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Translation and Interpreting Pedagogy in Dialogue with Other Disciplines
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Sonia Colina and
Claudia V. Angelelli
This volume offers a collection of original articles on the teaching of translation and interpreting responding to the increased interest in this area not only within translation and interpreting studies but also in related fields. It contains empirical theoretical and state-of-the-art original pieces that address issues relevant to translation and interpreting pedagogy such as epistemology technology language proficiency and pedagogical approaches (e.g. game-based task-based). All of the contributors are researchers and educators of either translation or interpreting – or both. The volume should be of interest to researchers and teachers of translation and interpreting second language acquisition and language for specific purposes. An introduction by the editors – both distinguished scholars in translation & interpreting pedagogy – provides the necessary context for the contributions. Originally published as a special issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies 10:1 (2015) edited by Brian James Baer and Christopher D. Mellinger.
Mixed Magic : Global-local dialogues in fairy tales for young readers
Jun 2017
Book
Author(s):
Anna Katrina Gutierrez
Mixed Magic: Global-local dialogues in fairy tales for young readers considers retellings and adaptations from a ‘glocal’ context: a framework focused on the reciprocal and cross-cultural exchange between global processes and local practices and their potential transformative effects. The study examines an eclectic range of retellings from the East and West from the 19th century until the present among them orientalized picturebook versions of Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard; Disney’s animated classics; Asian versions of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid; Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese; and the fantasy films of Hayao Miyazaki. Drawing on theories of globalization cognitive narratology subjectivity and eastern thought the book reveals new implications for intertextual analysis. This beautifully illustrated volume is the first sustained study of the effects of global-local and East-West interchanges on representations of self and Others in children’s literature and folklore studies.
Current Issues in Intercultural Pragmatics
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Istvan Kecskes and
Stavros Assimakopoulos
Having been established as a field in its own right for the last decade intercultural pragmatics is increasingly being recognized as an important area of research among scholars working in pragmatics. The present volume is a collection of selected papers from the 6th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication – admittedly the biggest venue for researchers in the area and comprises contributions that report on recent research that deals with or can directly inform work in intercultural pragmatics. Given the breadth of research areas that are<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>represented herein ranging from lingua franca and business communication to the study of cultural perceptions translation and pragmatic development this volume is bound to be of interest to not only students and scholars engaged in the area of intercultural pragmatics but also to all those with a more general interest in the sociocultural turn in the study of pragmatics.
Implicitness : From lexis to discourse
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Piotr Cap and
Marta Dynel
Although the term implicitness is ubiquitous in the pragmatic scholarship it has rarely constituted the focus of attention per se. This book aims to help crystallize the concept of implicitness by defining its linguistic boundaries as well as specifying and exploring its different communicative manifestations. The contributions by leading specialists scrutinize the main conceptualizations forms and occurrences of implicitness (such as implicature impliciture explicature entailment presupposition etc.) at different levels of linguistic organization. The volume focuses on phrasal sentential and discursive phenomena showcasing the richness and variety of implicit forms of communication systematizing (where possible) the existing analytic perspectives and identifying the most productive procedures for further exploration. Taken together the chapters exhibit theoretical differences that hinder a consensus on the nature of implicitness but they simultaneously reveal methodological points of contact and raise common questions thereby signposting a future analytic agenda. The book will appeal to both theoretically and empirically minded scholars working within and across the disciplines of Pragmatics Semantics Language Philosophy Discourse Analysis and Communication Studies.
Boundaries, Phases and Interfaces : Case studies in honor of Violeta Demonte
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Olga Fernández-Soriano,
Elena Castroviejo and
Isabel Pérez-Jiménez
This book approaches the concept of boundary central in linguistic theory and the related notion of phase from the perspective of the interaction between syntax and its interfaces. A primary notion is that phases are the appropriate domains to explain most interface linguistic phenomena and that the study of (narrow) interfaces helps to understand conditions on the internal structure of the Language Faculty. The first part of this volume is dedicated to introducing the notion of boundary cycle and phase and also the current debates regarding internal interfaces in particular the syntax-phonology syntax-semantics syntax-discourse syntax-morphology and syntax-lexicon interfaces in order to show how the notion of boundary/phase is related to (or even determines) most of their characteristics. The four sections of the second part deal with (morpho)phonology/ syntax and the role or boundaries/phases; the syntax-discourse and syntax-semantics interface; and the lexicon-syntax interface while the notion of boundary/phase cross-cuts the main topics addressed.
Putting Adpositions in Place : Sortal domains and modifier PPs in Japanese
Jun 2017
Book
Author(s):
Kaori Takamine
This monograph explores the grammar of modifier PPs in Japanese concentrating on their word order. The study argues that (i) modifier PPs are hierarchically arranged and (ii) there is an interesting fine-grained correlation between different PP types and Modal/Aspect functors which indicates that Temporal and Locative appear relatively freely with respect to a certain range of the Modal/Aspect functors in the middle field whereas the rest of the PP types are more constrained in this respect. Unlike cartographic approaches to PPs (Schweikert 2005 Cinque 2006) the book adopts the working hypothesis that the fine-grained hierarchies can be derived in a constrained manner along the lines of Svenonius and Ramchand (2014) and proposes that the properties of the PPs characterized by (i) and (ii) can be captured in a sortal domain analysis. The book appeals to a linguistic audience interested in modifier syntax as well as in Japanese.
