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Genre, Frames and Writing in Research Settings
Jun 1997
Book
This book presents a perspective on genre based on what it is that leads users of a language to recognise a communicative event as an instance of a particular genre. Key notions in this perspective are those of prototype inheritance and intertextuality; that is the extent to which a text is typical of the particular genre the qualities or properties that are inherited from other instances of the communicative event and the ways in which a text is influenced by other texts of a similar kind. The texts which form the basis of this discussion are drawn from experimental research reporting in English.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Approaches to genre 3. Genre and frames 4. A sample analysis: Writing up research <br/>5. Summary and conclusions.
Conference Interpreting : Current trends in research. Proceedings of the International Conference on Interpreting: What do we know and how?
Jun 1997
Book
'Conference Interpreting: What do we know and how?' is the title of a round-table conference (Turku 1994) organised to assess the state of the art in conference interpreting research. The result is collected in this volume with fully coordinated reports on the round tables. The book presents an exciting coverage of the field touching on methodology communication discourse culture neurolinguistic and cognitive aspects quality assessment training and developing skills.
Memes of Translation : The spread of ideas in translation theory
Jun 1997
Book
Memes of Translation is a search for coherence in translation theory based on the notion of Memes: ideas that spread develop and replicate like genes. The author explores a wide range of ideas on translation mapping the “meme pool” of translation theory with chapters on translation history norms strategies assessment ethics and translator training. The aim of the book is to search for a perspective from which the immense variety of ideas about translation can be related.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The unifying thread is the philosophy of Karl Popper. The book proposes the beginnings of a Popperian theory of translation based on the fundamental concepts of norms strategies and values. A key idea is that a translation itself is a theory or hypothesis concerning the source text. This hypothesis is then subjected to testing refinement and perhaps even rejection just like any other hypothesis.
The Acquisition of Spatial Relations in a Second Language
May 1997
Book
This book is the third to appear in the SIBIL series based on results from the European Science Foundation's Additional Activity on the second language acquisition of adult immigrants. It analyses from a longitudinal and cross-linguistic perspective the acquisition of the linguistic means to express spatial relations in the target languages English French and German. Learners' progress in the expression of spatial relations is closely followed over a period of 30 months using a wide range of oral data and the factors determining both the specifics of individual source/target language pairings and the general characteristics of all cases of acquisition studied are carefully described. In particular a basic system for the expression of spatial relations common to all learners from all language backgrounds is identified. The book is of particular significance for the field of second language acquisition in that this is the first time that results are presented in English on the acquisition of L2 means to express the basic cognitive — and communicational — category of space from a comparative linguistic point of view.
Essays on Language Function and Language Type : Dedicated to T. Givón
May 1997
Book
In their subject matter and in their theoretical orientation all the papers in this volume reflect the powerful influence of T. Givón. Most of them deal with questions of morphosyntactic typology pragmatics and grammaticalization theory. Many of them are directly based on extensive fieldwork on local languages of the Americas Africa Asia and the Pacific. Others are based on statistical analyses of extensive written and spoken corpora of texts.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
Government and Codeswitching : Explaining American Finnish
May 1997
Book
Bilingual codeswitching is a complex multifaceted phenomenon which calls for explanations on several different linguistic levels. This volume focuses on one such level: the level of syntax. An explanation for the regularities and consistencies in the codeswitching patterns of American Finns in their spontaneous conversations is sought for in the Universal Grammar -based principle of government as realized in case-assignment and agreement relations. A bulk of the Finnish-English intrasentential data get their explanation on the structural hierarchical level but this level of syntax is found to be interestingly intertwined with sociolinguistic psycholinguistic and discourse levels which all contribute to variation in codeswitching patterns. The proposed principle of government is seen as one important explanation in typologically certain kinds of language pairs such as Finnish and English; however this principle is not treated as a monolithic constraint but rather as the leading tendency which is occasionally overridden by other than syntactic forces.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The volume is intended as a complement — not as a contradiction — to earlier explanations of codeswitching phenomena. Its main message is: while all linguistic levels contribute to the construction of bilingual speech the importance of syntax can not be ignored.
