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Media Intertextualities
May 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Mie Hiramoto
This collection of critical essays originally published in Pragmatics and Society 1:2 (2010) discusses how normative biases that shape our relation to the world are constructed through discursive practice in media discourse. The intertextual perspective it adopts is crucial for our understanding of how media representations of speakers and languages shape many of our preconceptions of others. Mediatization is inherently intertextual; the very nature of this process involves extracting the speech behavior of particular speakers or groups from a highly specific context and refracting and reshaping it to be inserted in another stream of representation. The notion of intertextuality becomes a useful concept for the linguistic anthropological study of media discourse in the context of modernity as it provides us with a tool for exploring the semiotic processes that underlie the way in which the media negotiate and reinscribe the complex relationships of identity that characterize late modern subjecthood.
Epistemics of the Virtual
May 2012
Book
Author(s):
Johan F. Hoorn
Proposing a new theory of fiction this work reviews the confusion about perceived realism metaphor virtual worlds and the seemingly obvious distinction between what is true and what is false. The rise of new media new technology and creative products and services requires a new examination of what ‘real’ friends are to what extent scientific novelty is ‘true’ and whether online content is merely ‘figurative’. In this transdisciplinary theory the author evaluates cognitive theories philosophical discussion and topics in biology and physics and places these in the frameworks of computer science and literary theory. The interest of the reader is continuously challenged on matters of truth fiction and the shakiness of our belief systems.
Events of Putting and Taking : A crosslinguistic perspective
May 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Anetta Kopecka and
Bhuvana Narasimhan
Events of putting things in places and removing them from places are fundamental activities of human experience. But do speakers of different languages construe such events in the same way when describing them? This volume investigates placement and removal event descriptions from 18 areally genetically and typologically diverse languages. Each chapter describes the lexical and grammatical means used to describe such events and further investigates one of the following themes: syntax-semantics mappings lexical semantics and asymmetries in the encoding of placement versus removal events. The chapters demonstrate considerable crosslinguistic variation in the encoding of this domain as well as commonalities e.g. in the semantic distinctions that recur across languages and in the asymmetric treatment of placement versus removal events. This volume provides a significant contribution within the emerging field of semantic typology and will be of interest to researchers interested in the language-cognition interface including linguists psychologists anthropologists and philosophers.
Quotatives : Cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives
May 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Isabelle Buchstaller and
Ingrid van Alphen
Research on quotation has yielded a rich and diverse knowledge-base. Scientific interest has been sparked particularly by the recent emergence of new quotative forms in typologically related and unrelated languages (i.e. English be like Hebrew kazé Japanese mitai-na).The present collection gives a platform to research conducted within different linguistic sub-disciplines and on the basis of a variety of Western and non-Western languages. The introduction presents an overview of forms and functions of old and new quotative constructions. The nine chapters investigate quotation from different perspectives from conversation analysis over grammaticalization and language variation and change to typological and formal approaches. The collection advocates a comprehensive approach to the phenomenon ‘quotation’ seeking a more nuanced knowledge-base as regards the linguistic properties social uses and pragmatic functions than monolingual or single disciplinary approaches deliver. The cross-disciplinary nature and the wealth of data make the findings broadly available and relevant.
Pragmaticizing Understanding : Studies for Jef Verschueren
May 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Michael Meeuwis and
Jan-Ola Östman
The ideas that mark modern-day pragmatics are old but did not start to get more systematically developed until the 1960s and 1970s. Still the very recognition of pragmatics as a self-standing academic discipline is a product of the 1980s not least made possible by the establishment of the International Pragmatics Association. One scholar in particular has devoted his life both to IPrA and to the discipline.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>This volume pays homage to Jef Verschueren on the occasion of his 60th birthday. It celebrates him for his long-standing dedication as Secretary General of IPrA and for his scholarly contributions to the field. We owe to Jef Verschueren the insight that the processes through which language users (do or do not) achieve understanding among each other in communication can only be fully comprehended if approached from a pragmatic perspective i.e. if understanding is pragmaticized. <br/>The chapters in this book are written by scholars who like Jef Verschueren have played a key role in the genesis and development of the field and who still actively contribute to its advancement today. Each author looks back evaluates the present and takes on new challenges.