Non-professional Interpreting and Translation : State of the art and future of an emerging field of research
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Rachele Antonini,
Letizia Cirillo,
Linda Rossato and
Ira Torresi
In the light of recent waves of mass immigration non-professional interpreting and translation (NPIT) is spreading at an unprecedented pace. While as recently as the late 20th century much of the field was a largely uncharted territory the current proportions of NPIT suggest that the phenomenon is here to stay and needs to be studied with all due academic rigour.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>This collection of essays is the first systematic attempt at looking at NPIT in a scholarly and at the same time pragmatic way. Offering multiple methods and perspectives and covering the diverse contexts in which NPIT takes place the volume is a welcome turn in an all too often polarized debate in both academic and practitioner circles.
To Hell and Back : An anthology of Dante's Inferno in English translation (1782–2017)
Jun 2017
Book
Author(s):
Tim Smith and
Marco Sonzogni
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) maintained that translation destroys the harmony of poetry. Yet his Commedia has been translated into English time and again over the last two-and-a-bit centuries. At last count one-hundred and twenty-nine different translators have published at least one canticle of the Italian masterwork since the first in 1782 and countless more have translated individual cantos. Among them there are some of the finest poets in the English language including Robert Lowell and the Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. Smith and Sonzogni have assembled and annotated two complete translations of Dante’s most popular canticle Inferno each canto translated by a different translator. To Hell and Back is a celebration of the art and craft of poetry translation; of the lexical palettes and syntactical tempos of the English language; and of course of the genius of one of the greatest poets of all times.
Choosing a Grammar : Learning paths and ambiguous evidence in the acquisition of syntax
Jun 2017
Book
Author(s):
Isaac Gould
This book investigates the role that ambiguous evidence can play in the acquisition of syntax. To illustrate this the book introduces a probabilistic learning model for syntactic parameters that learns a grammar of best fit to the learner’s evidence. The model is then applied to a range of cross-linguistic case studies – in Swiss German Korean and English – involving child errors grammatical variability and implicit negative evidence. Building on earlier work on language modeling this book is unique for its focus on ambiguous evidence and its careful attention to the effects of parameters interacting with each other. This allows for a novel and principled account of several acquisition puzzles. With its inter-disciplinary approach this book will be of broad interest to syntacticians language acquisitionists and cognitive scientists of language.
Socio-onomastics : The pragmatics of names
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Terhi Ainiala and
Jan-Ola Östman
The volume seeks to establish socio-onomastics as a field of linguistic inquiry not only within sociolinguistics but also and in particular within pragmatics. The linguistic study of names has a very long history but also a history sometimes fraught with skepticism and thus often neglected by linguists in other fields. The volume takes on the challenge of instituting onomastic study into linguistics and pragmatics by focusing on recent trends within socio-onomastics interactional onomastics contact onomastics folk onomastics and linguistic landscape studies. The volume is an introduction to these fields – with the introductory chapter giving an overview of and an update on recent onomastic study – and in addition offers detailed in-depth analyses of place names person names street names and commercial names from different perspectives: historically as well as from the point of view of the impact of globalization and glocalization. All the chapters focus on the use and function of names and naming on changes in name usage and on the reasons for processes in and results of names in contact.
Language and Citizenship : Broadening the agenda
Jun 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Tommaso M. Milani
This volume offers fresh cutting-edge perspectives on issues of language and citizenship by casting a critical light on a broad spectrum of geo-political contexts – Flanders Luxembourg Singapore South Africa the UK - and discourse data – policy documents newspaper articles ethnographic notes and interviews skits bodies in protests. The main aims of the book are to investigate institutional discourses about the relationship between nationality and citizenship and relate such discourses to more ethnographically grounded interactions; tease out the multiple and often conflicting meanings of citizenship; and explore the different linguistic/semiotic guises that citizenship might take on in different contexts. The book argues that the linguistic/discursive study of citizenship should not only include critical investigations of political proposals about language testing but should also encompass the diverse more or less mundane ways in which various social actors enact citizenship with the help of an array of multivocal material and affective semiotic resources. Originally published as a special issue of Journal of Language and Politics 14:3 (2015).
Copular Constructions in Lithuanian
Jun 2017
Book
Author(s):
Rolandas Mikulskas
The fourth volume in the VARGReB series presents an in-depth investigation of Lithuanian copular constructions from the viewpoint of Cognitive Grammar. Apart from the fundamental problems of the ontology and taxonomy of copular sentences the author also discusses a number of more specific questions on which the Lithuanian data contrasted with those of English and other languages hitherto dealt with in the literature can shed an interesting light such as the nature and distinctive features of specificationals the problem of subjecthood in this subtype of copular constructions the aspectual semantics of copular sentences etc. The attention given to the grammatical context of copular constructions and the multifarious relationships linking them to other construction types enhances the book’s relevance to the field of Lithuanian studies whereas the dialogue and confrontation between the Cognitive perspective adopted by the author and the more formal approaches hitherto applied to the problem of copular sentences will add to its interest for the general reader.
Negation and Contact : With special focus on Singapore English
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Debra Ziegeler and
Zhiming Bao
The study of negation across languages has left no stone unturned with respect to a range of frequently-researched areas such as negative raising negative concord and the behavior of quantifiers under negative scope. Past research has chiefly focused on the category of negation from a cross-linguistic perspective with probably less attention devoted to the study of negation across dialects of languages or across contact languages. The observation of universal quantification in the scope of negation in the English spoken in Singapore for example is an area which has been largely under-researched in the literature as has the rarely-reported phenomenon of negative raising in Singapore English. The present volume profiles some of the problems of negation in English and Singapore English framed against the background of studies of negation in other contact dialects of English and pidgins/creoles and offering a diverse range of theoretical approaches to the problems.