The Phonology of Coronals
May 1997
Book
This study investigates the phonological behavior of coronal consonants i.e. sounds produced with the tip or blade of the tongue. The analysis draws on data from over 120 languages and dialects. A definition of coronality is proposed that rejects the current view holding that palatals are positively marked for this feature. The feature [coronal] is assumed to be privative; the natural class of noncoronals is captured with the feature [peripheral] which dominates [labial] and [velar] in feature geometry. The book contains a detailed examination of the phonological patterning of segments belonging to each of the six coronal subplaces (i.e. interdental dental alveolar retroflex palatoalveolar and alveolopalatal). A universal set of features is posited that accounts for these facts. Inventories of coronal consonants are treated in depth and impossible contrasts are accounted for with several if-then statements. The present study also contains a lengthy analysis of the phonology of rhotic consonants. A set of features is postulated which captures natural classes involving rhotics and nonrhotic consonants and which distinguishes the various stricture types among rhotics (i.e. trill vs. tap vs. approximant).<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
Towards a Social Science of Language : Papers in honor of William Labov. Volume 2: Social interaction and discourse structures
May 1997
Book
This is a two-volume collection of original research papers designed to reflect the breadth and depth of the impact that William Labov has had on linguistic science. Four areas of 'Labovian' linguistics are addressed: First is the study of variation and change; the papers in sections I and II of the first volume take this as their central theme with a focus on either the social context and uses of language (I) or on the the internal linguistic dynamics of variation and change (II). The study of African American English and other language varieties in the Americas spoken by people of African descent and influenced by their linguistic heritage is the subject of the papers in section III of the first volume. The third theme is the study of discourse; the papers in section I of the second volume develop themes in Labovian linguistics that go back to Labov's work on narrative descriptive and therapeutic discourse. Fourth is the emphasis on language use the search for discursive interactive and meaningful determinants of the complexity in human communication. Papers with these themes appear in section II of the second volume.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
Perspectives on Foreign Language Policy : Studies in honor of Theo van Els
May 1997
Book
This volume containing fourteen invited papers on foreign-language policy starts off with a brief history of foreign-language teaching policy in the Netherlands. This historical outline is followed by four contributions of authors who once developed the Dutch National Action Programme (NAP) on Foreign Languages under the directorship of Theo van Els. The second section consists of five contributions written by experts from Germany Israel Finland and the United States who reflect on the language policies adopted in their countries and on the international impact of the ideas developed in the NAP. The final section of the book presents four contributions from Dutch authors all focussing on language policy issues related to the respective roles of Dutch as a second language and of ethnic-minority languages in the Netherlands.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>The contributions to this volume were written by friends and colleagues of Theo van Els in recognition of his considerable contributions to that area of applied linguistics which has captured his fascination for many years: foreign-language teaching policy.<br/>
Conversation : Cognitive, communicative and social perspectives
May 1997
Book
The papers in this volume were originally presented at the Symposium on Conversation held at the University of New Mexico in July 1995. The symposium brought together scholars who work on face-to-face communication from a variety of perspectives: social cultural cognitive and communicative. Our aim for both the symposium and this volume has been to challenge some of the prevailing dichotomies in discourse studies: First the cleavage between the study of information flow and the study of social interaction. Second the theoretical division between speech-situation models and cognitive models. Third the methodological split between the study of spontaneous conversation in natural context and the study of speech production and comprehension under controlled experimental conditions. And fourth the rigid genre distinction between narrative and conversational discourse.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>All four dichotomies have been useful either methodologically or historically. But important as they may have been in the past the time has perhaps come to work toward an integrated approach to the study of human communication one that will be less dependent on narrow reductions.<br/>Both the ontological primacy and the methodological challenge of natural face-to-face communication are self evident. Human language has evolved is acquired and is practiced most commonly in the context of face-to-face communication. Most past theory-building in either linguistics or psychology has not benefited from the study of face-to-face communication a fact that is regrettable and demands rectification. We hope that this volume tilts in the right direction.
