Books

The contribution that scholarly organizations make to the study of languages and literatures is a service to the value of systematically learning and using meaning—understanding that meaning operates in systems. Constructively speaking, these organizations support the teaching and research of our world’s experts in grammar, genre, medium, production, reception, exchange, critique, appreciation, and so on. More defensively, they are bulwarks against systems of misinformation, against the empowerment of misrepresentation and distrust between people.

The chapters in this volume range from the Old Testament to Facebook and from East Asia to West Africa via Australia, the Americas, and Europe. The scholarly strength forged across that range speaks to similar strengths that so many scholarly organizations devoted to studies in languages and literatures have cultivated and maintained—often in the face of government indifference or hostility towards the Humanities. Beyond Babel makes a powerful case for their potential.

In over 30 years of data-driven learning (DDL) research, there has been a growing sophistication in the ways we collect, analyse, and put corpus data to use. This volume takes a three-fold perspective on DDL. It first looks at DDL and its role in informing language learning theory and how it might shed light on the language development process; secondly it addresses how DDL can help us characterise learner language and inform teaching accordingly, and thirdly it showcases practical applications for the use of DDL in classrooms. The contributors to this volume examine a variety of instructional settings and languages across the world. They reflect on theoretical, methodological and classroom implications using both novel and established language learning theories, natural language processing (NLP), longitudinal research designs, and a variety of language learning targets. The present volume is an invitation from some of the leading researchers in DDL to reflect on the research avenues that will define the field in the coming years.

This book pioneers a tridimensional approach to (dis)fluency, evaluating fluency across three different dimensions, mainly speech, gesture, and interaction. Drawing from an extensive video dataset covering different languages and speech genres in French and English, the present research goes beyond traditional production-oriented models of so-called ‘disfluency’ phenomena, and aims to unravel the complexities of human multimodal production and interactive processes. Designed for linguists, communication scholars, and researchers, this work resonates with the latest trends in different fields (Second Language Acquisition, Interactional Linguistics, and Gesture studies). It introduces a fresh perspective on disfluency by integrating visual-gestural features, such as hand gestures, gaze, and facial expressions, captured in situated interaction.

This book sheds new light on the puzzle of psychological predicates in a cross-linguistic perspective by looking at them from a variety of angles at the interfaces between event structure, lexical and viewpoint aspect, syntax and information structure. The individual chapters focus on Polish and Spanish psych verbs, which manifest new overt contrasts that often remain covert in languages such as English, e.g., aspectual distinctions, the peculiarities of dative constructions, or the role of information structure in determining the word order. One of the main contributions of the book lies in positing a new typology of basic event types enriched with the initial boundary events. Moreover, due attention is devoted to dative experiencers as compared to accusative experiencers. Although couched in the generative tradition, the main insights presented in this collection are theory neutral and may be of interest to linguists of all persuasions.

Despite the fact that they are often crucial to our understanding, the vague, ineffable elements of language use and communication have received much less attention from linguists than the more concrete, effable ones. This has left a range of important questions unanswered. How might we account for the communication of non-propositional phenomena such as moods, emotions and impressions? What type of cognitive response do these phenomena trigger, if not conceptual or propositional? Do creative metaphors and unknown words in second languages and other ‘pointers’ to ‘conceptual regions’ communicate concepts learned from language alone? How might the descriptive ineffability of interjections, free indirect speech etc. be accommodated within a theory of communication? What of those working on the aesthetics of artworks, music and literature? What can evolution tell us about ineffability? The papers in this volume address these fascinating questions head-on. They represent a range of different attempts to answer them and, in so doing, allow us to pose exciting new questions. The aim, to bring the ineffable firmly within the grasp of theoretical pragmatics.