Similative and Equative Constructions : A cross-linguistic perspective
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Yvonne Treis and
Martine Vanhove
While comparative constructions have been extensively studied in the past decades the expression of equality and similarity has so far attracted little attention in the typological literature. The fifteen contributions assembled in this volume study similative and equative constructions in typologically and genetically distant languages albeit with a focus on Africa and from a range of perspectives. Purely synchronically oriented case studies are supplemented by contributions that also shed light on the diachronic development of similative and equative constructions in language contact situations. Sources of similative morphemes and lexically expressed concepts of likeness are examined and little-known multifunctionality patterns and grammaticalisation targets of similative morphemes – such as purpose clause markers modality morphemes and markers of glottonyms – are discussed. Based on a sample of 119 languages worldwide a new typology of equative constructions is proposed. The book should be of interest to typologists semanticists specialists of grammaticalization historical linguistics and syntax.
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Kate Bellamy,
Michael W. Child,
Paz González,
Antje Muntendam and
M. Carmen Parafita Couto
This volume offers a multidisciplinary view of cutting-edge research on bilingualism in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions with the aim of building a bridge between sub-fields and approaches that often find themselves isolated from one another. The thirteen contributions in this volume offer a glimpse of the diversity of bilingualism present in the Hispanic and Lusophone world shedding light on the sheer variety of speaker communities language pairings (e.g. Spanish-English Spanish-Basque Spanish-Dutch Portuguese-Spanish-English Portuguese-English Spanish-K’ichee Maya and Spanish-Ixcatec) and speaker types (e.g. simultaneous bilinguals and early and late sequential bilinguals). The diversity present in this collection of papers both in empirical coverage and methodological and theoretical approaches will be of interest to a wide range of students and researchers in bilingualism and Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics.
Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Peter Bakker,
Finn Borchsenius,
Carsten Levisen and
Eeva M. Sippola
This book launches a new approach to creole studies founded on phylogenetic network analysis. Phylogenetic approaches offer new visualisation techniques and insights into the relationships between creoles and non-creoles creoles and other contact varieties and between creoles and lexifier languages. With evidence from creole languages in Africa Asia the Americas and the Pacific the book provides new perspectives on creole typology cross-creole comparisons and creole semantics. The book offers an introduction for newcomers to the fields of creole studies and phylogenetic analysis. Using these methods to analyse a variety of linguistic features both structural and semantic the book then turns to explore old and new questions and problems in creole studies. Original case studies explore the differences and similarities between creoles and propose solutions to the problems of how to classify creoles and how they formed and developed. The book provides a fascinating glimpse into the unity and heterogeneity of creoles and the areal influences on their development. It also provides metalinguistic discussions of the “creole” concept from different perspectives. Finally the book reflects critically on the findings and methods and sets new agendas for future studies. Creole Studies has been written for a broad readership of scholars and students in the fields of contact linguistics biolinguistics sociolinguistics language typology and semantics.
Understanding Second Language Processing : A focus on Processability Theory
May 2017
Book
Author(s):
Bronwen Patricia Dyson and
Gisela Håkansson
This book aims to help researchers and teachers interested in language processing and Processability Theory (PT) to understand this theory and its applications. PT is an influential account of second language processing which hypothesizes that due to the architecture of language processing learners acquire second languages in developmental stages. This book lays out PT’s predictions and research on the development of diverse target languages – particularly English and Scandinavian languages – by learners of various categories. It discusses the typological issues facing PT and its contribution to an understanding of variation and cognitive constraints on pedagogy. However the book also raises a critical eye to the literature which after almost twenty years of evolution requires explanation clarification and in some cases extension. Why do some phenomena belong to different stages in different languages? Why are important types of variation under-represented? Is teaching as constrained as proposed in PT?
Cognitive Grammar in Contemporary Fiction
May 2017
Book
Author(s):
Chloe Harrison
This book proposes an extension of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987 1991 2008) towards a cognitive discourse grammar through the unique environment that literary stylistic application offers. Drawing upon contemporary research in cognitive stylistics (Text World Theory deixis and mind-modelling amongst others) the volume scales up central Cognitive Grammar concepts (such as construal grounding the reference point model and action chains) in order to explore the attenuation of experience – and how it is simulated – in literary reading. In particular it considers a range of contemporary texts by Neil Gaiman Jennifer Egan Jonathan Safran Foer Ian McEwan and Paul Auster. This application builds upon previous work that adopts Cognitive Grammar for literary analysis and provides the first extended account of Cognitive Grammar in contemporary fiction.
Dynamics of Linguistic Diversity
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Hagen Peukert and
Ingrid Gogolin
This volume emphasizes the energetic nature of linguistic diversity and its consequences of how we think about language how it affects the individual education in school and urban spaces across the globe. Hence linguistic diversity reflects the constant state of rapid change prevalent in modern societies bearing opportunities as well as challenges. It is the prime objective of this selection of contributions to give a differentiated picture of the chances of linguistic diversity. Dynamics of Linguistic Diversity pays tribute to more recent developments in the study of language applied linguistics and education sciences. Contributions in this volume discuss how the concept of language is contextualized in a world of polylanguaging investigate latent factors of influence multilingual individuals multilingual proficiency multilingual practices and development multilingual communication as well as teaching practices and whether they foster or hamper multilingual development.