On Conditionals Again
Apr 1997
Book
The volume brings together a selection of papers from a symposium on Conditionality held in the University of Duisburg on 25-26 March 1994.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Ten years after the Stanford symposium the Proceedings of which were edited by Traugott et al. (1986) the area of conditionality is revisited in a synthesis of issues and aspects with insights drawn from the wider framework of general processes of conceptualisation. One major question is therefore what conceptual categories fall under conditionality or how far the notion of conditionality can be extended.<br/>The volume represents the up-to-date research on most aspects of conditionality some of which include the relationship between conditionality hypotheticality and counterfactuality polarity historical perspectives concessives the acquisition of conditionals.<br/>
Clitics, Pronouns and Movement
Apr 1997
Book
The introduction to this volume by Anders Holmberg provides a reflection on movement in the light of recent developments in Minimalist theory. His discussion of the theories of category versus feature movement in terms of displacement and copying provides the background for 12 papers dealing with clitics pronouns and movement in variety of language families. Articles on Romance include papers on the genitive clitic in Andean Spanish proclitic groups and word order in Caribbean Spanish overt pronouns and empty categories in Brazilian Portuguese the clitic en in Catalan and clitic doubling in Romanian. Papers on Germanic discuss movement of verbal complements in Dutch and German analyses of English finite auxiliaries in syntax and phonology and complementizers in dialects of German in a reiterative syntax analysis. Other articles deal with object shift in Serbo-Croatian operator-bound clitics in Niuean a serial verb analysis of the ba construction in Mandarin Chinese and experiencer verbs in Japanese.
The Muzzled Muse : Literature and censorship in South Africa
Apr 1997
Book
“The long history of censorship is a parallel and equally powerful history of literature. Censors bear witness to the power of the word even more forcefully than the writers and the readers they consider dangerous.” (Index on Censorship 6/1996)
A critical assessment of literature produced under censorship needs to take into account that the stategies of the censors are answered by strategies of the writers and the readers. To recognize self-censoring strategies in writing it is necessary to know the specific restrictions of the censorship regime in question. In South Africa under apartheid all writers were confronted with the question of how to respond to the pressure of censorship. This confrontation took a different form however depending on what group the writer belonged to and what language he/she used. By looking at white writers writing in Afrikaans and white and black writers writing in English this book gives the impact of censorship on South African literature a comparative examination which it has not received before. The book considers works by J.M. Coetzee Nadine Gordimer André Brink and others less known to readers outside South Africa like Karel Schoeman Louis Krüger Christopher Hope Miriam Tlali and Mtutuzeli Matshoba. It treats the censorship laws of the apartheid regime as well as in the final chapter the new law of the Mandela government which shows some surprising similarities to its predecessor.
Margreet de Lange teaches Comparative Literature at Utrecht University and coordinates the University’s interdisciplinary program of South African Studies. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
“De Lange expertly sketches in the historical and literary backgrounds as she goes taking us right up to the recent (unsatisfactory) revision of the censorship laws making The Muzzled Muse a vitally important summary of literary censorship in South Africa and a handbook of what to guard against in the future.”
Shaun de Waal Mail & Guardian Sept. 26 to October 1 1997
A critical assessment of literature produced under censorship needs to take into account that the stategies of the censors are answered by strategies of the writers and the readers. To recognize self-censoring strategies in writing it is necessary to know the specific restrictions of the censorship regime in question. In South Africa under apartheid all writers were confronted with the question of how to respond to the pressure of censorship. This confrontation took a different form however depending on what group the writer belonged to and what language he/she used. By looking at white writers writing in Afrikaans and white and black writers writing in English this book gives the impact of censorship on South African literature a comparative examination which it has not received before. The book considers works by J.M. Coetzee Nadine Gordimer André Brink and others less known to readers outside South Africa like Karel Schoeman Louis Krüger Christopher Hope Miriam Tlali and Mtutuzeli Matshoba. It treats the censorship laws of the apartheid regime as well as in the final chapter the new law of the Mandela government which shows some surprising similarities to its predecessor.