Latin Embedded Clauses : The left periphery
Apr 2012
Book
Author(s):
Lieven Danckaert
This monograph is one of the first studies that approaches Latin syntax from a formal perspective combining detailed corpus-based description with formal theoretical analysis. The empirical focus is word order in embedded clauses with special attention to clauses in which one or more constituents surface to the left of a subordinating conjunction. It is proposed that two such types of left peripheral fronting should be distinguished. The proposed analyses shed light not only on the clausal left periphery but also on the overall structure of the Latin clause. The study is couched in the framework of generative grammar but since a thorough introduction is provided no special background in formal syntax is required. Major topics touched upon are word order information structure locality and the syntax of pied-piping. The book covers both synchronic and diachronic topics of Latin syntax and is of interest for classical philologists historical linguists and formal syntacticians.
Of Grammar, Words, and Verses : In honor of Carlos Piera
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Esther Torrego
This book offers new work by some major figures in the field of linguistics addressing old debates from the perspective of current explanatory grammatical theory. These include paradigmatic relations among words and agreeing adjectives and their grammatical source. Covering a broad range of empirical domains the contributors of this volume examine the role of Economy in syntax and in syntactic interfaces with phonology and semantics and their implications for processing. The evidence is taken from a great variety of languages including Arabic dialects Basque Czech Dutch English French German Latin and Spanish. Two chapters on metrics complete honoring Carlos Piera’s longstanding scholarship in linguistic theory within Spain and abroad.
Language Contact and Development around the North Sea
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Merja Stenroos,
Martti Mäkinen and
Inge Særheim
This volume brings together eleven studies on the history of language and writing in the North Sea area with focus on contacts and interchanges through time. Its range spans from the investigation of pre-Germanic place-names to present-day Shetland; the materials studied include glosses legal and trade documents as well as place names and modern dialects. The volume is unique in its combination of linguistics and place-name studies with literacy studies which allows for a very dynamic picture of the history of language contact and texts in the North Sea area. Different approaches come together to illuminate a major insight: the omnipresence of multilingualism as a context for language development and a formative characteristic of literacy. Among the contributors are experts on English Nordic and German language history. The book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students working on the history of Northern European languages literacy studies and language contact
Letter Writing in Late Modern Europe
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Marina Dossena and
Gabriella Del Lungo Camiciotti
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in correspondence both as a literary genre and as cultural practice and several studies have appeared mainly spanning the centuries between Early and Late Modern times. However it is between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the roots of contemporary usage begin to evolve thanks to the circulation of new educational materials and more widespread schooling practices. <br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>In this volume chapters representing diverse but complementary methodological approaches discuss linguistic and discursive practices of correspondence in Late Modern Europe in order to offer material for the comparative cross-linguistic analyses of patterns occurring in different social contexts. <br/>The volume aims to provide a general and solid methodological structure for the study of largely untapped language material from a variety of comparable sources and is expected to appeal to scholars and students interested in the linguistic history of epistolary writing practices as well as to all those interested in the more recent history of European languages.
Cohesive Profiling : Meaning and interaction in personal weblogs
Apr 2012
Book
Author(s):
Christian R. Hoffmann
Cohesive Profiling provides one of the first linguistic descriptions of blog discourse focusing on the cohesive relations which enable users to construe blogs as compatible meaningful wholes. With a corpus-based analysis of cohesive relations in personal blogs the study surprisingly reveals that there is only limited cohesive rapport between the textual contributions of blog authors and readers. The book retraces blogs’ technological linguistic and generic evolution and describes how today’s blog genres are structured and composed. Additionally it is shown how cohesive interaction shared knowledge and technological expertise converge in blog readers trying to keep track of blog topics purposes and identities over time. The book is of interest to researchers in discourse analysis corpus linguistics and pragmatics as well as to scholars working in the field of computer-mediated communication.
Moving Ourselves, Moving Others
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Ad Foolen,
Ulrike M. Lüdtke,
Timothy P. Racine and
Jordan Zlatev
The close relationship between motion (bodily movement) and emotion (feelings) is not an etymological coincidence. While moving ourselves we move others; in observing others move – we are moved ourselves. The fundamentally interpersonal nature of mind and language has recently received due attention but the key role of (e)motion in this context has remained something of a blind spot. The present book rectifies this gap by gathering contributions from leading philosophers psychologists and linguists working in the area. Framed by an introducing prologue and a summarizing epilogue (written by Colwyn Trevarthen who brought the phenomenological notion of intersubjectivity to a wider audience some 30 years ago) the volume elaborates a dynamical active view of emotion along with an affect-laden view of motion – and explores their significance for consciousness intersubjectivity and language. As such it contributes to the emerging interdisciplinary field of mind science transcending hitherto dominant computationalist and cognitivist approaches.
Now Open Access as part of the Knowledge Unlatched 2017 Backlist Collection.
Now Open Access as part of the Knowledge Unlatched 2017 Backlist Collection.