Enabling Human Conduct : Studies of talk-in-interaction in honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff
May 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Geoffrey Raymond,
Gene H. Lerner and
John Heritage
This collection offers a multifaceted view of the life research and impact of Emanuel A. Schegloff the co-originator with Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson of Conversation Analysis (or CA) and its leading contemporary authority. The first section introduces Schegloff’s life and work and using a series of interviews with him provides a concise comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field’s major aims and achievements. Next many of the world’s leading researchers from various disciplines – including Communication Linguistics Psycholinguistics Linguistic Anthropology and Sociology – build on Schegloff’s foundational research analyzing encounters from everyday and institutional settings (conducted in English German Korean Mandarin and Russian) to explicate how conversation and other conduct in interaction are organized. The final section of the book includes reflections on Schegloff’s contributions by some of his major interlocutors and Schegloff’s response to them.
Iranian Political Satirists : Experience and motivation in the contemporary era
May 2017
Book
Author(s):
Mahmud Farjami
This volume surveys political satire as a journalistic genre in Iran since the latter days of the Qajar dynasty to the present thus spanning one century and more. It is an important resource but it also provides an analysis. Moreover this volume is a rare effort to answer a question that looks simple but is very complicated: “Why would someone produce satire knowing that this act might be followed by dangerous consequences?” and to find out what motivates political satirists. For this aim nine prominent political satirists have been interviewed: writers and cartoonists men and women those who live abroad and those who still live in Iran. The author analyses this data in relation to among other things the main theories of humor to provide a descriptive report for each satirist’s motivations as well as the strength of each motivational element in a general comparative context.
Contrastive Studies in Verbal Valency
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Lars Hellan,
Andrej Malchukov and
Michela Cennamo
In recent years issues of verbal valency valency alternations and verb classes have seen a new upsurge of interest from a variety of perspectives. This book comprises articles investigating valency phenomena on a contrastive basis within Romance Germanic and Slavic and also in Basque and in the West-African language Ga as well as classical Greek and Sanskrit. Phenomena include transitive and ditransitive constructions and alternations involving reflexives cognate objects ’null’ objects case (in its syntagmatic and paradigmatic aspects) and infinitives mostly in a synchronic perspective. Aiming at a closer understanding of the range of regularities falling within the concept of valency frames the book offers a representative array of current assumptions hypotheses methodologies and new findings within the overall field. The volume will provide a valuable resource for researchers and students both in general linguistics and in the relevant language particular disciplines.
Studies in Figurative Thought and Language
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Angeliki Athanasiadou
This volume contains original research and innovative analyses that deepen our understanding of figurative thought and language. The selected papers focus on the multi-faceted aspect of figuration its function in thought and its impact on areas of grammar and communication. Key topics explored include metaphor metonymy and their relationship to each other as well as the less studied figure of hyperbole and its relation to the fundamental figures of metaphor and metonymy. Collectively the papers examine the pragmatic reasoning processes triggered by figurative thought the lexicogrammatical motivations and/or constraints on figurative language the impact of deeply entrenched figurative thought on the lexicon of natural languages the cultural origins of figurative thought and the psycholinguistic motivations for figuration. The comprehensive treatment of these issues is fundamental for future research on figurative thought and language particularly on questions of universality vs. specificity of figuration the impact of figuration on constructions cross-linguistic comparisons of figurative language and cognitive-pragmatic approaches to figurative meaning.
Reflections on Translation Theory : Selected papers 1993 - 2014
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Andrew Chesterman
Originally published in different journals and collected volumes these papers in conceptual analysis cover some central topics in translation theory and research: types of theory and hypothesis; causality and explanation; norms strategies and so-called universals; translation sociology and ethics. There are critical reviews of Catford’s theory and of Skopos theory and of Kundera’s views on literary translation and detailed analyses of the literal translation hypothesis and the unique items hypothesis. The methodological discussions which draw on work in the philosophy of science will be of special relevance to younger researchers for example those starting work on a doctorate. Some of the arguments and positions defended – for instance on the significant status of conceptual interpretive hypotheses and the ideal of consilience – relate to wider ongoing debates and will interest any scholar who is concerned about the increasing fragmentation of the field and about the future of Translation Studies. Let the dialogue continue!
Vita coaetanea / A Contemporary Life / Vida coetánea / Vida coetània
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Ramon Llull
The Vita coaetanea (A Contemporary Life) is an autobiographical account of Ramon Llull’s life dictated by himself to a friend in 1311 when he was seventy-nine years old. In it Llull reviews his works in the context of a life dedicated to God and motivated by the desire to disseminate the message of the Christian faith among the infidels. Llull the self-labeled troubadour of books wrote this account in part as a self-justification of his life and work in part as self-consolation for his unending toils and travails. It is very likely that he also had in mind the Council of Vienne (1311) which he was about to attend and where he submitted petitions dealing with the establishment of adequate places to study languages for the preaching of the Gospel to every creature and the founding of a Christian military religious order that waged permanent war against the Saracens until the Holy Land is reconquered. Llull wanted to frame these petitions within a well thought-out justificatory account of his life and works that exudes passion commitment and love for his fellow man.
This volume contains the Latin original as well as translations into Catalan Spanish and English.
This volume contains the Latin original as well as translations into Catalan Spanish and English.