Beyond Narrative Coherence reconsiders the way we understand and work with narratives. Even though narrators tend to strive for coherence, they also add complexity, challenge canonical scripts, and survey lives by telling highly perplexing and contradictory stories. Many narratives remain incomplete, ambiguous, and contradictory. Obvious coherence cannot be the sole moral standard, the only perspective of reading, or the criterion for selecting and discarding research material. Beyond Narrative Coherence addresses the limits and aspects of narrative (dis)cohering by offering a rich theoretical and historical background to the debate. Limits of narrative coherence are discussed from the perspective of three fields of life that often threaten the coherence of narrative: illness, arts, and traumatic political experience. The authors of the book cover a wide range of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, arts studies, political science and philosophy.

This book uses Conversation Analysis methodology to analyze rhetorical and other questions that are designed to convey assertions, rather than seek new information. It shows how these question sequences unfold interactionally in naturally-occurring talk in a variety of settings, e.g., friends arguing over the phone, parents disciplining children, news interviews, and second language writing conferences. The questions are used across these widely different contexts to perform a number of related social actions such as accusations, challenges to prior turns, and complaints. Those used in institution settings, such as teacher-student conferences, orient to institutional norms and roles and can help accomplish institutional goals, e.g., eliciting student error correction. Both the interactional context in which these questions are embedded and the known epistemic authority of the questioner play a role in our understanding of these questions, i.e., what social actions the question is accomplishing in a particular interaction.

Action Research is one of the most practical and down-to-earth ways of doing research into working life. Beyond Theory draws on examples and actual cases to discuss action research within the framework of the modern, and postmodern, theory of science debate. While action research has been much criticized by the traditionalists, the book reflects a convergence between action research and positions emerging out of the critique of scientific traditionalism. Discussions between these two fields of knowledge, originally so very different, can enrich both. The book will be useful not only to researchers and academics but to anyone who is interested in the role and use of knowledge in social and organizational development.

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the human mind. As far as the exact relationship between the cognitive sciences and other fields is concerned, however, it appears that interdisciplinary exchange often remains unrealized, possibly because of the uni-directional application of theories, concepts, and methods, which impedes the productive transfer of knowledge in both directions. In the course of the ‘cognitive turn’ in the humanities and social sciences, many disciplines have selectively borrowed ideas from ‘core cognitive sciences’ like psychology and artificial intelligence. The day-to-day practice of interdisciplinarity thus thrives on one-directional borrowings. Focusing on cognitive approaches in linguistics and literary studies, this volume explores bi-directionality, a genuine transdisciplinary interchange in which both disciplines are borrowing and lending. The contributions take different perspectives on bi-directionality: some extend uni-directional borrowing practices and point to avenues and crossroads, while others critically discuss obstacles, challenges, and limitations to bi-directional transfer.

Since the publication of the still very valuable Biblioteca histórica de la filología by Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano, conde de la Viñaza, (Madrid, 1893), our knowledge of the history of the study of the Spanish language has grown considerably. It has been the purpose of BICRES I (from the beginnings to 1600), published in 1994 in the same series, to bring already available bibliographical information together with the more recent research findings, scattered in many places, books and articles and published during the past one hundred years. Now, the second volume, covering the years from 1601 to 1700, has been published, according to the same principles as the first one.

Years of work in the major librairies of Spain and other European countries have gone into this new bibliography in order to offer as exhaustive as possible a description of all Spanish grammars and dictionaries, histories of the Spanish language as well studies devoted to particular facets of its evolution in the 17th century.

BICRES II brings together in chronological order close to 1,300 titles. Access to the bibliographical information is facilitated by several detailed indexes, such as author index, short title index, index of places of production, index of printers and publishers, and a index of locations of the books described.Desde la publicación de la muy meritoria y aún hoy útil Biblioteca histórica de la filología castellana (Madrid, 1893) de Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano, conde de la Viñaza, nuestros cono-cimientos sobre la historia de la lingüística española se han ensanchado considerable-mente. Fue el propósito de BICRES I (“desde los comienzos hasta 1600”), que se publicó en 1994 en esta misma serie, sumar, a los datos bibliográficos conocidos, la información más reciente aparecida durante los últimos cien años en los más diversos lugares.

