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This dialogue game approach to the discourse analysis of the English interjection well aims at the formulation of rules which would be informative (marking some contexts of use as more natural than others) systematic (applicable in a mechanical or at least in a non-ad hoc way) and adequate (showing putative competitors to be either false to fact too narrow or too wide or demonstrably equivalent).

In this book a study is made of ethnic prejudice in cognition and conversation based on intensive interviewing of white majority group members. After an introductory survey of traditional and more recent approaches in social psychology to the study of prejudice a new 'sociocognitive' theory is sketched. This theory explains how cognitive representations and strategies of ethnic prejudice depend on their social functions within intergroup relations. It is also shown how ethnic prejudice is communicated in society through everyday talk among majority members. The major part of the book systematically analyzes the various dimensions of prejudiced conversations such as topical structures storytelling argumentation local semantic strategies style and rhetoric and more specific conversational properties. It is shown that such an explicit discourse analysis may reveal underlying cognitive representations and strategic uses of prejudice. Moreover it appeared that many aspects of prejudiced talk are geared towards the overall strategic goals of adequate self-expression and positive self-presentation. This book is interdisciplinary in nature and should be of interest to linguists discourse analysts cognitive and social psychologists sociologists and all those interested in ethnic stereotypes prejudice and racism.

This study is an inquiry into the pragmatics of speaker and hearer reference. It falls into a theory-based and a description-based part. The former covers three topics: (a) the categories of speaker and hearer as opposed to the category of nonparticipants in the speech act; (b) the interactional roles of speaker and hearer as defined by the illocutionary point of the speech act and the preconditions underlying its successful performance; (c) the decomposition of the speech act as a model for describing strategies in verbal interaction. The object of the descriptive part of this study is to survey the different realizations of the categories of speaker and hearer reference and the strategic effects speakers intend to bring about by employing them. For this purpose a language-specific analysis is applied to the system of speaker and hearer reference in Peninsular Spanish. For the sake of homogeneity Peninsular Spanish is also chosen as the object language for the discussion of the general language phenomena which are treated in the theoretical discussion.

Contains:

The Darwinian Theory and the Science of language (1863) by August Schleicher translated from the German by Alexander V. W. Bikkers.

On the Significance of Language for the Natural History of Man (1865) by August Schleicher translated from the German by J. Peter Maher.

On the Origin of Language (1867) by Wilhelm H. I. Bleek edited with a preface by Ernst Haeckel translated from the German by Thomas Davidson.

This is a fac simile edition of Bloomfield's An Introduction to the Study of Language (New York 1914) with an introductory article by Joseph S. Kess.

Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) was responsible for two classic textbooks in the field of linguistics. The earlier reproduced here shows some striking differences to his later views reflecting much of the then-current thinking on language matters. As such it represents not only an interesting commentary on the theoretical development of an extremely influential linguist but more importantly it is a telling document in the evolving history of the discipline and a rich source for the (psycho)linguist interested in how and why we got from where we were to where we are.

Sámuel Gyarmathi’s Affinitas linguae hungaricae cum linguis fennicae originis grammatice demonstrata (Göttingen 1799) was received as a distinguished work of scholarship in its own days and its historical importance has been fully recognized ever since. This volume provides an English translation of the entire Latin text including the Latin glosses of the original (with the exception of zoological and botanical terms and a few passages where specific reference is made to Latin grammar). This translation includes two additions to the text of Affinitas as reprinted in the Indiana University series: Appendix III a letter to Gyarmathi by A. L. von Schötzler and a number of notes in the author’s own hand found in his copy of the work (now held in the Library of the Lycée of Zalău). The translator’s Preface provides an introduction to the work and an overview of Gyarmathi’s life.

Ce livre présente une étude comparée des infinitives des verbes de mouvement en français et en espagnol avec l’intention d’illustrer la valeur heuristique de la pratique comparative en confrontant deux langues sur un point particulier de la syntaxe.

The papers in this volume are divided into two sections. Part 1 Quantitative Linguistics contains contributions by Marie Těšitelová; M. Ludvíková; H. Confortiová; Ludmila Uhlířová; I. Nebeská; Jan Králík; J. Krámský; L. Klimeš; J. Štěpán; Z. Lišková. Part 2 Algebraic Linguistics contains contributions by M. Novotný; L. Nebeský; Petr Sgall; Eva Hajičová; Jarmila Panevová; Petr Piťha; J. Sabol; Zdenek Kirschner; P. Jirků & Petr Sgall; Eva Buráňová & Svatava Machová; Pavel Materna.