The Abstraction Engine : Extracting patterns in language, mind and brain
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Michael Fortescue
The main thesis of this book is that abstraction far from being confined to higher forms of cognition language and logical reasoning has actually been a major driving force throughout the evolution of creatures with brains. It is manifest in emotive as well as rational thought. Wending its way through the various facets of abstraction the book attempts to clarify – and relate – the often confusing meanings of the word ‘abstract’ that one may encounter even within the same discipline. The unusual synoptic approach which draws upon research in psychology neural network theory child language acquisition philosophy and consciousness studies as well as a variety of linguistic disciplines cannot be compared directly to other books on the market that touch upon just one particular aspect of abstraction. It is aimed at a wide readership – anyone interested in the nature of abstraction and the cognitive processing and purpose behind it. (series A)
Crossroads Semantics : Computation, experiment and grammar
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Hilke Reckman,
Lisa L.S. Cheng,
Maarten Hijzelendoorn and
Rint Sybesma
As language is a multifaceted phenomenon the study of language as long as it is geared at providing a comprehensive picture of it cannot be restricted to one component or one approach. This applies to the many different components of language as well including semantics.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>If we want to fully understand the phenomenon of language meaning we must not limit our research to lexical semantics syntax-induced meaning or pragmatics. In order to enable ourselves to construct a consistent account of meaning we need to extract relevant information from research done in different frameworks and from different theoretical standpoints.<br/>This volume brings together a number of computational psycholinguistic as well as theoretical studies which highlight and illustrate how research done in one subfield of linguistics can be relevant to others.<br/>The articles highlight the different ways in which one can work with different aspects of language meaning.
New Insights into the Semantics of Legal Concepts and the Legal Dictionary
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Martina Bajčić
This book focuses on legal concepts from the dual perspective of law and terminology. While legal concepts frame legal knowledge and take center stage in law the discipline of terminology has traditionally been about concept description. Exploring topics common to both disciplines such as meaning conceptualization and specialized knowledge transfer the book gives a state-of-the-art account of legal interpretation legal translation and legal lexicography with special emphasis on EU law. The special give-and-take of law and terminology is illuminated by real-life legal cases which demystify the ways courts do things with concepts. This original approach to the semantics of legal concepts is then incorporated into the making of a legal dictionary thus filling a gap in the theory and practice of legal lexicography. With its rich repertoire of examples of legal terms in different languages the book provides a blend of theory and practice making it a valuable resource not only for scholars of law language and lexicography but also for legal translators and students.
Identity Struggles : Evidence from workplaces around the world
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Dorien Van De Mieroop and
Stephanie Schnurr
This collection provides a kaleidoscopic view of a range of identity struggles in the workplace context. It features twenty-two case studies that present an eclectic mix of workplaces in different socio-cultural contexts. They include among others household workers in Peru and Hong Kong female professionals in India and the UK social workers in Botswana and on Canadian reserves tourist guides in Europe and construction workers in New Zealand. The volume addresses important questions on professional competence group membership (sometimes competing) expectations and identity boundaries. The chapters establish that identity struggles are a reflection of issues of knowledge competing norms and attempts for social change.
Development of Tense/Aspect in Semitic in the Context of Afro-Asiatic Languages
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Vit Bubenik
The author applies the comparative method for the reconstruction of earlier aspectual systems in the Afro-Asiatic phylum of languages. Moving ‘upstream’ from the documented systems of Semitic Berber and Old Cushitic the state of affairs during the common stage of Proto-Semito-Berbero-Cushitic is reconstructed. With the addition of Egyptian and Chadic data important conclusions regarding the elusive Proto-Afro-Asiatic are reached. Moving ‘downstream’ the trajectory of individual aspectual systems through their later stages is analyzed. A central piece of the monograph is the reconstruction of intermediate stages reflecting the long-term developments of aspectual and temporal categories of individual languages from the Old towards their Middle periods. The continuity and innovation in the aspectual systems towards the contemporary state of affairs in analytic (serial) constructions of Modern Aramaic and Arabic vernacular languages is explicated. The author demonstrates that it is imperative to work in a larger typological framework and that in the field of Afro-Asiatic linguistics valuable insights can be gained from the study of parallel phenomena in Indo-European languages. At the same time Indo-Europeanists will profit from the study of typologically earlier aspect-prominent systems of Afro-Asiatic languages. The monograph offers important contributions to our understanding of universals and to the typology and diachrony of tense and aspect.
The Idea of a Text and the Nature of Textual Meaning
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Anders Pettersson
In his account of text and textual meaning Pettersson demonstrates that a text as commonly conceived is not only a verbal structure but also a physical entity two kinds of phenomena which do not in fact add up to a unitary object. He describes this current notion of text as convenient enough for many practical purposes but inadequate in discussions of a theoretically more demanding nature. Having clearly demonstrated its intellectual drawbacks he develops an alternative boldly revisionary way of thinking about text and textual meaning. His careful argument is in challenging dialogue with assumptions about language-in-use to be found in a wide range of present-day literary theory linguistics philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of language.
Why Gesture? : How the hands function in speaking, thinking and communicating
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
R. Breckinridge Church,
Martha W. Alibali and
Spencer D. Kelly
Co-speech gestures are ubiquitous: when people speak they almost always produce gestures. Gestures reflect content in the mind of the speaker often under the radar and frequently using rich mental images that complement speech. What are gestures doing? Why do we use them? This book is the first to systematically explore the functions of gesture in speaking thinking and communicating – focusing on the variety of purposes served for the gesturer as well as for the viewer of gestures. Chapters in this edited volume present a range of diverse perspectives (including neural cognitive social developmental and educational) consider gestural behavior in multiple contexts (conversation narration persuasion intervention and instruction) and utilize an array of methodological approaches (including both naturalistic and experimental). The book demonstrates that gesture influences how humans develop ideas express and share those ideas to create community and engineer innovative solutions to problems.
