This volume is divided in 5 chapters and opens with a general discussion of language varieties. 'The Two Central Language Formations in Czech' gives a summary description of the Czech central vernacular. This is followed by a chapter on 'The Origin and Opposition of Standard and Common Czech' and in the next chapter code switching between Standard and Common Czech is discussed. The concluding chapter presents starting points for a theoretical description of a national language with intralingual variation and a preliminary formulation of perspectives on the stratification of Czech.
-
-
-
Variation in Political Metaphor
Editor(s): Julien Perrez, Min Reuchamps and Paul H. ThibodeauPublication Date August 2019More LessThe objective of this book is to understand variation in political metaphor. Political metaphors are distinctive and important because they are used to achieve political goals: to persuade, to shape expectations, to realize specific objectives and actions. The analyses in the book go beyond the mere identification of conceptual metaphors in discourse to show how political metaphors function in the real world. It starts from the finding that the same conceptual domains are used to characterize politics, political entities and political issues. Yet, the specific metaphors used to describe these conceptual domains often change. This book explores some of the reasons for this variation, including features of political leaders (e.g., their age and gender), countries, and other sociopolitical circumstances. This perspective yields a better understanding of the role(s) of metaphors in political discourse.
-
-
-
Variation in Second and Heritage Languages
Editor(s): Robert Bayley, Dennis R. Preston and Xiaoshi LiPublication Date July 2022More LessVariationist work in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) began in the mid 1970s and steadily progressed during the 1980s. Much of it was reviewed along with newer approaches in Bayley and Preston 1996 (B&P), heavily devoted to VARBRUL analyses that exposed the variability in developing interlanguages and placed variationist work within the canon of SLA. This new volume features three developing trends. First, it widens the scope of L1s of learners (from 6 in B&P to 8) and L2 targets (2 in B&P to 7) and in each case has brought more careful demographic and variable considerations to bear, including heritage languages and study abroad. Second, it modernizes statistics by moving from VARBRUL to the more widely used log-odds probabilities that allow more detailed consideration of variables and their influences. Finally, it deepens consideration of variable sociolinguistic meaning in learner behaviors, a dominating feature of 3rd Wave variationist work.
-
-
-
Variation in the Caribbean
Editor(s): Lars Hinrichs and Joseph T. FarquharsonPublication Date January 2011More LessThe study of linguistic variation in the Caribbean has been central to the emergence of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics as an academic field. It has yielded influential theory, such as the (post-)creole continuum or the 'Acts of Identity' models, that has shaped sociolinguistics far beyond creole settings. This volume collects current work in the field and focuses on methodological and theoretical innovations that continue, expand, and update the dialog between Caribbean variation studies and general sociolinguistics.
-
-
-
Variation in University Student Writing
Author(s): Larissa GoulartPublication Date August 2024More LessThis book provides a comprehensive description of the situational and linguistic characteristics of undergraduate student writing, considering both assignment type and discipline. Drawing on a corpus of more than 900 undergraduate student assignments from four disciplinary groups (Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Life Sciences), the book combines corpus-based analyses of linguistic features with analyses of communicative purposes and text characteristics. Variation in University Writing takes a new approach to register variation by grouping assignments by their communicative purpose (to argue, to explain, to compare, to describe, to narrate a personal event, to give a procedural recount, to give personal advice, and to propose), rather than register categories. A multidimensional analysis provides a detailed description of the linguistic patterns of undergraduate writing. The findings presented in this book will be of interest to teachers of writing, instructors of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and researchers of university writing.
-
-
-
Variation Rolls the Dice
Editor(s): Enoch O. Aboh and Cécile B. VigourouxPublication Date October 2021More LessVariation Rolls the Dice: A worldwide collage in honour of Salikoko S. Mufwene aims to celebrate Mufwene’s ground-breaking contribution to linguistics in the past four decades. The title also encapsulates his approach to language as both systemic and socio-cultural practices, and the role of variation in determining particular evolutionary trajectories in specific linguistic ecologies. The book therefore focuses on variation within and across languages, within and across speakers, and how this fundamental aspect of human behavior can affect language structure in time and space. Mufwene has been instrumental in putting creole languages on the map of General Linguistics and connecting their analysis to issues of language acquisition, multilingualism, language contact, language evolution, and language typology. Thanks to the diversity of topics and the wide-ranging theoretical persuasions of the contributors, this volume aims at a large readership including both scholars and advanced students interested in cutting-edge research in the aforementioned domains.
-
-
-
Variation within and across Romance Languages
Editor(s): Marie-Hélène Côté and Eric MathieuPublication Date December 2014More LessThis volume is a selection of twenty peer-reviewed articles first presented at the 41st annual Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), held at the University of Ottawa in 2011. They are thematically linked by a broad notion of variation across languages, dialects, speakers, time, linguistic contexts, and communicative situations. Furthermore, the articles address common theoretical and empirical issues from different formal, experimental, or corpus-based perspectives. The languages analyzed belong to the main members of the Romance family, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Ladin, Italian, Sardinian, and Romanian, and a variety of topics across a wide spectrum of linguistic subfields, from phonetics to semantics, as well as historical linguistics, bilingualism and second-language learning, is covered. By illustrating the richness and complementarity of subjects, methods, and theoretical frameworks explored within Romance linguistics, significant contributions are made to both the documentation of Romance languages and to linguistic theory.
-
-
-
Variation, Change, and Phonological Theory
Editor(s): Frans L. Hinskens, Roeland van Hout and W. Leo WetzelsPublication Date December 1997More LessThere is a growing awareness that a fruitful cooperation between the (diachronic and synchronic) study of language variation and change and work in phonological theory is both possible and desirable. The study of language variation and change would benefit from this kind of cooperation on the conceptual and theoretical levels. Phonological theory may well profit from a greater use of what is commonly called ‘external evidence’.
This volume contains contributions by outstanding representatives from the more data-oriented fields and phonological theory. They discuss possibilities and problems for a further integration of both areas, by considering questions such as where and to which extent the two may need each other, and whether there is a need for an interdisciplinary conceptual framework and methodology. Attention is also paid to questions regarding the cause and actuation, linguistic constraints and the internal spread of linguistic change, as well as to possible and impossible processes of language change.
-
-
-
Variational Pragmatics
Editor(s): Klaus P. Schneider and Anne BarronPublication Date May 2008More LessThis collection of papers is designed to establish variational pragmatics. This new field is situated at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology and aims at systematically investigating the effect of macro-social pragmatic variation on language in action. As such, it challenges the widespread assumption in the area of pragmatics that language communities are homogeneous and also addresses the current research gap in sociolinguistics for variation on the pragmatic level. The introductory chapter establishes the rationale for studying variational pragmatics as a separate field of inquiry, systematically sketches the broader theoretical framework and presents a framework for further analysis. The papers which follow are located within this framework. They present empirical variational pragmatic research focusing on regional varieties of pluricentric languages. Speech acts and other discourse phenomena are addressed and analysed in a number of regional varieties of Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The seminal nature of this volume, its empirical orientation and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
-