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&showSortByTitle=true&page=3&value99=w&option99=pub_indexLetter&facetOptions=&facetNames=
41 - 60 of
75
results
Filter :
Filter by subject:
Filter by publication date:
Written Reliquaries : The resonance of orality in medieval English texts
Dec 2006
Book
Author(s):
Leslie K. Arnovick
Written Reliquaries: The resonance of orality in medieval English texts establishes the linguistic component of orality and oral tradition. The relics it examines are traces of spoken performance artifacts of linguistic and cultural processes. Seven case studies animate verbal acts of making promises quoting proverbs pronouncing curses speaking gibberish praying Pater Nosters invoking saints and keeping silence. The study of their resonance is enabled by a methodological conjunction of historical pragmatics and oral theory. Insights from oral theory enlighten spoken traditions which in turn may be understood in the larger historical-pragmatic context of linguistic performance. The inquiry ranges across broad as well as narrow planes of reference to trace a complex set of cultural and linguistic interactions. In this way it reconstructs relevant discursive contexts giving detailed accounts of underlying assumptions traditions and conventions. Doing so the book demonstrates that an integrated methodology not only allows access to oral discourse in both Old English and Middle English but also provides insight into the fluid medieval interchange of literacy and orality.
Written Communication across Cultures : A sociocognitive perspective on business genres
Nov 2005
Book
Author(s):
Yunxia Zhu
Winner of ABC's award for Distinguished Publication for 2006
This book explores effective written communication across cultures both theoretically and practically. Specifically it conceptualizes cross-cultural genre study and compares English and Chinese business writing collected from Australia New Zealand and China. It is also one of those inspired by contrastive rhetoric but has contributed innovatively and uniquely by incorporating research findings from genre analysis in particular the sociocognitive genre perspective into this cross-cultural study.
On the one hand the endeavor represents an in-depth theoretical exploration by considering not only discourse community and cognitive structuring but also the deep semantics of genre and intertextuality while broadening genre study by integrating insights from cross-cultural communication as well as the Chinese perspectives. On the other hand the book also addresses pragmatic issues. As a particular feature it solicits professional members’ intercultural viewpoints; thus confirming the shared social "stock of knowledge" employed in the culturally defined writing conventions.
Last but not least this book explores the implications for genre education and training and develops an appropriate model for cross-cultural genre learning which encourages learning through legitimate peripheral participation and intercultural learning in business organizations.
Web Advertising : New forms of communication on the Internet
Dec 2004
Book
Author(s):
Anja Janoschka
This book examines new forms of communication that have emerged through the interactive capabilities of the Internet in particular online advertising and web advertisements. It develops a new model of online communication incorporating mass communication and interpersonal communication. Interactive mass communication redefines the roles of online communication partners who are confronted with a higher degree of complexity in terms of hypertextual information units. In web advertising this new aspect of interactivity is linguistically reflected in different types of personal address forms directives and "trigger words". This study also analyzes the different strategies of persuasion with which web ads try to initiate their activation.Web Advertising provides essential information on the language of web advertisements for academics researchers and students in the fields of hypertext-linguistics advertising communication and media studies.
Williams Syndrome across Languages
Jun 2004
Book
Editor(s):
Susanne Bartke and
Julia Siegmüller
Williams Syndrome (WS) aka Williams Beuren Syndrome is a developmental disorder that we have known about for some forty years. The cause for WS was detected only recently: a micro deletion on chromosome 7 more specifically at the region of chromosome 7q11.23. The cognitive and behavioral profile in WS is characterized by a marked discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal skills combined with relatively spared linguistic skills. Recent research has shown considerable progress defining the areas of intactness in linguistic abilities. This volume builds on that research giving an overview of the psycholinguistic research undertaken and opening up new perspectives and insights through new data and analyses. This book is of interest to researchers of applied cognitive science and to linguists more occupied with theoretical research.