Historical Linguistics 2009 : Selected papers from the 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Nijmegen, 10-14 August 2009
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Ans M.C. van Kemenade and
Nynke de Haas
The International Conference on Historical Linguistics has always been a forum that reflects the general state of the art in the field and the 2009 edition held in Nijmegen The Netherlands fully allows the conclusion that the field has been thriving over the years. The studies presented in this volume are an expression of ongoing theoretical discussions as well as new analytical approaches to the study of issues concerning language change. Taken together they reflect some of the current challenges in the field as well as the opportunities offered by judicious use of theoretical models and careful corpus-based work. The volume's contributions are organized under the following headings: I. General and Specific Issues of Language Change II. Linguistic Variation and Change in Germanic III. Linguistic Variation and Change in Greek and IV. Linguistic Change in Romance.
Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics : A multi-dimensional approach
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Manfred Markus,
Yoko Iyeiri,
Reinhard Heuberger and
Emil Chamson
This book brings together a variety of approaches to English corpus linguistics and shows how corpus methodologies can contribute to the linking of diachronic and synchronic studies. The articles in this volume investigate historical changes in the English language as well as specific aspects of Middle and Modern English and moreover of English dialects. The contributions also discuss the development of English corpus linguistics generally and its potential in the future. Special focus is given to the continuity between Middle and Modern English – much in line with the linking in previous studies of Middle English and Old English under the generic term “medievalism”. This volume highlights the continual development of English from the medieval to modern period.
Interlanguage Request Modification
Apr 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis and
Helen Woodfield
This is the first edited volume dedicated specifically to interlanguage request modification. It is a collection of empirical studies carried out by an international array of scholars which provides insights for researchers graduate students and language teachers on patterns of interlanguage request modification in a range of research contexts and linguistic/cultural settings. The research in this volume takes the reader from a consideration of interlanguage request modification in naturally-occurring e-mail data through to elicited data from e-DCT questionnaires on cyber-consultations to the interactive oral discourse of requests in open role-plays. As a whole the contributions incorporate research with learners from a range of proficiency levels and from diverse linguistic/cultural backgrounds while the chapters individually examine developmental aspects of interlanguage request modification requests in electronic contexts comparative learner/native speaker requests and instructional effects on mitigation. The book will undoubtedly become an important reference for researchers and teachers not only in the field of pragmatics but also in second language acquisition language teaching (socio-)linguistics and discourse analysis.
Exploring Argumentative Contexts
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Frans H. van Eemeren and
Bart Garssen
In Exploring Argumentative Contexts Frans H. van Eemeren and Bart Garssen bring together a broad variety of essays examining argumentation as it occurs in seven communicative domains: the political context the historical context the legal context the academic context the medical context the media context and the financial context. These essays are written by an international group of argumentation scholars consisting of Corina Andone Sarah Bigi Robert T. Craig Justin Eckstein Frans H. van Eemeren Norman Fairclough Eveline Feteris Gerd Fritz Bart Garssen Kara Gilbert Thomas Gloning G. Thomas Goodnight Dale A. Herbeck Darrin Hicks Thomas Hollihan Jos Hornikx Isabela Ieţcu-Fairclough Gábor Kutrovátz Maurizio Manzin Davide Mazzi Dima Mohammed Rudi Palmieri Angela G. Ray Patricia Riley Robert C. Rowland Peter Schulz Karen Tracy and Gergana Zlatkova.
A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the English Imperative : With special reference to Japanese imperatives
Mar 2012
Book
Author(s):
Hidemitsu Takahashi
This volume offers the first comprehensive description of English imperatives made from a Cognitive Linguistic perspective. It proposes a new way of explaining the meaning and function of the imperative independently of illocutionary act classifications which allows for quantifying the strength of imperative force in terms of parameters and numerical values. Furthermore the book applies the theory of Construction Grammar to account for the felicity of imperatives in complex sentences. The model of description explains explicitly a wide range of phenomena including frequency of use prototypical vs. non-prototypical uses of the English imperative and the choice between longer vs. shorter directives including the imperative. A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the English Imperative: With Special Reference to Japanese Imperatives is intended for both researchers and students interested in the English imperative and Directive Speech Acts at large and for the linguists working within the Cognitive Linguistics and/or Construction Grammar approach.
