Browse Books

In addition to the hands sign languages make extensive use of nonmanual articulators such as the body head and face to convey linguistic information. This collected volume focuses on the forms and functions of nonmanuals in sign languages. The articles discuss various aspects of specific nonmanual markers in different sign languages and enhance the fact that nonmanuals are an essential part of sign language grammar. Approaching the topic from empirical theoretical and computational perspectives the book is of special interest to sign language researchers typologists and theoretical as well as computational linguists that are curious about language and modality. The articles investigate phenomena such as mouth gestures agreement negation topicalization and semantic operators and discuss general topics such as language and modality simultaneity computer animation and the interfaces between syntax semantics and prosody.

Originally published in Sign Language & Linguistics 14:1 (2011).

This selection of the verse of Valencian poet Vicent Andres Estelles (1924-1993) is accompanied by a translation into English from the original Catalan. The format of an innovative dialogue with classical authors — a cornerstone of Estellesian expression — constitutes an ingenious invocation and parodic commentary on the output and ethos of the Latin poets Horace Ovid Virgil and Catullus the medieval patriarch of Valencian letters Ausiàs March and the Renaissance Castilian poet Garcilaso de la Vega. For Estellés Octavian Rome provides a parallel to the Franco dictatorship and the historical framework surrounding these writers affords the neophyte an opportunity for ideological denunciation creative wit and lyrical grace as well as righteous anger at the oppressive pettiness of life under autocracy. The translators have attempted to bring to an Anglophone readership the wealth of achievement of this writer who despite the severity of fascist repression sang and celebrated the experience of his own community through its own oppressed language.

This state-of-the-art volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of current topics and research foci in the areas of linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism and aims to lay the foundations for interdisciplinary work and the development of a common methodological framework for the field. Linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism are complex mufti-faceted phenomena that need to be studied from different complementary perspectives. The volume comprises a total of fourteen contributions from linguistic educationist and urban sociological perspectives and highlights the areas of language acquisition contact and change multilingual identities urban spaces and education. Linguistic diversity can be framed as a result of current processes of migration and globalization. As such the topic of the present volume addresses both a general audience interested in migration and globalization on a more general level and a more specialized audience interested in the linguistic repercussions of these large-scale societal developments.

Die Arbeit versucht über drei eigens gekennzeichnete und für Wilhelm Ockham (1285–1347) ausgewiesene Beweisarten (Induktion Überredungsbeweis Widerlegungsbeweis) die in einer Fülle von Beispielen dokumentiert werden die Begründung seiner z. T. berüchtigten oder unverstandenen Thesen in ihrer Gesamtheit darzulegen. Sie zeigt dass alle bekannten Stichworte und Schlüsselwörter bzw. Maximen wie notitia intuitiva Omnipotenzprinzip Ökonomieprinzip daneben technische Begriffe wie consequentia ratio Kontradiktion suppositio und ontologische darunter forma substantia accidens species qualitas quantitas materia mit diesen Argumentationsweisen in Zusammenhang stehen genauer: von ihnen abhängen. Es ergibt sich dass Ockham jeweils sehr spezielle und inhaltlich äußerst begrenzte Beweisziele verfolgt deren Gesamtgeflecht in einer großen Struktur besteht für die ein normaler logischer Beweismodus nicht mehr gelten kann. Die reale Geltung von Sätzen und Begriffen ist für Ockham unbestritten doch bestreitet er dass eine solche Annahme aus dem Verhältnis der Begriffe und danach der Aussagen abgeleitet werden könne. Er widerlegt die scholastischen Thesen die das besagten.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>There are three kinds of demonstration (induction persuasion and disproof) to be found in the writings of William Ockham (1285-1347) which are the base of his theses (opiniones) so often attacked or misunderstood in ancient and modern times. Famous key words such as intuitive cognition the principles of omnipotence and economy side by side with technical terms as consequentia ratio contradictio suppositio and ontological ones like forma substantia accidens species qualitas quantitas materia and equally Ockham’s counter-arguments against Aristotelian and scholastic maxims essentially depend on these types of ratiocination. Ockham’s many proofs are especially ingenious and they generally have wide and unexpected consequences for reasoning. But the common pattern of deduction has been abandoned. While he acknowledges the validity of propositions and notions in the physical world Ockham denies that it can be proved as a statement for its own. Sometimes he even refutes it as a corollary of philosophical misconceptions.