Das Wissen vom Guten : Bedeutung und Kontinuität des Tugendwissens in den Dialogen Platons
Sept 2003
Book
Author(s):
Marcel van Ackeren
This analysis of the relation between virtue and knowledge focuses on the following aspects: i) Virtue and Happiness can be objects of knowledge; ii) Virtue is knowledge; iii) The search for knowledge is aiming at – and justified by – the human to be happy. Plato therefore defines philosophy not as theory but as the search for wisdom in order to live well. Accordingly Plato does not distinguish different or independent branches of philosophy.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>These conclusions are reached by an investigation which traces the continuity and the development of the relation between virtue and knowledge throughout the different phases in Plato’s philosophy. The leading thesis of this book is unitarian but in order to corroborate it the methodology is used of those scholars who think that Plato’s philosophy has changed significantly through the dialogic phase. This way it can be shown that Plato kept developing new justifications for the same relation between virtue and knowledge.Diese Untersuchung der Beziehung von Tugend und Wissen konzentriert sich auf folgende Aspekte: i) Sowohl Tugend als auch Wissen können erkannt werden; ii) Tugend ist Wissen; iii) Die Wissenssuche wird durch das Glücksstreben finalisiert. Daher bestimmt Platon Philosophie nicht als Theorie sondern als Suche nach der Weisheit um glücklich zu leben. Entsprechend unterscheidet Platon keine Teilbereiche der Philosophie die unabhängige Ziele verfolgen.<br/>Diese Schlussfolgerungen werden erreicht durch eine Untersuchung die die Kontinuität und Entwicklung der Beziehung von Tugend und Wissen durch die verschiedenen Phasen in der Platonischen Philosophie verfolgt. Die leitende These ist unitarisch aber um sie zu bestätigen wird die Methode derjenigen verwandt die annehmen die Platonische Philosophie hätte sich in durch die Dialogphasen wesentlich entwickelt. So kann gezeigt werden dass Platon immer neue Begründungen für dieselbe Beziehung von Tugend und Wissen entwickelt hat.
Die Wende von der Aufklärung zur Romantik 1760–1820 : Epoche im Überblick
Dec 2001
Book
Editor(s):
Horst Albert Glaser and
György M. Vajda
This volume is the twelfth to date in a series of works in French or English presenting the epochs and movements of a Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages (Histoire Comparée des Littératures de Langues Européennes). The original intention of the editors was to publish a four-volume history of European literature from 1760-1820 and the first of these volumes Des Lumières au Romantisme. Genres en Vers appeared as long ago as 1982. The volumes Genres en Prose and Théâtre are still awaited. In their absence the present volume Epoche im _berblick attempts a more comprehensive and rigorous treatment of the period and its historiographical problems than was initially planned providing the reader with an overview of sixty eventful years of European literary history — years in which German Classicism coincided with the birth initially in Germany and England of Romanticism. And at the centre of this turbulent period of European intellectual and literary history stands the French Revolution.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
Web Site Design is Communication Design
Nov 2001
Book
Author(s):
Thea M. van der Geest
Web Site Design is Communication Design is written for practitioners trainers and students of Communication Business Information Science and Media Design.
This book is based on a series of case studies of web-site design processes in smaller and larger organizations including Amazon and Microsoft. It offers a well-researched reflective and thorough analysis of the activities undertaken in combination with practical real-life experiences of web-site designers and producers. It pays attention to the often complicated organizational context that web designers and producers have to work in while they serve both bosses and target groups to their best intents. The importance of careful evaluation is stressed throughout the book and in the concluding checklists which guide the practitioner through the design process from initial idea through site maintenance and re-design.
This book is based on a series of case studies of web-site design processes in smaller and larger organizations including Amazon and Microsoft. It offers a well-researched reflective and thorough analysis of the activities undertaken in combination with practical real-life experiences of web-site designers and producers. It pays attention to the often complicated organizational context that web designers and producers have to work in while they serve both bosses and target groups to their best intents. The importance of careful evaluation is stressed throughout the book and in the concluding checklists which guide the practitioner through the design process from initial idea through site maintenance and re-design.
Writing Organization : (Re)presentation and control in narratives at work
Aug 2001
Book
Author(s):
Carl Rhodes
Carl Rhodes examines the implicit power of writing and authorship that is at play when people and organisations are (re)presented in research. To explore this the book reports a research project in the area of organisational storytelling that investigates how people in one organisation used stories to (re)present their own learning experiences from the implementation of a quality management program. This research is written in three principal genres: autobiography ethnography and a fictional short story. These (re)presentational strategies are reviewed to examine how different genres effect authority in different ways. Drawing extensively on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and on writers associated with postmodernism and poststructuralism the book offers a challenging discussion of what organisational research might be when the notion of the equivalence of reality and representation is radically questioned.