Developmental and Crosslinguistic Perspectives in Learner Corpus Research
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Yukio Tono,
Yuji Kawaguchi and
Makoto Minegishi
This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research and developments on the use of learner corpora perceived from developmental and crosslinguistic perspectives. The book is divided into two parts. The eleven contributions of Part I investigate the development of English language skills of young learners across seven countries/regions on the basis of a new corpus resource called the International Corpus of Crosslinguistic Interlanguage (ICCI). Part II contains seven papers devoted to other varieties of learner corpora especially spoken learner corpora and learner corpora of languages other than English. Presenting original research in corpus linguistics this book will be of interest to researchers and postgraduates in the fields of learner corpus research and second language acquisition and those who wish to apply corpus methodology in teaching and learning.
For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co.
For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co.
Olfactory Cognition : From perception and memory to environmental odours and neuroscience
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Gesualdo M. Zucco,
Rachel S. Herz and
Benoist Schaal
This book was conceived as a tribute to one of the founders of the psychological study of the sense of smell Professor Trygg Engen. The book is divided into four sections. The first reunites the fields of psychophysics and the perception of environmental odours and discusses the impact of odours on beliefs and expectations. The second addresses cognitive processes in olfaction how odours are interpreted lexicalized associated with contexts and remembered. The third focuses on the cerebral bases of olfactory awareness and the neuropsychological investigation of olfaction with special emphasis on olfactory dysfunctions and the last concerns affective and developmental processes in olfaction. The aim in producing this book is that it will help promote further research in olfactory cognition and attract new inquisitive scientists to the field. The volume will be a useful resource for academics students and professionals who study olfaction as well as to scientists who work in the domains of perception cognitive neuroscience and environmental psychology more broadly.
The Defective Copy Theory of Movement : Evidence from wh-constructions in Cape Verdean Creole
Mar 2012
Book
Author(s):
Nélia Alexandre
Within the framework of Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program this work presents a detailed discussion of the different types of wh-question formation and relativization strategies in Cape Verdean Creole (Santiago variety) especially focusing on wh-movement of PPs. The book explores the Copy Theory of Movement discussing a defective copy construction involving wh-movement of PPs which poses interesting theoretical questions as to how the defective copy is to be generated and form a chain with the relevant displaced wh-constituent. It is also shown that the defective copy strategy ([wh[PL] … el[3SG]]) is distinct from resumption ([wh[PL] … es[3PL]]) due to some properties of PPs in Cape Verdean Creole and to the nature of the pronominal element that occurs at the foot of the wh-chain. This book relates well with those on Cape Verdean Creole and highlights the need to look more closely at deeper syntactic issues in more creole languages inspiring further comparative work amongst creole linguists.
Endangered Metaphors
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Anna Idström and
Elisabeth Piirainen
When the last speaker of a language dies s/he takes to oblivion the memories associations and the rich imagery this language community has once lived by. The cultural heritage encoded in conventional linguistic metaphors handed down through generations will be lost forever. This volume consists of fifteen articles about metaphors in endangered languages from Peru to Alaska from India to Ghana.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The empirical data demonstrate that the assumptions of contemporary cognitive linguistic theory about “universal” metaphors and the underlying cognitive processes are still far from plausible since culture plays an important role in the formation of metaphors. Moreover that theory has been based on knowledge of metaphors in some standard languages. Indigenous and other minority languages especially mainly orally used ones have been disregarded completely.<br/>Besides researchers and students in linguistics especially in metaphor and figurative language theory this compilation provides food for thought for scholars in large fields of cultural studies ranging from anthropology and ethnology to folkloristics and philosophy.
Exploring Newspaper Language : Using the web to create and investigate a large corpus of modern Norwegian
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Gisle Andersen
This book describes new methodological and technological approaches to corpus building and presents recent research based on the Norwegian Newspaper Corpus. This is a large monitor corpus of contemporary Norwegian language compiled through daily harvesting of web newspapers. The book gives an overview of the corpus and its system architecture and presents tools used for tasks such as text harvesting annotation topic classification and extraction and frequency profiling of new words and phrases. Among the innovative technologies is Corpuscle a corpus query engine and management system which is flexible enough to handle very large corpora in an efficient way. The individual research contributions based on the corpus explore different aspects of Norwegian including the occurrence of anglicisms neologisms and terminology and the use of metonymy and metaphor in newspaper language. The book also describes an innovative method of applying correspondence analysis and implicational analysis to investigate interdependencies between morphosyntactic variants.
From the Classroom to the Courtroom : A guide to interpreting in the U.S. justice system
Mar 2012
Book
Author(s):
Elena M. de Jongh
From the Classroom to the Courtroom: A guide to interpreting in the U.S. justice system offers a wealth of information that will assist aspiring court interpreters in providing linguistic minorities with access to fair and expeditious judicial proceedings. The guide will familiarize prospective court interpreters and students interested in court interpreting with the nature purpose and language of pretrial trial and post-trial proceedings. Documents dialogues and monologues illustrate judicial procedures; the description of court hearings with transcripts creates a realistic model of the stages involved in live court proceedings.