Integration, Identity and Language Maintenance in Young Immigrants : Russian Germans or German Russians
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Ludmila Isurin and
Claudia Maria Riehl
The volume presents a selection of contributions related to integration adaptation language attitudes and language change among young Russian-speaking immigrants in Germany. At the turn of the century Germany which defined itself as a mono-ethnic and mono-racial society has become a country integrating various immigrant groups. Among those there are three different types of Russian immigrants: Russian Germans Russian Jews and ethnic Russians all three often perceived as “Russians” by the host country. The three groups have the same linguistic background but a different ethnicity known as “nationality” a separate entry in Russian official documents. This defined the immigration paths and the subsequent integration into German society where each group strives to position itself in relation to two other groups in the same migrant space. The book discusses the complexities of belonging and (self-/other) assignment to groups as well as the attitude to language maintenance among young Russian-speaking immigrants.
Syllable Weight in African Languages
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Paul Newman
Syllable weight is a crucially important concept in the fields of phonology and morphology. It impacts analyses and explanation whether theoretical typological or descriptive. African linguistics was critical in the original development of the concept and as this book demonstrates the concept is critical to our understanding of complex phenomena in African languages including stress tone allomorphy minimal word requirements and metrics. This volume includes a broad overview of syllable weight as a phonological variable and then provides detailed case studies covering an array of African languages from various phyla spoken across the continent. This should prove to be an essential book for scholars and students in the area of general phonology and African linguistics. The editor of the book Distinguished Professor Paul Newman is an internationally well-known expert on African linguistics in general and the Hausa language in particular. It was he who first introduced the term ‘syllable weight’ in a seminal article published nearly a half century ago.
Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations : Expanding the limits of Translation Studies
Apr 2017
Book
Author(s):
Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespo
Crowdsourcing and online collaborative translations have emerged in the last decade to the forefront of Translation Studies as one of the most dynamic and unpredictable phenomena that has attracted a growing number of researchers. The popularity of this set of varied translational processes holds the potential to reframe existing translation theories redefine a number of tenets in the discipline advance research in the so-called “technological turn” and impact public perceptions on translation. This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of these phenomena from a descriptive and critical perspective delving into industry approaches and fostering inter and intra disciplinary connections between areas in which the impact is the greatest such as cognitive translatology translation technologies quality and translation evaluation sociological approaches text-linguistic approaches audiovisual translation or translation pedagogy. This book is of special interest to translation researchers translation students industry experts or anyone with an interest on how crowdsourcing and online collaborative translations relate to past present and future research and theorizations in Translation Studies.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
Imperatives and Directive Strategies
Apr 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Daniël Van Olmen and
Simone Heinold
Imperatives and directive strategies have intrigued both formalists and functionalists. They continue to search for the answers to questions like “what are the semantics of the imperative?” “how is it used (in the world’s languages)?” and “which factors determine the choice between imperatives and other directive strategies?”. This volume takes a broadly functional-typological perspective and contributes to the literature in several respects. It presents new data from a variety of languages some of which have not been studied in depth before. It exemplifies the benefits of traditional methodologies as well as the potential of more innovative ones. In addition the volume sheds new light on the imperative as a typological notion its meaning and uses and its interaction with other grammatical categories. It also offers new insights into the relation between different directive strategies within and across languages and into the (dis)similarities between equivalent directive strategies in a language family.
Pivotal Constructions in Chinese : Diachronic, synchronic, and constructional perspectives
Mar 2017
Book
Author(s):
Rui Peng
This book presents a detailed analysis of the Chinese pivotal constructions (PVCs) and their diachronic developments from a constructionalist perspective with the focus on the growth of the constructional hierarchies of these constructions and the changes with respect to both the form and meaning properties over time. The most important enabling factor behind the diachronic developments of the PVCs has been the sanction of the new instances conflicting with the constructions’ specifications. Throughout history the PVCs have grown along the two dimensions i.e. inclusiveness and multileveledness leading to a steady increase in the sizes of their constructional hierarchies. The two-dimensional expansion of the PVCs’ constructional hierarchies has been accompanied by the gradual relaxation of the conditions constraining the earliest instances on multiple schematicity levels. This book will be valuable to scholars working on diachronic construction grammar and language change as well as to those interested in the history of Chinese language.
Applied Linguistics Perspectives on CLIL
Mar 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Ana Llinares and
Tom Morton
This book represents the first collection of studies on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) which brings together a range of perspectives through which CLIL has been investigated within Applied Linguistics. The book aims to show how the four perspectives of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics highlight different important aspects of CLIL as a context for second language development. Each of the four sections in the book opens with an overview of one of the perspectives written by a leading scholar in the field and is then followed by three empirical studies which focus on specific aspects of CLIL seen from this perspective. Topics covered include motivation the use of tasks pragmatic development speech functions in spoken interaction the use of evaluative language in expressing content knowledge in writing multimodal interaction assessment for learning L1 use in the classroom English-medium instruction in universities and CLIL teachers’ professional identities.