Whose German? : The ach/ich alternation and related phenomena in ‘standard’ and ‘colloquial’
Mar 2001
Book
Author(s):
Orrin W. Robinson
The author addresses a number of issues in German and general phonology using a specific problem in German phonology (the ach/ich alternation) as a springboard. These issues include especially the naturalness or lack thereof of the prescriptive standard in German and the importance of colloquial pronunciations as well as historical and dialect evidence for phonological analyses of the “standard” language. Other important topics include the phonetic and phonological status of German /r/ the phonetic and phonological representation of palatals the status of loanwords in phonological description and especially as regards the latter the usefulness of Optimality Theory in capturing phonological facts.The book addresses itself to scholars from the fields of German and Germanic linguistics as well as those concerned more generally with theoretical phonology (whether Lexical or Optimal). It may even appeal to the orthoëpists and lexicographers of modern German.
Word Order Change in Icelandic : From OV to VO
Jan 2001
Book
Author(s):
Thorbjörg Hróarsdóttir
While Modern Icelandic exhibits a virtually uniform VO order in the VP Old(er) Icelandic had both VO order and OV order as well as ‘mixed’ word order patterns. In this volume the author both examines the various VP-word order patterns from a descriptive and statistical point of view and provides a synchronic and diachronic analysis of VP-syntax in Old(er) Icelandic in terms of generative grammar. Her account makes use of a number of independently motivated ideas notably remnant-movement of various kinds of predicative phrase and the long movement associated with “restructuring” phenomena to provide an analysis of OV orders and correspondingly a proposal as to which aspect of Icelandic syntax must have changed when VO word order became the norm: the essential change is loss of VP-extraction from VP. Although this idea is mainly supported here for Icelandic it has numerous implications for the synchronic and diachronic analysis of other Germanic languages.
When Listeners Talk : Response tokens and listener stance
Jan 2001
Book
Author(s):
Rod Gardner
Listeners are usually considered recipients in conversational interaction whose main activity is to take in messages from other speakers. In this view the listening activity is separate from speaking. Another view is that listeners and speakers are equal co-participants in conversations who construct the talk together. In support of this latter view one finds a group of vocalisations which are quintessentially listener talk — little conversational objects such as uh-huh oh mm yeah right and mm-hm. These utterances do not have meanings in a conventional dictionary sense but are nevertheless loaded with complex and subtle information about the stance listeners take to what they are hearing information that is gleaned not only from their phonetic form but also from their complex prosodic shape and their placement and timing within the flow of talk. This book summarises eight of these objects and explores one mm in depth.
Wh-Scope Marking
Sept 2000
Book
Editor(s):
Uli Lutz,
Gereon Müller and
Arnim von Stechow
This volume is the first comprehensive overview of the syntax and semantics of wh-scope marking. Wh-scope marking constructions have recently received a lot of attention; their very existence and their intricate properties have important consequences for syntax semantics and the syntax–semantics interface (e.g. with respect to the wh-criterion the wh-movement parameter feature checking the theory of locality the interpretation of wh-phrases and why-chains and the nature of LF). The fifteen contributions share the basic assumptions of the Chomskyan approach to syntax and the model-theoretic approach to semantics; they address a variety of languages (among them German Hindi Hungarian English Frisian Kikuyu and Malay). A recurrent theme in all articles is whether wh-scope marking should be analyzed in terms of a direct indirect or mixed dependency. The wealth of cross-linguistic empirical evidence and the theory-independent relevance of the conclusions should make this book the ultimate source of information on wh-scope marking for years to come.
Word Order in Hungarian : The syntax of Ā-positions
Aug 2000
Book
Author(s):
Genoveva Puskás
Hungarian word-order is characterized by large scale preposing of constituents to sentence-initial positions. This study examines systematically the elements which occur in the left periphery. Focal wh- and negative operators which have scope over the whole sentence must appear in the left periphery overtly; topicalized elements precede the scope operators and appear in an organized system as well. The author proposes that the structure of the Hungarian sentence comprises a rich set of left-peripheral functional projections organized into sub-systems like the Scope field and the Topic field. On the basis of the structure of Hungarian the study proposes to consider these sub-systems as being in turn split that is hierarchically organized into specific functional projections.
