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Methods of linguistic data collection are among the most central aspects in empirical linguistics. While written questionnaires have only played a minor role in the field of social dialectology the study of regional and social variation the last decade has seen a methodological revival. This book is the first monograph-length account on written questionnaires in more than 60 years. It reconnects – for the newcomer and the more seasoned empirical linguist alike – the older questionnaire tradition last given serious treatment in the 1950s with the more recent instantiations reincarnations and new developments in an up-to-date near-comprehensive account. A disciplinary history of the method sets the scene for a discussion of essential theoretical aspects in dialectology and sociolinguistics. The book is rounded off by a step-by-step practical guide – from study idea to data analysis and statistics – that includes hands-on sections on Excel and the statistical suite R for the novice.This book has a companion website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/impact.40.website

The noun is an apparent cross-linguistic universal; nouns are central targets of language acquisition; they are frequently prototypical exemplars of Saussurian arbitrariness. This volume considers nouns in sign languages and in the evanescent performances of homesigners (and gesturers) which exhibit considerable iconic motivation. Do such systems mark nouns formally? Do they share strategies for forming nominal expressions? Individual chapters consider formal criteria for a noun/verb distinction in sign languages with different socio-linguistic profiles strategies of “patterned iconicity” in a subcategory of nouns in both well-established and emerging sign languages grammatical markers for a nominal class in a first generation family homesign system from Mexico and the changing role of handshapes in signs referring to action and objects over the gradual development of a single deaf child’s homesign. The volume is of special interest to scholars of gesture sign languages linguistic typology and the evolution socialization and ethnography of language. Originally published in Gesture Vol. 13:3 (2013).

This volume brings together studies in the domain of weak referentiality the phenomenon that a definite or indefinite noun phrase lacks its usual referential force. Several papers investigate syntactic or semantic properties of indefinite noun phrases such as modality number neutrality narrow scope incorporation predication and case marking and that in a range of languages (Arabic Brazilian Portuguese Catalan German Papiamentu Russian). Other papers deal with weakly referential definite noun phrases in various languages (Basque Dutch English French) involving scrambling modification possession and accessibility. The papers demonstrate a range of empirical methods and theoretical models. This volume will not only be of interest to researchers and students in syntax and semantics but also in psycholinguistics and language typology.

The universal and typological status of the notion of word class — closely related to part-of-speech systems morphology syntax and the lexicon-syntax interface — continues to be of major linguistic theoretical interest. The papers included in this volume offer a fresh look at the variety of current theoretical and descriptive approaches to word class issues and present original analyses and new data from a number of languages. The primary focus is on methods (including computational ones) and criteria for identifying and representing major word classes and subclasses in specific languages with considerable attention also directed towards the characterization of the nature and role of minor — or neglected — word classes including trans-categorization processes. The range of topics and perspectives covered makes this volume of considerable interest to both theoretical linguists and typologists.

Context is a core notion of linguistic theory. However while there are numerous attempts at explaining single aspects of the notion of context these attempts are rather diverse and do not easily converge to a unified theory of context. The present multi-faceted collection of papers reconsiders the notion of context and its challenges for linguistics from different theoretical and empirical angles. Part I offers insights into a wide range of current approaches to context including theoretical pragmatics neurolinguistics clinical pragmatics interactional linguistics and psycholinguistics. Part II presents new empirical findings on the role of context from case studies on idioms unarticulated constituents argument linking and numerically-quantified expressions. Bringing together different theoretical frameworks the volume provides thought-provoking discussions of how the notion of context can be understood modeled and implemented in linguistics. It is essential for researchers interested in theoretical and applied linguistics the semantics/pragmatics interface and experimental pragmatics.

Bringing together fifteen articles by scholars in Europe and North America this collection aims to represent and advance studies in historical lexis. It highlights the significance of the understanding of dictionary-making and language-making as important socio-cultural phenomena. With its general focus on England and English the book investigates the reception and development of historical and modern English vocabulary and culture in different periods social and professional strata geographical varieties of English and other national cultures. The volume is based on individual (meta)lexicographical etymological lexicosemantic and corpus studies representing two large areas of research: the first part focuses on the history of dictionaries analysing them in diachrony from the first professional dictionaries of the Baroque period via Enlightenment and Romanticism to exploring the possibilities of the new online lexicographical publications; and the second part looks at the interfaces between etymology semantic development and word-formation on the one hand and changes in society and culture on the other.

Whether Translation Studies really matters is an important and challenging question which practitioners of translation and interpreting raise repeatedly. TS scholars many of whom are translators and interpreters themselves are not indifferent to it either. The twenty papers of this thematic volume contributed by authors from various parts of Europe from Brazil and from Israel address it in a positive spirit. Some do so through direct critical reflection and analysis arguing in particular that the engagement of TS with society should be strengthened so that the latter could benefit more from the former. Others illustrate the relevance and contribution of TS to society and to other disciplines from various angles. Topics broached include the cultural mediation role of translators issues in literary translation knowledge as intellectual capital globalization through English and risks associated with it bridging languages mass media corpora training the use of modern technology interdisciplinarity with psycholinguistics and neurophysiology.

John Sinclair’s work is widely known and has had a far-reaching influence particularly in the areas of corpus linguistics lexis phraseology lexicography grammar and discourse analysis. This collection of papers written by former colleagues at Birmingham University looks at some key writings by John Sinclair with the intention of showing why his ideas are of lasting significance. Contributions deal with the Cobuild Project (directed by Sinclair) and its innovative first dictionary; collocation and the Open Choice and Idiom Principles; the interactions between and interdependence of phraseology and grammar; semantic prosody; and the construction of meaning in text. This volume was originally published as a Special Issue of International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 12:2 (2007).

This interdisciplinary monograph explores the discursive manifestations of the conflict over how to remember and interpret the actions of the military during the last dictatorship in Uruguay (1973-1985). Through the exploration of the discursive ways in which this powerful group represents past events and participants we can trace the ideological struggle over how to reconstruct a traumatic past. By looking at memory as a social and discursive practice the analysis identifies particular semiotic practices and linguistic patterns deployed in the construction of memory. The discursive description of what is remembered how it is remembered and who remembers serves to explain how the institution’s construction of the past is transformed and maintained to respond to outside criticism and create an institutional identity as a lawful state apparatus. This book should interest discourse analysts historians sociologists and researchers in the field of transitional justice.

Contemporary metaphor theory has recently begun to address the relation between metaphor culture and ideology. In this wide-ranging book Andrew Goatly using lexical data from his database Metalude investigates how conceptual metaphor themes construct our thinking and social behaviour in fields as diverse as architecture engineering education genetics ecology economics politics industrial time-management medicine immigration race and sex. He argues that metaphor themes are created not only through the universal body but also through cultural experience so that an apparently universal metaphor such as event-structure as realized in English grammar is in fact culturally relative compared with e.g. the construal of 'cause and effect' in the Algonquin language Blackfoot. Moreover event-structure as a model is both scientifically reactionary and as the basis for technological mega-projects has proved environmentally harmful. Furthermore the ideologies of early capitalism created or exploited a selection of metaphor themes historically traceable through Hobbes Hume Smith Malthus and Darwin. These metaphorical concepts support neo-Darwinian and neo-conservative ideologies apparent at the beginning of the 21^st century ideologies underpinning our social and environmental crises. The conclusion therefore recommends skepticism of metaphor’s reductionist tendencies.