Consensus and Dissent : Negotiating Emotion in the Public Space
Mar 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Anne Storch
This book is the result of intensive and continued discussions about the social role of language and its conceptualisations in societies other than Northern (European-American) ones. Language as a means of expressing as well as evoking both interiority and community has been in the focus of these discussions led among linguists anthropologists and Egyptologists and leading to a collection of essays that provide studies that transcend previously considered approaches. Its contributions are in particular interested in understanding how the attitude of the individual towards societal processes and strategies of norming is negotiated emotionally and how individual interests and attitudes can be articulated. Discourses on public spaces are in the focus in order to analyse those strategies that are employed to articulate dissent (for example in the sense of face-threatening acts). This raises a number of questions on the spatial and public situatedness of emotions and language: How is the public space dealt with and reflected in language as property heritage and as a part of ascribed identities? Which role do emotions play in this space? How is emotion employed there as part of place making in relation to identity constructions? What is the connection between emotion performance and emblematic spaces and places? Which opportunities of the violation of norms and transgression do such public spaces offer to actors and speakers? These questions intend to address the communicative representation of core cultural processes and concepts.
Shakespearean Perspectives : Essays on poetic negotiation
Mar 2017
Book
Author(s):
David Lucking
David Lucking sees Shakespeare’s plays as negotiating tensions between a number of alternative and sometimes mutually antagonistic perspectives. Some of these perspectives are associated with particular languages cultures and texts while others involve philosophical issues such as the nature of personal ontology and distinctions between reality and dream being and nothingness. In elaborating his insights Lucking draws extensive comparisons with Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura and between Sophocles’ Theban plays and King Lear and he also pays close attention to A Midsummer Night’s Dream Henry V Julius Caesar Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra. Re-assessing a wide range of earlier commentary his nine essays confirm the lasting value of apposite contextualization in tandem with detailed close reading.
Epistemic Stance in Dialogue : Knowing, Unknowing, Believing
Mar 2017
Book
Author(s):
Andrzej Zuczkowski,
Ramona Bongelli and
Ilaria Riccioni
This volume presents a theoretical and practical model for analysing epistemic stance in dialogues i.e. the positions both epistemic (commitment) and evidential (source of information) which speakers take in the here and now of communication with regard to the information they are conveying and which they express through lexical and morphosyntactic means.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>According to the results of our studies of different types of corpora these positions can be reduced to three basic ones: Knowing Unknowing Believing (KUB). <br/>In the first part of the book we present the KUB model and its psychological and linguistic backgrounds. In the second part we provide an exemplary application of the model by presenting the qualitative and quantitative analysis of dialogues belonging to different genres and contexts.<br/>The volume is addressed to scholars concerned with the topical issues from a theoretical and analytical perspective. <br/>
From Superman to Social Realism : Children's media and Scandinavian childhood
Mar 2017
Book
Author(s):
Helle Strandgaard Jensen
Can children’s media be a source of education and empowerment? Or is the commercial media market a threat to their sense of social and democratic values? Such questions about the appropriateness children’s media consumption have recurred in public debates throughout the twentieth century. From Superman to Social Realism provides an exciting new approach to the study of children’s media and childhood history drawing on the theories of cross-media consumption and transnational history. Based on extensive Scandinavian source material it explores public debates about children’s media between 1945 and 1985. Readers are taken on a fascinating journey through debates about superheroes in the 1950s politicization of children’s media in the 1960s and about television and social realism in the 1980s. Arguments are firmly contextualized in Scandinavian childhood and welfare history an approach that demonstrates why professional and political groups have perceived children’s media as the key to the enculturation of future generations.
Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia : Rethinking theoretical and geographical boundaries
Feb 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Yoshiko Matsumoto,
Bernard Comrie and
Peter Sells
This volume presents a cross-linguistic investigation of clausal noun-modifying constructions in genetically varied languages of Eurasia. Contrary to a common premise that in any language adnominal clauses that share some features of relative clauses constitute a structurally distinct construction some languages of Eurasia exhibit a General Noun-Modifying Clause Construction (GNMCC) -- a single construction covering a wide range of semantic relations between the head noun and the clause. Through in-depth examination of naturally-occurring and elicited data from Ainu languages of the Caucasus (e.g. Ingush Georgian Bezhta Hinuq) Japanese Korean Marathi Nenets Sino-Tibetan languages (e.g. Cantonese Mandarin Rawang) and Turkic languages (e.g. Turkish Sakha) the chapters discuss whether or not the language in question exhibits a GNMCC and the range of noun modification covered by such a construction. The findings afford us new facts new theoretical perspectives and the first step toward a more global assessment of the possibilities for GNMCCs.
Tense-Aspect-Modality in a Second Language : Contemporary perspectives
Feb 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Martin Howard and
Pascale Leclercq
Situated within the long-established domain of temporality research in Second Language Acquisition this book aims to provide an update on recent research directions in the field through a range of papers which explore relatively new territory. Those areas include the expression of modality and counterfactuality the effect of first language transfer aspectuo-temporal comprehension aspectuo-temporal marking at a wider discursive level and methodological issues in the study of the acquisition of aspect. The studies presented explore English and French as second languages involving both child and adult learners from a range of first language backgrounds in both instructed and naturalistic learning contexts. The studies draw on both spoken and written data which explore various facets of the learners’ second language comprehension and production. The volume offers new but complementary insights to previous research as well as pointing to directions for future research in this burgeoning field of study.