The innovative organization of this guide mirrors the progression of criminal cases through the courts and provides readers with an accessible easy-to-follow format. It explains and illustrates court procedure as well as provides interpreting exercises based on authentic materials from each successive stage. This novel organization of materials around the stages of the judicial process also facilitates quick reference without the need to review the entire volume — an additional advantage that makes this guide the ideal interpreters’ reference manual.
Supplementary instructional aids include recordings in English and Spanish and a glossary of selected legal terms in context.
The innovative organization of this guide mirrors the progression of criminal cases through the courts and provides readers with an accessible easy-to-follow format. It explains and illustrates court procedure as well as provides interpreting exercises based on authentic materials from each successive stage. This novel organization of materials around the stages of the judicial process also facilitates quick reference without the need to review the entire volume — an additional advantage that makes this guide the ideal interpreters’ reference manual.
Supplementary instructional aids include recordings in English and Spanish and a glossary of selected legal terms in context.
Quantitative Methods in Corpus-Based Translation Studies : A practical guide to descriptive translation research
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Michael P. Oakes and
Meng Ji
This is a comprehensive guidebook to the quantitative methods needed for Corpus-Based Translation Studies (CBTS). It provides a systematic description of the various statistical tests used in Corpus Linguistics which can be used in translation research. In Part 1 Theoretical Explorations the interplay between quantitative and qualitative methodologies is explored. Part 2 Essential Corpus Studies describes how to undertake quantitative studies with a suitable level of technical and relevant case studies. Part 3 Quantitative Explorations of Literary Translations looks at translations of classic works by Cao Xueqin James Joyce and other authors. Finally Part 4 on Translation Lexis uses a variety of techniques new to translation studies including multivariate analysis and game theory. This book is aimed at students and researchers of corpus linguistics translation studies and quantitative linguistics. It will significantly advance current translation studies in terms of methodological innovation and will fill in an important gap in the development of quantitative methods for interdisciplinary translation studies.
Mapping Unity and Diversity World-Wide : Corpus-Based Studies of New Englishes
Mar 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Marianne Hundt and
Ulrike Gut
This volume presents a collection of in-depth cross-varietal studies on a broad spectrum of grammatical features in English varieties spoken all over the world. The contributions explore the structural unity and diversity of New Englishes and thus investigate central aspects of dialect evolution and language change. Moreover this volume offers new insights into the question as to what constrains new dialect formation and examines universal trends across a wide range of contact situations. The contributions in this volume further study the possibilities and limitations of quantitative and qualitative corpus analyses in comparative studies of New Englishes and exemplify novel approaches e.g. the contribution of syntactic corpus annotation (tagging and parsing) to the description of New English structures; the use (and limitations) of web-derived data as an additional source of information; and the possibility to complement corpus data with evidence from sociolinguistic fieldwork.
Affectivity in Interaction : Sound objects in English
Mar 2012
Book
Author(s):
Elisabeth Reber
How do participants display affectivity in social interaction? Based on recordings of authentic everyday conversations and radio phone-ins this study offers a fine-grained analysis of how recipients of affect-laden informings deploy sound objects i.e. interjections (oh ooh and ah) and paralinguistic signals (whistle and clicks) for responsive displays of affectivity. Examining the use of such sound objects across a number of interactional activities including news telling troubles talk complaining assessments and repair the study provides evidence that the sound pattern and sequential placement of sound objects systematically contribute to their specific meaning-making in interaction i.e. the management of sequence organisation and interactional relevancies (e.g. affiliation). Presenting an in-depth analysis of a little researched area of language use from an interactional linguistic perspective the book will be of theoretical and methodological interest to an audience with a background in linguistics sociology and conversational studies.
Language Maintenance and Language Death : The decline of Texas Alsatian
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Karen A. Roesch
This book provides the first extensive description of Texas Alsatian a critically-endangered Texas German dialect as spoken in Medina County in the 21st century. The dialect was brought to Texas in the 1840s by colonists recruited by French entrepreneur Henri Castro and has been preserved with minimal change for six generations. Texas Alsatian has maintained lexical phonological and morphosyntactic features which differentiate it from the prevalent standard-near varieties of Texas German. This study both describes its grammatical features and discusses extra-linguistic factors contributing to the dialect’s preservation or accelerating its decline e.g. social historical political and economic factors and speaker attitudes and ideologies linked to cultural identity. The work’s multi-faceted approach makes its relevant to a broad range of scholars such as dialectologists historical linguists sociolinguists ethnographers and anthropologists interested in language variation and change language and identity immigrant dialects and language maintenance and death.
