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This collection carries the functionalist Columbia School of linguistics forward with contributions on linguistic theory semiotics phonology grammar lexicon and anthropology. Columbia School linguistics views language as a symbolic tool whose structure is shaped both by its communicative function and by the characteristics of its users and considers contextual pragmatic physical and psychological factors in its analyses. This volume builds upon three previous Columbia School anthologies and further explores issues raised in them including fundamental theoretical and analytical questions. And it raises new issues that take Columbia School “beyond its origins.” The contributions illustrate both consistency since the school’s inception over thirty years ago and innovation spurred by groundbreaking analysis. The volume will be of interest to all functional linguists and historians of linguistics. Languages analyzed include Byelorussian English Japanese Serbo-Croatian Spanish and Swahili.

It has become well recognized that affective dimensions of language constitute an integral part of the linguistic system. Japanese provides a prime example of the significance of emotivity as it has grammaticalized a wide variety of expressions to communicate affective information. The collected articles demonstrate the rich diversity of emotive communication in Japanese and analyze various expressions with theoretical perspectives that are often independent from Western models. This volume reflects the influence of traditional Japanese scholars for whom examining affective-relational aspects of language has long been a central concern. The authors are also influenced by more recent scholars in Japanese pragmatics such as Susumu Kuno Akio Kamio and Senko K. Maynard. They also draw on anthropological notions such as the inside vs. outside dichotomy that have been used to describe Japanese society.

Although it has long been recognized that second language pronunciation is strongly influenced by the native language second language phonology has only become a recognized area of study during the last thirty years. While English has been the most frequent target language involved the learners' L1s have varied greatly. This is the first collection to gather together studies involving English learners whose L1 is Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese two closely-related languages with important phonological differences. The research covers vowel perception and production syllable simplification strategies word and compound stress and vowel reduction. While the papers confirm the important role of the native language they also shed light on the sometimes subtle and unexpected ways in which this variable interacts with universal markedness relationships to determine the formation of phonetic categories and their use in perception and production. These eleven carefully conducted empirical studies will provide insights for practitioners and stimulate further research.

Linguistic Informatics is a research field named by the Center of Excellence (COE) Program: Usage-Based Linguistic Informatics (UBLI) which aims to systematically integrate studies in computer science linguistics and language education. The first part of this volume contains three lectures on spoken language analysis and corpus linguistics delivered at the Second International Conference on Linguistic Informatics held on December 10 2005. The nine contributions in the second part come from the Collaboration Workshop on spoken language corpora between UBLI and C-ORAL-ROM a consortium researching the spoken Romance languages. In the third part four studies representative of Linguistic Informatics are presented. These studies deal with (1) Corpus-based analysis of linguistic usages (2) Typological study of different languages (3) Effective integration of e-learning and task-based face-to-face teaching and (4) Fosterage of language education researchers with expertise in the field of Linguistic Informatics.

Passives middles and other voice phenomena are issues at the core of modern linguistic research. This volume brings together different perspectives on voice different theoretical viewpoints different languages and different kinds of voice phenomena. The eleven articles each make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion offering new data new analyses and bringing new light to long-standing issues. In combination they present a multi-faceted and yet coherent picture of the topics at hand.

The study of colour attracts researchers from a wide range of disciplines from both the sciences and the arts. Along with its companion volume Progress in Colour Studies 1: Language and Culture this book offers a fascinating insight into current issues and research into colour. Most of the papers originated in a 2004 conference entitled ‘Progress in Colour Studies’ held in the University of Glasgow U.K. Some additional invited papers are included from investigators exploring new and exciting avenues of colour research. The contributions to both books represent reviews of state-of-the-art colour research in various disciplines and some new research findings are reported. This volume principally psychological in content focuses on the development of colour perception and colour language from infancy into adulthood across a diverse range of cultures including English Himba Chinese and Mexican and on the intriguing yet perplexing condition of synaesthesia thus bridging research from the physiology psychology and anthropology of colour.

This volume presents 16 original studies of variation in languages representing the three main European language families as well as in varieties of Greek and Hungarian. The studies concern variation in or across dialects or dialect groups in standard varieties or in emerging regional varieties of the standard. Several studies investigate a specific linguistic element or structure while others focus on areas of tension between variation and prescriptive standard norms on regional standard varieties and regiolects on problems of linguistic classification (from folk linguistic or dialect geographical perspectives) and the classification of speakers. Language acquisition plays a main role in three studies. The studies in this volume represent a range of methods including ethnographic and 'interpretative' approaches conversation analysis analyses of the internal and geographical distribution of dialect features the classification and quantitative analyses of socio-demographic speaker background data quantitative analyses of both diachronic and synchronic language data phonetic measurements as well as (quasi-)experimental perception studies. The volume thus offers a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosmos of world-wide research on variability in (originally) European languages at the beginning of the 21th century and the linguistic expression of cultural diversity.

This book proposes a notion of inverse that differs from two widespread positions found in descriptive and typological studies (one of them restrictive and structure-oriented the other broad and function-centered). This third stance put forward here takes both grammar and pragmatic functions into account but it also relates the opposition between direct and inverse verbs and clauses to an opposition between deictic values thereby achieving two advantageous goals: it meaningfully circumvents one of the usual analytic dilemmas namely whether a given construction is passive or inverse and it refines our understanding of the cross-linguistic typology of inversion. This framework is applied to the description of the morphosyntax of eleven Amerindian languages (Algonquian: Plains Cree Miami-Illinois Ojibwa; Kutenai; Sahaptian: Sahaptin Nez Perce; Kiowa-Tanoan: Arizona Tewa Picurís Southern Tiwa Kiowa; Mapudungun).

People have a natural propensity to understand language text as a succession of smallish chunks whether they are reading writing speaking or listening. Linguists have found that this propensity can shed light on the nature and structure of language and there are many studies which attempt to harness the potential of natural chunking.This book explores the role of chunking in the description of discourse especially spoken discourse. It appears that chunking offers a sound but flexible platform on which can be built a descriptive model which is more open and comprehensive than more familiar approaches to structural description. The model remains linear in that it avoids hierarchies and it concentrates on the combinatorial patterns of text.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The linear approach turns out to have many advantages bringing together under one descriptive method a wide variety of different styles of speech and writing. It is complementary to established grammars but it raises pertinent questions about many of their assumptions.

This selection of papers presented at the 20th Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop brings together contributions that address issues in syntactic predication and studies in the nominal system as well as papers on data from the history of English and German. Showing a strong comparative commitment the contributions include studies on previously neglected data on case and predicative structures in Icelandic and other Germanic languages on the (non-)syntactic distinction of predicative vs. argument NP/DPs on quirky V2 in Afrikaans the pronominal system resumptive pronouns with relative clauses in Zurich German as well as historical papers on word-formation processes on auxiliary selection in relation to counter factuality and on the development of VO-OV orders in the history of English. This volume presents a wide range of studies that enrich both the theoretical understanding and the empirical foundation of comparative research on the Germanic languages.