Margreet de Lange teaches Comparative Literature at Utrecht University and coordinates the University’s interdisciplinary program of South African Studies. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
“De Lange expertly sketches in the historical and literary backgrounds as she goes taking us right up to the recent (unsatisfactory) revision of the censorship laws making The Muzzled Muse a vitally important summary of literary censorship in South Africa and a handbook of what to guard against in the future.”
Shaun de Waal Mail & Guardian Sept. 26 to October 1 1997
Sein – Reflexion – Freiheit : Aspekte der Philosophie Johann Gottlieb Fichtes
Apr 1997
Book
Das Denken Johann Gottlieb Fichtes (1762-1814) gehört zu den großen Entwürfen der europäischen Philosophie. Fichtes Wissenschaftslehre entwickelte erstmals eine Theorie des absoluten Ich als Grundlage aller Wissenschaften. Damit schuf er das Fundament für die Entstehung des sog. Deutschen Idealismus. Der politische Denker Fichte nahm Stellung sowohl zur Französischen Revolution als auch zu den Napoleonischen Kriegen. Seine Sprachphilosophie hatte wesentlichen Einfluß auf W. von Humboldt. Seine Religionsphilosophie namentlich die Anweisung zum seligen Leben (1806) gab wichtige Impulse für Philosophie und Theologie bis ins 20. Jahrhundert.
Die Beiträge dieses Bandes zeigen ein facettenreiches Bild der Philosophie Fichtes. Neben einer biographischen Einleitung steht zunächts das Verhältnis Fichtes zu Schelling Hegel und Hölderlin im Zentrum. Weitere Beiträge widmen sich der frühen Wissenschaftslehre sowie der Natur- Sprach- und Religionsphilosophie. Schließlich stellen einige Beiträge das Denken Fichtes in den größeren Rahmen der Philosophiegeschichte.
Die Beiträge dieses Bandes zeigen ein facettenreiches Bild der Philosophie Fichtes. Neben einer biographischen Einleitung steht zunächts das Verhältnis Fichtes zu Schelling Hegel und Hölderlin im Zentrum. Weitere Beiträge widmen sich der frühen Wissenschaftslehre sowie der Natur- Sprach- und Religionsphilosophie. Schließlich stellen einige Beiträge das Denken Fichtes in den größeren Rahmen der Philosophiegeschichte.
Nonverbal Communication and Translation : New perspectives and challenges in literature, interpretation and the media
Apr 1997
Book
This is the first book within the interdisciplinary field of Nonverbal Communication Studies dealing with the specific tasks and problems involved in the translation of literary works as well as film and television texts and in the live experience of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. The theoretical and methodological ideas and models it contains should merit the interest not only of students of literature professional translators and translatologists interpreters and those engaged in film and television dubbing but also to literary readers film and theatergoers linguists and psycholinguists semioticians communicologists and crosscultural anthropologists. Its sixteen contributions by translation scholars and professional interpreters from fifteen countries deal with discourse in translation intercultural problems narrative literature theater poetry interpretation and film and television dubbing.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>
The Language of Emotions : Conceptualization, expression, and theoretical foundation
Apr 1997
Book
Since the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Darwin's The Language of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) emotionology has become a respectable and even thriving research domain again. The domain of human emotions is most important for mankind emotions being right in the center of our daily lives and interests. A key-role in the interdisciplinary scientific debate about emotions has now been accorded to the study of the language of emotions.
The present volume offers a new approach to the study of the language of emotions insofar as it presents theories from very different perspectives. It encompasses studies by scholars from diverse disciplines such as linguistics sociology and psychology.