Grammaticalization and lexicalization are at the heart of first language acquisition. Understanding how these processes begin and evolve is a major challenge for current theories and has implications for applications in teaching or clinical contexts. This volume examines the relative weight of cognitive and linguistic determinants of acquisition with particular attention to two questions. The first one concerns the origins of grammar and the processes underlying its development. Is grammatical knowledge innate or constructed by the child? Is it modular or does it interact with other capacities? How can we account for continuity and discontinuity in development? What is the role of input? Second considerable variation is observed in lexical and grammatical development across child languages. Is the process of acquisition similar in all children or do language-specific factors impact its rhythm and course? Do typological factors determine children’s reliance on lexical or grammatical means of expression in some domains? Originally published in Language Interaction and Acquisition - Langage Interaction et Acquisition 2:1 (2011).

This volume brings together contributions by philosophers art historians and artists who discuss interpret and analyse the moving and gesturing body in the arts. Broadly inspired by phenomenology and taking into account insights from cognitive science the contribution of the motor body in watching a film attending a dance or theatre performance looking at paintings or drawings and listening to music is explored from a diversity of perspectives. This volume is intended for both the specialist and non-specialist in the fields of art philosophy and cognitive science and testifies to the burgeoning interest for the moving and gesturing body not only in the creation but also in the perception of works of art. Imagination is tied to our capacity to silently resonate with the way a work of art has been or is created.

This edited collection presents two sets of interdisciplinary conversations connecting theoretical methodological and ideological issues in the study of language. In the first section Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas the authors connect historical theoretical and documentary linguistics to examine the crucial role of endangered language data for the development of biopsychological theory and to highlight how methodological decisions impact language revitalization efforts. Section two Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies connects anthropological and documentary linguistics to examine how discourses of language contact endangerment linguistic purism and racism shape scholarly practice and language policy and to underscore the need for linguists and laypersons alike to acquire the analytical tools to deconstruct discourses of inequality. Together these chapters pay homage to the scholarship of Jane H. Hill demonstrating how a critical interdisciplinary linguistics narrows the gap between disparate fields of analysis to treat the ecology of language in its entirety.

In response to the need for reliable results from natural language processing this book presents an original way of decomposing a language(s) in a microscopic manner by means of intra/inter‑language norms and divergences going progressively from languages as systems to the linguistic mathematical and computational models which being based on a constructive approach are inherently traceable. Languages are described with their elements aggregating or repelling each other to form viable interrelated micro‑systems. The abstract model which contrary to the current state of the art works in intension is exploitable for all sorts of applications where only the elements which are useful are assembled in the micro‑systems needed to solve the problem in hand. Numerous definitions schemata and examples involving many languages make the book accessible to students as well as academics and industrial researchers looking for new theories and methodologies for representations and problem solving wherever language and quality meet.

This book constitutes a significant contribution to political discourse analysis and to the study of silence both from the point of view of discourse analysis as well as pragmatics and it is also relevant for those interested in politics and media studies. It promotes the empirical study of silence by analysing metadiscourse about politicians’ silence and by systematically conceptualising the communicativeness of silence in the interplay between intention (to be silent) expectation (of speech) and relevance (of the unsaid). Three cases of sustained metadiscourse about silent politicians from Germany are analysed to exemplify this approach based on media texts and protocols of parliamentary inquiries. Ideals of political transparency and communicative openness are identified as a basis for (disappointed) expectations of speech which trigger and determine metadiscourse about politicians’ silences. Finally the book deals critically with the role of those who act as advocates of ‘the public’s’ demand to speak out.

Lo Somni (The Dream) is a dream allegory divided into four chapters or books. It was written ca. 1399 and is considered Bernat Metge’s best work. It is extremely innovative within the context of Catalan (and Iberian Peninsular) literature of the 1300’s. It consists of a dialogue between Metge-the-character and several participants (in fact the book is a dialogue between Metge and the Classical and Biblical tradition) on the topics of the immortality of the soul the essence of religion and the dignity and moral essence of the human being. In addition to using many Classical and medieval literary sources Lo Somni can be considered one of the first (if not the first) Humanist books to be ever written in the Iberian Peninsula. Metge wrote Lo Somni supposedly while in prison (house arrest?) following a dubious accusation about his involvement in the death of King Joan I. Metge wrote this work as a personal defense to exonerate himself and as an attempt to gain the confidence of the new King Martí l’Humà and his wife Queen María de Luna. Lo Somni ends when Metge-the-character is awaken from his dream. This foundational work also touches upon political themes pertaining to the Crown of Aragon literary fashion and reception of Italian humanist works at the court as well as on matters of fashion cultural customs taste and style.