The study also examines the well-formedness conditions linked to multiple preposing. It is shown that the various well-formedness criteria apply overtly in Hungarian. This enables to make a direct link between the scope properties of affective operators and the articulated structure of the left periphery.
The study also examines the well-formedness conditions linked to multiple preposing. It is shown that the various well-formedness criteria apply overtly in Hungarian. This enables to make a direct link between the scope properties of affective operators and the articulated structure of the left periphery.
Wh-Movement and the Theory of Feature-Checking
Jun 2000
Book
Author(s):
Andrew Simpson
Wh-movement and the theory of feature-checking argues that cross-linguistic variation in wh-constructions reduces to the availability of different lexical instantiations of a +wh C0 both across languages and within a single language and the way in which such lexical elements are syntactically identified either via movement or base-generation. Evidence from a wide range of patterns including wh-expletive questions leads to the conclusion that wh-feature checking may sometimes be effected non-locally and ‘at a distance’ (long-distance wh-agreement) and that movement in general takes place for two related but discrete reasons: both to identify and activate an underspecified licensing head and in order for an element to occur in the checking domain projected by its relevant licensing head. Developing and generalizing the proposals beyond wh-phenomena the study also goes on to argue for a Minimalist model of syntax in which feature-dependencies are in fact all licensed in the overt syntax and where there is no need for any further level of LF.
Word Order, Agreement and Pronominalization in Standard and Palestinian Arabic
Apr 2000
Book
Author(s):
Mohammad A. Mohammad
The two related issues of word order and subject-verb agreement have occupied center stage in the study of Arabic syntax since the time of Sibawayhi in the eighth century. This book is a contribution to both of these areas. It is grounded within the generative grammar framework in one of its most recent versions namely Minimalism as expounded in Chomsky (1995). <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>In this volume a detailed description is given of word order options in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Palestinian Arabic (PA). It is shown that perhaps surprisingly the two varieties allow almost the same range of word orders.<br/>The important question of whether Arabic has a VP is addressed: the author argues extensively that Arabic has a VP category. The evidence derives from examining superiority effects ECP effects binding variable interpretations etc.<br/>Also discussed is the content of [Spec TP] in VSO sentences. It is argued that the position is occupied by an expletive pronoun. The author defends the Expletive Hypothesis which states that in VSO sentences the expletive may take part in checking some features of the verb. A typology of the expletive pronoun in Modern Standard Arabic Palestinian Arabic Lebanese Arabic and Moroccan Arabic is provided.<br/>A particularly interesting problem involving pronominal co-reference is the following: if the subject is the antecedent of a pronominal clitic word order is free; if a pronominal is cliticized onto the subject then the antecedent must precede. An account that derives these restrictions without recourse to linear order is proposed.
Writing in Nonstandard English
Feb 2000
Book
Editor(s):
Irma Taavitsainen,
Gunnel Melchers and
Päivi Pahta
This book investigates linguistic variation as a complex continuum of language use from standard to nonstandard. In our view these notions can only be established through mutual definition and they cannot exist without the opposite pole. What is considered standard English changes according to the approach at hand and the nonstandard changes accordingly. This book offers an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach to this central theme of wide interest.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The articles approach writing in nonstandard language through various disciplines and methodologies: sociolinguistics pragmatics historical linguistics dialectology corpus linguistics and ideological and political points of view. The theories and methods from these fields are applied to material that ranges from nonliterary writing to canonized authors. Dialects regional varieties and worldwide Englishes are also addressed.<br/>
Why We Curse : A neuro-psycho-social theory of speech
Dec 1999
Book
Author(s):
Timothy Jay
Psychiatrists psychologists neurologists linguists and speech pathologists currently have no coherent theory to explain why we curse and why we choose the words we do when we curse. The Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech draws together information about cursing from different disciplines and unites them to explain and describe the psychological neurological cultural and linguistic factors that underlie this startling phenomenon.
Why We Curse is divided into five parts. Part 1 introduces the dimensions and scope of cursing and outlines the NPS Theory while Part 2 covers neurological variables and offers evidence for right brain dominance during emotional speech events. Part 3 then focuses on psychological development including language acquisition personality development cognition and so forth while Part 4 covers the wide variety of social and cultural forces that define curse words and restrict their usage. Finally Part 5 concludes by examining the social and legal implications of cursing treating misconceptions about cursing and setting the agenda for future research.