Experiments in Cultural Language Evolution
Feb 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Luc Steels
The fascinating question of the origins and evolution of language has been drawing a lot of attention recently not only from linguists but also from anthropologists evolutionary biologists and brain scientists. This groundbreaking book explores the cultural side of language evolution. It proposes a new overarching framework based on linguistic selection and self-organization and explores it in depth through sophisticated computer simulations and robotic experiments. Each case study investigates how a particular type of language system can emerge in a population of language game playing agents and how it can continue to evolve in order to cope with changes in ecological conditions. Case studies cover on the one hand the emergence of concepts and words for proper names color terms names for bodily actions spatial terms and multi-dimensional words. The second set of experiments focuses on the emergence of grammar specifically case grammar for expressing argument structure functional grammar for expressing different uses of spatial relations internal agreement systems for marking constituent structure morphological expression of aspect and quantifiers expressed as articles. The book is ideally suited as study material for an advanced course on language evolution and it will be of interest to anyone who wonders how human languages may have originated.
The Evaluability Hypothesis : The syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of polarity item licensing
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Johan Brandtler
Although the field of polarity is well researched this monograph offers a new take on polarity sensitivity that both challenges and incorporates previous theories. Based primarily on Swedish data it presents new solutions to long-standing problems such as the non-complementary distribution of NPIs and PPIs in yes/no-questions and conditionals long distance licensing by superordinate elements and the occurrence of polarity items in wh-questions. It is argued that polarity sensitivity can be understood in terms of evaluability. Lacking any immediate predecessor in the literature evaluability refers to the possibility of accepting or rejecting an utterance as true in a communicative exchange. Intriguingly the evaluable status of a clause is shown to have syntactic correlates in Swedish mirrored in the configuration of the C-domain. This book is of interest to scholars studying the interplay between syntax semantics and pragmatics particularly those working on negation and polarity.
Author Representations in Literary Reading
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Eefje Claassen
Author Representations in Literary Reading investigates the role of the author in the mind of the reader. It is the first book-length empirical study on generated author inferences by readers of literature. It bridges the gap between theories which hold that the author is irrelevant and those that give him prominence. By combining insights and methods from both cognitive psychology and literary theory this book contributes to a better understanding of how readers process literary texts and what role their assumptions about an author play. A series of experiments demonstrate that readers generate author inferences during the process of reading which they use to create an image of the text’s author. The findings suggest that interpretations about the author play a pivotal role in the literary reading process. This book is relevant to scholars and students in all areas of the cognitive sciences including literary studies and psychology.
Second Language Acquisition Abroad : The LDS Missionary Experience
Feb 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Lynne Hansen
This volume brings together for the first time a collection of studies devoted to missionary language learning and retention. Introductory chapters provide historical perspectives on this population and on language teaching philosophy and practice in the LDS tradition. The empirical studies which follow are divided into two sections the first examining mission language acquisition by English-speaking missionaries abroad the second focusing on post-mission language attrition. These chapters by internationally known scholars offer cutting-edge research using a number of different target languages in addressing various issues in second language development. Finally a comprehensive bibliography of sources on mission languages is included. The readership of this pioneering work is expected to extend beyond specialists in study abroad and missionary language training to a broader audience of applied linguists educators and students interested in language acquisition and attrition. In addition the book offers useful insights to adults who want to maintain a second language.
Optimizing Adverb Positions
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Eva Engels
Adverb positions vary within a single language as well as across diverse languages. Based on the study of adverbs in English French and German this monograph shows that the distribution of adverbs is influenced by various factors at distinct levels of linguistic representation – comprising semantics syntax phonology and information structure – which interact in determining adverb positions. The results of the investigation are formulated within the theoretical framework of Optimality Theory which captures the complex interaction of these factors by hierarchically ranked constraints deriving cross-linguistic variation of adverb positions by differences in the language-specific constraint hierarchies. The book is divided into two parts: While Part I examines adverb positions in general Part II investigates under which circumstances an adverb may attach to a phonetically empty constituent in the languages under discussion. The book appeals to a linguistic audience interested in Germanic and Romance languages as well as in theoretical syntax in general.