BICRES II presenta la información correspondiente a los años 1601-1700 manteniendo los mismos principios metodológicos que fueron empleados en el primer volumen.

Para terminar esta nueva bibliografía han sido necesarios años de trabajo en bibliotecas españolas y europeas. De esta manera se ha conseguido reunir la máxima cantidad disponible de datos sobre gramáticas y diccio-narios de la lengua española publicados en el siglo XVII, así como sobre historias de la lengua española y estudios dedicados a los más variados aspecto de su desarrollo.

La Bibliografía cronológica de la lingüística, la gramática y la lexicografía del español (BICRES II) ofrece, en orden cronológico, apoximadamente 1.300 títulos. Una serie de índices detallados (autores, títulos abreviados, lugares de publicación, impresores y edito-riales y, finalmente, paraderos) facilita el acceso a la infomación bibliográfica.

The Spanish humanist Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) is the author of an impressive body of scientific work which comprises a broad spectrum of humanistic knowledge. While the languages dealt with by Nebrija include not only Latin and Spanish, but the most prominent Romance languages, his grammatical work focuses on Latin, Castillian, Greek and even Hebrew. Moreover, his (bilingual) lexicographical studies combine Spanish, Latin, French, Catalan and Italian. In addition, there are medical dictionaries, dictionnaries of law, works on the Holy Bible, geographical research, treatises on rhethoric and history as well as on many other areas of contemporary knowledge. Most of these works have been published for allmost five centuries, thus inspiring European and missionary linguistics as well as Western philological traditions. They have served as models and sources for a great number and range of studies conducted and published not only in Spain, but nearly all over the world.

Apart from the original version of Nebrija‘s works, numerous copies, also continuously produced during the past centuries, are accessible in international libraries. Many of these copies possess a great bibliographical value.

The Bibliografía Nebrisense is a catalogue, listing the different editions of Nebrija‘s highly diversified œuvre. It provides information on the technical caracteristics of the individual editions and their respective locations. A complete bio-bibliographical study is added together with an exhaustive listing of secondary sources.El humanista español Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) fue autor de una ingente obra que abarcó los más variados campos de los saberes humanísticos y en la que, además, estaban implicadas no sólo latín y español, sino las principales lenguas románicas. Sus obras de tema gramatical, donde se encuentran latín, castellano, griego o hebreo; sus repertorios lexicográficos bilingües, donde se combinan español, latín, francés, catalán e italiano; sus diccionarios especializados de medicina, derecho, Sagrada Escritura o geografía, junto con sus trabajos sobre retórica, historia o tantos otros aspectos particulares que llamaron la atención del humanista han sobrevivido hasta nuestros días y durante más de cinco siglos han ejercido una influencia enorme en toda la lingüística y la tradición filológica occidental: sirvieron de modelo o de fuente para multitud de trabajos posteriores, no sólo en España.

Las obras de Nebrija, en fin, fueron ininterrumpidamente editadas y ejemplares de todas ellas, a veces de valor incalculable desde el punto de vista bibliográfico, andan repartidos por bibliotecas de todo el mundo.

La Bibliografía Nebrisense es un catálogo que reúne y describe estas ediciones, informando de sus características y paradero. Se añade, además, un completo estudio bio-bibliográfico y una relación exhaustiva de fuentes secundarias.

Since the publication of the still very valuable Biblioteca histórica de la filología by Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano, conde de la Viñaza (Madrid, 1893), our knowledge of the history of the study of the Spanish language has grown considerably. It has been the purpose of BICRES I (from the early beginnings to 1600), published in 1994, to bring together already available bibliographical information with the more recent research findings, scattered in many places, books and articles. BICRES II (covering the 1601–1700 period) followed in 1999 and BICRES III (including period 1701-1800) was published in 2005.