Contains key papers by the founders of the Prague School; including Vilém Mathesius famous article “Functional Linguistics” (1929) the theses presented at the First Congress of Slavists in Prague (1929) an earlier paper by Mathesius “On the potentiality of the phenomena of language” (1911) Jan Mukařovský's “Standard language and poetic language” (1932) and other historical contributions by B. Havránek V. Skalička and B. Trnka.

This book aims to give an indication of the extent of derivational morphology in English; of how much immanent internal structure must be presumed for words -- even apparently simplex ones. This is done by showing that three (morpho-)phonological processes which tend to hide surface sound-meaning relationships must be taken into account when constructing a synchronic grammar of Modern English: ablaut obstruent shift and vowel shift.

Recently there has been increased appreciation of the fact that August Friedrich Pott (1802–1887) possessed valuable insights and articulated uncommon positions in Indo-European comparative linguistics general linguistics and linguistic ethnology. This introduction and accompanying bibliography and catalogue aim to provide additional access routes to Pott’s career by chronicling his life works and library collection.

The Glasgow ‘toonheid vernacular’ is certainly the most vital and widespread – if least prestigious – form of present-day Scots. No comprehensive description has existed so far Macauley’s sociolinguistic research having barely scratched the surface. Caroline Macafee’s long introduction to the emergence and present distribution of the variety is not only a memorable feat in itself it is also closely related to the 73 texts which include a substantial portion of natural speech and an impressive array of naturalistic and stereotyped language as used in poetry drama and literary prose.

The period of 1965 to 1978 was an extremely productive time for U.S. (Russian born) Romance etymologist and philologist Yakov Malkiel whose specialty was the development of Latin words roots prefixes and suffixes in modern Romance languages particularly Spanish. Malkiel will be known as the great champion of etymology in linguistics as evidenced by several of the selected essays in From Particular to General Lingusitics. But here Malkiel also moves in several other subfields of linguistics and proves that whatever the subject of discussion is it is characterized by a tenaciously comprehensive use of evidence.

The articles of this collection on Latin linguistics are representative of the kind of research that is currently carried out in the field of linguistics. Most deal with syntax or sentence structure but they vary with respect to their emphasis on theory or description. They also vary with respect to the grammatical framework with which they are formulated with some preponderance of transformational generative approaches. All papers are well-informed about the major developments in contemporary linguistics and make extensive use of recent methods and types of argumentation. In the introduction the volume editor briefly reviews the present state of Latin linguistics starting with a section on the question whether it is possible to conduct up-to-date linguistic research for Latin at all. To be followed by a brief sketch of the impact of recent linguistic theories on Latin linguistics in general and in a final third section an outline is presented of the possible interest the contributions to this volume may have for linguists working on languages other than Latin

This study examines specific implications of the considerable overlap in methodology and theory of 19th-century geology and philology. Recognition of this overlap is indispensable to a complete understanding of philology’s development into the more empirical science of linguistics especially as this empiricism culminates in the neogrammarian doctrine of exceptionless sound laws.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The study consists of three major parts: I Uniformitarianism in the Palaetiological Sciences [i.e. geology and other natural sciences studying life in earlier periods of the earth]; II The Rise of Uniformitarianism in Linguistics; and III The Uniformitarian Basis of Neogrammarian Linguistics.

The functional notion of “topic” or “topicality” has suffered traditionally from two distinct drawbacks. First it has remained largely ill defined or intuitively defined. And second quite often its definition boiled down to structure-dependent circularity. This volume represents a major departure from past practices without rejecting both their intuitive appeal and the many good results yielded by them. First “topic” and “topicality” are re-analyzed as a scalar property rather than as an either/or discrete prime. Second the graded property of “topicality” is firmly connected with sensible cognitive notions culled from gestalt psychology such as “predictability” or “continuity”. Third we develop and utilize precise measures and quantified methods by which the property of “topicality” of clausal arguments can be studied in connected discourse and thus be properly hinged in its rightful context that of topic identification maintenance and recoverability in discourse. Fourth we show that many grammatical phenomena which used to be studied by linguists in isolation all partake in one functional domain of grammar that of topic identification. Finally we demonstrate the validity of this new approach to the study of “topic” and “topicality” by applying the same text-based quantifying method to a number of typologically-diverse languages in studying actual texts. Languages studied here are: Written and spoken English spoken Spanish Biblical Hebrew Amharic Hausa Japanese Chamorro and Ute.