Researching Translation Competence by PACTE Group
Feb 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Amparo Hurtado Albir
This volume is a compendium of PACTE Group’s experimental research in Translation Competence since 1997. The book is organised in four main parts and also includes eight appendices and a glossary. Part I presents the conceptual and methodological framework of PACTE’s Translation Competence research design. Part II focuses on the methodological aspects of the research design and its development: exploratory tests and pilot studies carried out; experiment design; characteristics of the sample population; procedures of data collection and analysis. Part III presents the results obtained in the experiment related to: the Acceptability of the translations produced in the experiment and the six dependent variables of study (Knowledge of Translation; Translation Project; Identification and Solution of Translation Problems; Decision-making; Efficacy of the Translation Process; Use of Instrumental Resources); this part also includes a corpus analysis of the translations. Part IV analyses the translators who were ranked highest in the experiment and goes on to present final conclusions as well as PACTE’s perspectives in the field of Translation Competence research.
Evidentiality Revisited : Cognitive grammar, functional and discourse-pragmatic perspectives
Feb 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Juana I. Marín Arrese,
Gerda Haßler and
Marta Carretero
Evidentiality Revisited focuses on semantic-pragmatic based frameworks for the study of evidentials and evidential strategies in European languages (Dutch English French German Italian Lithuanian Portuguese Russian and Spanish). The book also presents discourse-pragmatic studies with special emphasis on the use of evidential and epistemic expressions as resources for stancetaking in discourse. The volume addresses issues such as the relationship between the conceptual domains of evidentiality and epistemic modality the role of evidential and epistemic resources in modelling stancetaking the expression of speaker commitment to the validity status of the information and the discourse-pragmatic variation of evidentiality and epistemic modality in discourse domains and genres. The volume offers a collection of contributions in which cross-linguistic studies and corpus-based studies contribute to provide further insights into a usage-based account of linguistic reality.
How to Do Philosophy with Words : Reflections on the Searle-Derrida debate
Jan 2017
Book
Author(s):
Jesús Navarro
Nowadays philosophy is characterized by such heterogeneous intellectual practices that its very unity and coherence seem endangered. What is especially disconcerting is that most authors manage to largely ignore the very existence of methodological positions radically different from their own. Fortunately there have been exceptions and the present volume focuses on one of them: the failed debate that took place between John Searle and Jacques Derrida. <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>This book thoroughly analyses that exchange contextualizing it within the respective philosophical traditions of the two thinkers with the general aim of turning their dispute into what it was not: a respectful sensible and fruitful controversy. This episode is thus taken as an opportunity to reflect on the peculiar nature of philosophy as an intellectual practice and to discuss some of its main themes: language as an instrument for communication the intentionality of consciousness and difference as a constitutive element of every text.
Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events : Verb-verb constructions at the syntax-semantic interface
Jan 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Brian Nolan and
Elke Diedrichsen
This book offers a comprehensive investigative study of argument realisation in complex predicates and complex events at the syntax-semantic interface across a wide variety of the world’s languages ranging over languages such as German Irish Sicilian and Italian Lithuanian Estonian and other Finno-Ugric languages Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra from Australia’s Western Desert region Japanese Tepehua (Totonacan Mexico) Cheyenne Mexican Spanish Boharic Coptic and Persian. This volume examines the syntactic variation of complex events complex predicates and multi-verb constructions within a single clause where the clause is view as representing a single event studying their semantics and syntax within functional cognitive and constructional frameworks to arrive at a better understanding of their cross linguistic behaviour and how they resonate in syntax. These constructions manifest considerable variability in cross-linguistic comparisons of complex predicate formation. In European languages for example typically one of the verbs in a verb-verb construction highlights a phase of an underspecified event while the matrix verb specifies the actual event. In contrast serial verbs require each verb to provide a sub-event dimension within a complex event that is viewed holistically as unitary in syntax. This book contributes to an understanding of complex events complex predicates and multi-verb constructions across languages their syntactic constructional patterns and argument realisation.
Worldmaking : Literature, language, culture
Jan 2017
Book
Editor(s):
Tom Clark,
Emily Finlay and
Philippa Kelly
In 1978 Nelson Goodman explored the relation of “worlds” to language and literature formulating the term “worldmaking” to suggest that many other worlds can as plausibly exist as the “world” we know right now. We cannot catch or know “the world” as such: all we can catch are the world versions - descriptions views or workings of the world – that are expressed in symbolic systems (words music dancing visual representations). Over the twenty-five years since then creative works have played a crucial role in realigning reshaping and renegotiating our understandings of how worlds can be made and preserved in the face of globalizing trends.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The volume is divided into three sections each engaging with worlds as malleable constructs. Central to all of the contributions is the question: how can we understand the relationships between natural political cultural fictional literary linguistic and virtual worlds and why does this matter?
The Story of Zero
Jan 2017
Book
Author(s):
T. Givón
The zero coding of referents or other clausal constituents is one of the most natural communicatively and cognitively-transparent grammatical devices in human language. Together with its functional equivalent obligatory pronominal agreement zero is both extremely widespread cross-linguistically and highly frequent in natural text. In the domain of reference zero represents somewhat paradoxically either anaphorically-governed high continuity or cataphorically-governed low topicality. And whether in conjoined/chained or syntactically-subordinate clauses zero is extremely well-governed at a level approaching 100% in natural text. The naturalness cross-language ubiquity and well-governedness of zero have been largely obscured by an approach that for 30-odd years has considered it a typological exotica the so-called "pro-drop" associated with a dubious "non-configurational" language type. The main aim of this book is to reaffirm the naturalness universality and well-governedness of zero by studying it from four closely related perspectives: (i) cognitive and communicative function; (ii) natural-text distribution; (iii) cross-language typological distribution; and (iv) the diachronic rise of referent coding devices. The latter is particularly central to our understanding the functional interplay between zero anaphora pronominal agreement and related referent-coding devices.