Now, the fourth volume, arranged according to the same principles as those guiding the preceding volumes and covering the years from 1801 to 1860, has become available.

Years of research in the major libraries of Spain and other European countries have gone into this new bibliography and relative sources of the Americas have also been covered, in order to offer — in an as exhaustive as possible fashion — a description of all Spanish grammars and dictionaries, histories of the Spanish language as well as studies devoted to particular facets of its evolution during the years 1801-1860.

BICRES IV brings together in chronological order more than 3,279 titles. Access to the bibliographical information is facilitated by several detailed indexes, such as a short title index, a listing of printers, publishers and places of production, and an author index.

This bibliography aims serve the demands and wishes of students of Old Frisian for its own sake as well as for those who want to use Old Frisian for comparative purposes. Although it concentrates on language and literature, titles have also been included which deal with more or less peripheral matters such as Ingvaeonic, history, legal history and daily life in Medieval Frisia.The bibliography is divided into three parts. Part I lists in alphabetical order all the books and articles. Part II alphabetically indexes the reviewers occurring in Part I. Part III contains an analytical index to Part I, enabling scholars to survey what work has been done on a particular subject.

The Bibliography of Quantitative Linguistics (BQL) comprises more than 6500 titles from all areas of quantitative linguistic research. Publications have been included without restrictions regarding form, place, language, and date of publication. This bibliography thus provides, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of, and easy bibliographical access to, publications in quantitative linguistics, a linguistic discipline characterized by its rapid and promising scientific development, and its increasing significance for most branches of theoretical and applied language studies. The bibliography consists of: an introduction and instructions for use; a main section containing more than 6500 titles, which is subdivided in 28 thematic classes, each forming a chapter; an index of authors; an index of keywords from titles; indices of subject headings and subheadings; an index of uncontrolled vocabulary; an index of languages investigated; an index of reviewed publications. All texts and indices are in English, German and Russian.

After the growth of English and American dialectology since the 1930’s and the expansion of sociolinguistics since the 1960’s, the study of ‘world English’ has emerged in recent years to join these other disciplines. This bibliography is intended to reflect what has been achieved in this area and to serve as an indispensible research tool for further investigations. The bibliography is divided into three parts, each one is preceded by a preface which explains the procedures followed and each of the sections is followed by an index. It classifies the items according to specific areas, ethnic groups, or similar topics.

Die vorliegende Arbeit sollte beitragen an ein besseres Verständnis der romantischen Literatur im zeitgenössischen Kontext. Es wird untersucht wie die die Klassik und die Romantik sich mit einander verhalten haben anhand von Einzelanalysen. Auf tradiotionelle Grenzen wie Früh-, Hoch- oder Spätromantik wird verzichtet, sowie auch auf die Idee daß in romantische Werke nur aesthetische Tendezen zum Ausdruck kamen; sondern daß auch politisch operative und sozialpolitische funktionale Tendenzen wichtig waren.

Code-switching and related phenomena have met with linguists’ increasing interest over the last decade. However, much of the research has been restricted to the structural (grammatical) properties of the use of two languages in conversation; scholars who have tried to capture the interactive meaning of switching have often failed to go beyond more or less anecdotal descriptions of individual, particularly striking, cases. The book bridges this gap by providing a coherent, comprehensive and generative model for language alternation, drawing on recent trends and methods in conversational analysis. The empirical basis is the speech of Italian migrant children in Constance, Germany.

The contributions in this volume are based on an analysis of data from bilingual children acquiring French and German simultaneously. The longitudinal studies started at approximately age one year and six months and continued till age six. The papers focus on the development of specific grammatical phenomena; explanations are given within the framework of the Principle and Parameter approach. The study is primarily concerned with the acquisition of so-called 'functional categories' and the consequences of their acquisition for the development of grammar. Specific points dealt with in these papers include: gender, number and case and their internal structure (DP vs NP); inflection and its consequences for agreement marking; and word order phenomena (subject-raising constructions (incl. passives), word order in subordinate clauses). The basic hypothesis underlying this study is that early child grammars consist only of lexical categories and that functional categories are implemented later in the child's grammar. How this happens exactly is the central issue explored in this book.