Multilingualism
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Larissa Aronin and
David Singleton
This book is an authoritative account of multilingualism in the present era a phenomenon affecting a vast number of communities thousands of languages and millions of language users. The book’s focus is specifically on the knowledge and use of multiple languages but its treatment of the topic is very wide-ranging. It deals with both bilingualism and polyglottism at the level of the individual speaker as well as at the societal level. The volume addresses not only linguistic facets of multilingualism but also multilingualism’s cultural sociological educational and psychological dimensions moving from classic perspectives to recent and emerging directions of interest. The book’s extensive coverage takes in topics ranging from the ‘new linguistic dispensation’ in our globalized world to child development in multilingual environments from the classification of multilingual groupings to characteristics of the multilingual mind. This breadth makes Multilingualism an ideal advanced textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of linguistics education and the social sciences.
Style-Shifting in Public : New perspectives on stylistic variation
Feb 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy and
Juan Antonio Cutillas-Espinosa
Language acts are acts of identity and linguistic variation reflects the multifaceted construction of verbal alternatives for transmitting social meaning where style-shifting represents our ability to take up different social positions due to its potential for linguistic performance rhetorical stance-taking and identity projection.Traditional variationist conceptualizations of style-shifting as a primarily responsive phenomenon seem unable to account for all stylistic choices. In contrast more recent formulations see stylistic variation as initiative creative and strategic in personal and interpersonal identity construction and projection making a significant contribution to our understanding of this aspect of sociolinguistic variation.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>In this volume social constructivist approaches to style-shifting are further developed by bringing together research which suggests that people make stylistic choices aimed at conveying (and achieving) a particular social categorization sociolinguistic meaning and/or to project a specific positioning in society. Therefore there is a need we collectively argue to adopt permeable and flexible multidimensional multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to speaker agency that take into consideration not only reactive but also proactive motivations for stylistic variation and where individuals – rather than groups – and their strategies are the main focus when examining style-shifting in public.<br/>This book will be of interest to advanced students and academics in the areas of sociolinguistics dialectology social psychology anthropology and sociology.
Key Features and Parameters in Arabic Grammar
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Abdelkader Fassi Fehri
In light of recent generative minimalism and comparative parametric theory of language variation the book investigates key features and parameters of Arabic grammar. Part I addresses morpho-syntactic and semantic interfaces in temporality aspectuality and actionality including the Past/Perfect/Perfective ambiguity akin to the very synthetic temporal morphology collocating time adverb construal and interpretability of verbal Number as pluractional. Part II is dedicated to nominal architecture the behaviour of bare nouns as true indefinites the count/mass dichotomy (re-examined in light of general collective and singulative DP properties) the mirror image ordering of serialized adjectives and N-to-D Move in synthetic possession proper names and individuated vocatives. Part III examines the role of CP in time and space anchoring double access reading (in a DAR language such as Arabic) sequence of tense (SOT) silent pronominal categories in consistent null subject languages (including referential and generic pro) and the interpretability of inflection. Semantic and formal parameters are set out within a mixed macro/micro-parametric model of language variation. The book is of particular interest to students researchers and teachers of Arabic Semitic comparative typological or general linguistics.
Bibliografía cronológica de la lingüística, la gramática y la lexicografía del español (BICRES IV) : Desde el año 1801 hasta el año 1860
Feb 2012
Book
Author(s):
Miguel Ángel Esparza Torres and
Hans-Josef Niederehe
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 3279 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.
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 3279 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.
Body Memory, Metaphor and Movement
Jan 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Sabine C. Koch,
Thomas Fuchs,
Michela Summa and
Cornelia Müller
Body Memory Metaphor and Movement is an interdisciplinary volume with contributions from philosophers cognitive scientists and movement therapists. Part one provides the phenomenologically grounded definition of body memory with its different typologies. Part two follows the aim to integrate phenomenology conceptual metaphor theory and embodiment approaches from the cognitive sciences for the development of appropriate empirical methods to address body memory. Part three inquires into the forms and effects of therapeutic work with body memory based on the integration of theory empirical findings and clinical applications. It focuses on trauma treatment and the healing power of movement. The book also contributes to metaphor theory application and research and therefore addresses metaphor researchers and linguists interested in the embodied grounds of metaphor. Thus it is of particular interest for researchers from the cognitive sciences social sciences and humanities as well as clinical practitioners.