Scholars and students working on the early courtly and chivalric literature of medieval Europe will have often felt the need for contemporary theoretical material with which to illustrate their arguments about courtesy and chivalry in romances etc. The present volume which presents critical editions of the two earliest didactic poems of this kind in the vernacular (both date from the first quarter of the thirteenth century) was conceived partly to fill this need. This book will be of interest not only to specialists in Old French literature but also to those studying other literatures; both texts are known to have circulated in England in the fourteenth century and are therefore of importance for anglicists; L’Ordene de Chevalerie was adapted into Middle Dutch and Italian several times and provides excellent material for comparatists netherlandists and italianists; moreover given the germinal place of Old French literature in the culture of the Middle Ages both poems are worthy of study in the context of the evolution of the ideals of courtesy and chivalry as European literary phenomenon.

Each critical text is accompanied by an extensive literary introduction and philological apparatus and translations into modern English prose have been appended to render the poems more accessible to non-romanists.

Canonical switch-reference is an inflectional category of the verb which indicates whether or not its subject is identical with the subject of some other verb. Switch-reference may be analyzed from a structural or a functional point of view. Functionally switch-reference is a device for referential tracking. Formally switch-reference is almost always a verbal category similar to the familiar category of verbal concord. In most languages switch-reference marking is indicated by a verbal affix however in some languages it may be marked by an independent morpheme. The contributions to this volume are concerned with questions of form function and genesis of canonical switch-reference systems.

The goal of this monograph is a comprehensive analysis of understatements and other forms of non-direct speech (hedges) in modern English. It is based on a multi-level approach including philosophical cultural and socio-psychological arguments. The main part consists of an investigation of the linguistic restrictions for understatements and hedges to be formed by means of the following grammatical categories: negation of predicates gradation of predicates modalization of affirmative sentences by means of parenthetical verbs modal adverbs modal verbs and questions.

Non-declarative sentences such as interrogatives imperatives and exclamations are analyzed together as a single class. The author gives a general characterization of all three types and shows that there are no other types of non-declarative sentences. Definitions are offered for the notions of declaration and presupposition. These definitions are applicable to all types of sentence both declarative and non-declarative. A defining characteristic of non-declarative sentences is that only strongly intensional operators can apply to them to form complex sentences. It is shown that this property of non-declaratives implies that such sentences do not have declarations. A particular case of the relation between questions and conditionals is studied in more detail.

Looking at the ‘semiotic landscape’ – the panorama of constituted semiotics – two traditions seem to have developed separately and without interpenetration. Anglo-Saxon semioticians consider the Peircean framework to provide the adequate conceptual apparatus whereas so-called ‘Continental’ semioticians refer to the sign theory in Saussure and in its interpretation by Hjelmslev (for instance the École sémiotique de Paris). Evaluating each other’s projects methods and results could lead to a balanced view. The purpose of this monograph is to get the best out of the adequate insights from both sides and to make suggestions how the semioticians from the Peircean or Saussuro-Hjelmslevian school can be removed from their isolationist positions. A comparison and homologation of these two orientations will be carried out from the angle of the impact of pragmaticism on both semiotic orientations. How intentionality action conventionality interlocution are integrated in both orientations will be given particular emphasis.

According to the traditional view meaning presents itself under the form of some kind of identity. To give the meaning of a sentence amounts to being capable of producing some substitute based on the identity of the terms of the sentence. Is then the meaning of a book or of any text the capacity of rewriting it? Instead of retaining a double-standard theory of meaning one for sentences and another for texts that would allow for an ad hoc gap the author provides a unified conception called the question view of language he has developed known as problematology. He pursues a systematic analysis of questioning in literature and shows how questioning makes the understanding process possible.

The themes chosen for study in this volume are deeply embedded within the respective structures of phenomenology and pragmatism though often implicitly so. Each of the six chapters begins with the phenomenological perspective and then proceeds to the pragmatic focus. The intent of each chapter is both to provide increased clarity in understanding each of the two positions and to reveal the basic philosophic rapport between them. Such a recognized rapport in turn adds to the insightful understanding of each position at times opening up new possibilities for the expansion or deepening of a particular position. For once the fundamental rapport is uncovered the two different approaches can be found to cast mutually revealing lights on seemingly diverse but ultimately unifying interests. The phenomenological philosophy of this study thematically focuses primarily on the existential phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger. The pragmatic framework incorporates the philosophies of the five major classical American pragmatists: Charles S. Peirce William James John Dewey G.H. Mead and C.I. Lewis.

This volume presents seven extensive essays by specialists in their respective fields of historical linguistics. The first essay after the Introduction states the principles presented in Directions for Historical Linguistics (1968) and assesses the progress made since then towards constructing a general theory of language change. Like the following essays on phonology and morphology it poses new questions that have arisen in the increasingly ambitious research. Historical attention to discourse the topic of the next essay is virtually new though it too finds predecessors among philologists who devoted themselves to texts. Finally two essays treat etymology one concentrating on the rigorously investigated Romance field the other on Indo-European especially on new insights prompted by attention to Hittite.