In the study of bilingualism, the lexical level of language is of prime importance because, in practical terms, vocabulary acquisition is an essential prerequisite for the development of skill in language use; from a theoretical point of view, the mental lexicon, as a bridge between form and meaning, plays a crucial role in any model of language processing. A central issue in this volume is at which level of the bilingual speaker's lexicon languages share representations and how language-specific representations may be linked.

The contributors favor a dynamic, developmental perspective on bilingualism, which takes account of the change of the mental lexicon over time and pays considerable attention to the acquisition phase. Several papers deal with the level of proficiency and its consequences for bilingual lexical processing, as well as the effects of practice. This discussion raises numerous questions about the notion of (lexical) proficiency and how this can be established by objective standards, an area of study that invites collaboration between researchers working from a theoretical and from a practical background.

The present volume represents a variety of portraits of what happens when families attempt to raise children in Spanish while living in English-speaking societies. Aided by the foregrounding chapter by Suzanne Romaine about language and identity and the afterword by Carol Klee that ties together many issues brought up throughout the collection, the reader gains a more complete understanding of the variables that contribute to Spanish bilingualism in English-speaking societies, and by extension a more complete understanding of the dynamic nature of bilingualism in general. This volume, the first of its kind, brings together an impressive array of sociolinguistic environments while keeping the two languages constant. We hope that it marks the beginning of comparative analyses of bilingualism, acquisition outcomes, and identity construction across environments that share the same languages, but where important disparities exist in the sociolinguistic landscapes.

Sociolinguists have been pursuing connections between language and identity for several decades. But how are language and identity related in bilingualism and multilingualism? Mobilizing the most current methodology, this collection presents new research on language identity and bilingualism in three regions where Spanish coexists with other languages. The cases are Spanish-English contact in the United States, Spanish-indigenous language contact in Latin America, and Spanish-regional language contact in Spain. This is the first comparativist book to examine language and identity construction among bi- or multilingual speakers while keeping one of the languages constant. The sociolinguistic standing of Spanish varies among the three regions depending whether or not it is a language of prestige. Comparisons therefore afford a strong constructivist perspective on how linguistic ideologies affect bi/multilingual identity formation.

Professor Albert Costa (1972-2018) was one of the most influential scholars in the fields of psycholinguistics and bilingualism. This book provides a faithful look at the most relevant lines of research in which he worked during his academic career. Written by some of his close collaborators and friends, the book presents a coherent summary of the most relevant psycholinguistic theories on language processing and bilingualism, including critical reviews to current models of lexical access, the representation of cognate words, neurolinguistic models of bilingualism, cross-linguistic effects in bimodal bilinguals (sign language), prediction processes and linguistic alignment in bilinguals, the influence of foreign-language effects in social cognition and the effects of bilingualism in emotion and decision making processing. This volume is a tribute to Prof. Costa and his work, and is born from a deep love and respect for his way of approaching the science of multilingualism from a psycholinguistic perspective.

How does knowledge of a first or second language develop, and how is that knowledge used in real time comprehension and production of one or two languages? Language development and processing are the central topics that this book explores, initially in terms of first language(s) and then in terms of additional languages. Human growth and development necessarily involve the passage of time, implicating this orthogonal factor and leading to the observation that capacities may vary across the lifespan. Two theoretical frameworks have historically attributed explanations for knowledge and use of language, nature versus nurture approaches: the former credits biogenetic intrinsic characteristics, while the latter ascribes environmental extrinsic experiences as the causes of developmental change. The evidence examined throughout this book offers a more nuanced and complex view, eschewing dichotomy and favoring a hybrid approach that takes into account a range of internal and external influences.