The work draws on new research by Dr. Jay and others and continues the research reported in his groundbreaking 1992 volume Cursing in America. A psycholinguistic study of dirty language in the courts in the movies in the schoolyards and on the streets.
Why We Curse is divided into five parts. Part 1 introduces the dimensions and scope of cursing and outlines the NPS Theory while Part 2 covers neurological variables and offers evidence for right brain dominance during emotional speech events. Part 3 then focuses on psychological development including language acquisition personality development cognition and so forth while Part 4 covers the wide variety of social and cultural forces that define curse words and restrict their usage. Finally Part 5 concludes by examining the social and legal implications of cursing treating misconceptions about cursing and setting the agenda for future research.
The work draws on new research by Dr. Jay and others and continues the research reported in his groundbreaking 1992 volume Cursing in America. A psycholinguistic study of dirty language in the courts in the movies in the schoolyards and on the streets.
Work Organization and Europe as a Development Coalition
Mar 1999
Book
Author(s):
Richard Ennals and
Bjørn Gustavsen
Work Organization has achieved recent prominence in European policy as new employment guidelines are embodied in the policies of all European Member States. New forms of Work Organization properly understood offer collaborative competitive advantage to European enterprises. This book based on decades of action research in separate European nations identifies the research background from which these new insights and policy initiatives have emerged with continuing lessons to be learned from differences.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Work Organization is the missing link which enables innovation and training to produce sustainable increases in productivity: this is not mere academic theory but also vital practical business. The book launches a new European research agenda which is attracting interest from across the developed world and beyond. Rather than arguing for a stronger role for the state or simply leaving matters to the market the book presents a “third way” based on networks and coalitions illustrated with numerous current European case studies which provide explanations for developments at the level of enterprises regions and the European Union itself. The book provides valuable insights into new European Commission initiatives and Transatlantic Dialogue and provides the foundations for renewed democratic dialogue.
Writing and Identity : The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing
Mar 1998
Book
Author(s):
Roz Ivanič
Writing is not just about conveying ‘content’ but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the ‘me’ they are portraying in their writing. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education because the ‘self’ which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.)<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The main claim of this book is that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses and the values beliefs and interests which they embody. The first part of the book reviews recent understandings of social identity of the discoursal construction of identity of literacy and identity and of issues of identity in research on academic writing. The main part of the book is based on a collaborative research project about writing and identity with mature-age students providing:<br/> a case study of one writer’s dilemmas over the presentation of self;<br/> a discussion of the way in which writers’ life histories shape their presentation of self in writing;<br/> an interview-based study of issues of ownership and of accommodation and resistance to conventions for the presentation of self;<br/> linguistic analysis of the ways in which multiple often contradictory interests values beliefs and practices are inscribed in discourse conventions which set up a range of possibilities for self-hood for writers.<br/>The book ends with implications of the study for research on writing and identity and for the learning and teaching of academic writing.<br/>The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of social identity literacy discourse analysis rhetoric and composition studies and to all those concerned to understand what is involved in academic writing in order to provide wider access to higher education.
Writing Development : An interdisciplinary view
Nov 1997
Book
Editor(s):
Clotilde Pontecorvo
This volume presents a selection of papers presented at a series of three workshops organized by the Network “Written Language and Literacy” as launched by the European Science Foundation. The main topics making up Writing Development are: (1) Writing and literacy acquisition: Links between speech and writing with contributions by David R. Olson Claire Blanche-Benveniste Emilia Ferreiro Ruth Berman Liliana Tolchinsky & Ana Teberosky; (2) Writing and reading in time and culture with contributions by Collette Sirat Françoise Desbordes Harmut Günther Peter Koch & Jean Hébrard: (3) Written language competence in monolingual and bilingual contexts with contributions by Michel Fayol & Serge Mouchon Georges Lüdi & Ludo Verhoeven; (4) Writing systems brain structures and languages: A neurolinguistic view with contributions by Giuseppe Cossu Heinz Wimmer & Uta Frith & Brian Butterworth. The volume heads off with an extensive introduction “Studying writing and writing acquisition today: A multidisciplinary view”.