English in Southeast Asia : Features, policy and language in use
Jan 2012
Book
Editor(s):
Ee-Ling Low and
Azirah Hashim
This volume provides a first systematic comprehensive account of English in Southeast Asia (SEA) based on current research by leading scholars in the field. The volume first provides a systematic account of the linguistic features across all sub-varieties found within each country. It also has a section dedicated to the historical context and language planning policies to provide a background to understanding the development of the linguistic features covered in Part I and finally the vibrancy of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic realities that govern actual language in use in a wide variety of domains such as the law education popular culture electronic media and actual pragmatic encounters are also given due coverage. This volume also includes an extensive bibliography of works on English in SEA thus providing a useful and valuable resource for language researchers linguists classroom educators policy makers and anyone interested in the topic of English in SEA or World Englishes as a whole.
Causality and Connectives : From Grice to relevance
Jan 2012
Book
Author(s):
Valandis Bardzokas
The book explores finely-grained distinctions in causal meaning mostly from a relevance-theoretic perspective. To increase the challenge of this double task i.e. a thorough as well as satisfactory account of cause and a detailed assessment of the theoretical model employed to this end the current study involves an investigation carried out by way of contrasting the prototypical causal exponents of Modern Greek subordination i.e. epeiδi and γiati. In addition this objective is achieved in the methodological framework of contrasting a range of contextual applications of the two connectives against their translated versions in English realizable by means of because. Despite first impressions a closer observation of the wide range of applications of these markers in the discourse of coherence relations illustrates divergences in their distribution which in turn are taken to highlight differing aspects of causal interpretation. The proposal for the relevance-theoretic model emanates from a reaction to an array of problems undermining traditional tenets of pragmatic theory originating with Grice’s stance but is also made in response to the common practice in pragmatic research (since its origin) to pay low regard for the contribution of typical causal markers to debates aiming at the determination of the distinction that has been instrumental to issues of cognition and pragmatic interpretation i.e. propositional vs. non-propositional meaning.
Task-Based Language Teaching from the Teachers' Perspective : Insights from New Zealand
Jan 2012
Book
Author(s):
Martin East
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is being encouraged as part of a major overhaul of the entire school languages curriculum in New Zealand. However teachers often struggle with understanding what TBLT is and how to make TBLT work in classrooms. Using the stories that emerged from a series of interviews with teachers (the curriculum implementers) and with advisors (the curriculum leaders) this book highlights the possibilities for TBLT innovation in schools. It also identifies the constraints and proposes how these might be addressed. The result is a book that whilst rooted in a particular local context provides a valuable sourcebook of teacher stories that have relevance for a wide range of people working in a diverse range of contexts. This book will be of genuine interest to all those who wish to understand more about TBLT innovation and the opportunities and challenges it brings.
Dialogue, Science and Academic Writing
Jan 2012
Book
Author(s):
Zohar Livnat
This book investigates the dialogic nature of research articles from the perspective of discourse analysis based on theories of dialogicity. It proposes a theoretical and applied framework for the understanding and exploration of scientific dialogicity.
Focusing on some dialogic components among them citations concession inclusive we and interrogatives a combined model of scientific dialogicity is proposed that reflects the place and role of various linguistic structures against the background of various theoretical approaches to dialogicity.
Taking this combined model as a basis the analysis demonstrates how scientific dialogicity is realized in an actual scientific dispute and how a scientific project is constructed step by step by means of a dialogue with its readers and discourse community. A number of different patterns of scientific dialogicity are offered characterized by the different levels of the polemic held with the research world and other specific researchers – from the “classic” moderate and polite dialogicity to a direct and personal confrontation between scientists.
Focusing on some dialogic components among them citations concession inclusive we and interrogatives a combined model of scientific dialogicity is proposed that reflects the place and role of various linguistic structures against the background of various theoretical approaches to dialogicity.
Taking this combined model as a basis the analysis demonstrates how scientific dialogicity is realized in an actual scientific dispute and how a scientific project is constructed step by step by means of a dialogue with its readers and discourse community. A number of different patterns of scientific dialogicity are offered characterized by the different levels of the polemic held with the research world and other specific researchers – from the “classic” moderate and polite dialogicity to a direct and personal confrontation between scientists.
Make Peace and Take Victory : Support verb constructions in Old English in comparison with Old Irish
Jan 2012
Book
Author(s):
Patricia Ronan
This corpus-based study examines the use of support verb constructions in Old English and Old Irish. It determines in how far these constructions can be seen as a means to offer semantic specification of existing verbal expressions. The study further investigates whether support verb constructions may be employed to create periphrastic verbal expressions to denote concepts for which no simple verb exists in the language at that stage. This latter situation may particularly arise as a consequence of contact with new cultural concepts. The approach of the study is both qualitative and quantitative. It compares the use of the Old English constructions to corresponding Old Irish structures as well as to other language varieties especially Present Day English which has a considerably more analytic morphological structure than either of the two medieval languages.