The topics of the contributions also cover a range of special fields of interest in four major sections. In a first section a discussion of theoretical issues in the analysis of emotions is presented. The conceptualization of emotions in specific cultures is analyzed in section 2. Section 3 takes a different inroad into the language of emotions by looking at developmental approaches giving evidence of the fact that the acquisition of the language of emotions is a social achievement that simultaneously determines our experience of these emotions. Section 4 is devoted to emotional language in action that is the contributions focus upon different types of texts and analyze how emotions are referred to and expressed in discourse.
The present volume offers a new approach to the study of the language of emotions insofar as it presents theories from very different perspectives. It encompasses studies by scholars from diverse disciplines such as linguistics sociology and psychology.
The topics of the contributions also cover a range of special fields of interest in four major sections. In a first section a discussion of theoretical issues in the analysis of emotions is presented. The conceptualization of emotions in specific cultures is analyzed in section 2. Section 3 takes a different inroad into the language of emotions by looking at developmental approaches giving evidence of the fact that the acquisition of the language of emotions is a social achievement that simultaneously determines our experience of these emotions. Section 4 is devoted to emotional language in action that is the contributions focus upon different types of texts and analyze how emotions are referred to and expressed in discourse.
The Emergence of Semantics in Four Linguistic Traditions : Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic
Apr 1997
Book
The aim of this study is a comparative analysis of the role of semantics in the linguistic theory of four grammatical traditions Sanskrit Hebrew Greek Arabic. If one compares the organization of linguistic theory in various grammatical traditions it soon turns out that there are marked differences in the way they define the place of ‘semantics’ within the theory. In some traditions semantics is formally excluded from linguistic theory and linguists do not express any opinion as to the relationship between syntactic and semantic analysis. In other traditions the whole basis of linguistic theory is semantically orientated and syntactic features are always analysed as correlates of a semantic structure. However even in those traditions in which semantics falls explicitly or implicitly outside the scope of linguistics there may be factors forcing linguists to occupy themselves with the semantic dimension of language. One important factor seems to be the presence of a corpus of revealed/sacred texts: the necessity to formulate hermeneutic rules for the interpretation of this corpus brings semantics in through the back door.
Handbook of Terminology Management : Volume 1: Basic Aspects of Terminology Management
Mar 1997
Book
The Handbook of Terminology Management is a unique work designed to meet the practical needs of terminologists translators lexicographers subject specialists (e.g. engineers medical professionals etc.) standardizers and others who have to solve terminological problems in their daily work.
In more than 900 pages the Handbook brings together contributions from approximately 50 expert authorities in the field. The Handbook covers a broad range of topics integrated from an international perspective and treats such fundamental issues as: practical methods of terminology management; creation and use of terminological tools (terminology databases on-line dictionaries etc.); terminological applications.
The high level of expertise provided by the contributors combined with the wide range of perspectives they represent results in a thorough coverage of all facets of a burgeoning field. The lay-out of the Handbook is specially designed for quick and for cross reference with hypertext and an extensive index.
See also Handbook of Terminology Management set (volumes 1 and 2).
In more than 900 pages the Handbook brings together contributions from approximately 50 expert authorities in the field. The Handbook covers a broad range of topics integrated from an international perspective and treats such fundamental issues as: practical methods of terminology management; creation and use of terminological tools (terminology databases on-line dictionaries etc.); terminological applications.
The high level of expertise provided by the contributors combined with the wide range of perspectives they represent results in a thorough coverage of all facets of a burgeoning field. The lay-out of the Handbook is specially designed for quick and for cross reference with hypertext and an extensive index.
See also Handbook of Terminology Management set (volumes 1 and 2).
The Cognitive System of the French Verb
Mar 1997
Book
This study is based on the writings and teaching of Gustave Guillaume (1883-1960) one of the earliest proponents of what is today called Cognitive Linguistics. It offers (1) a much needed presentation in English of Guillaume’s view of the French system (2) the clarifications added by his successors and (3) much empirical detail added by the author from his own extensive experience with the material.
The word system in this work as explained in the very first chapter is intended in the Saussurian sense of a closed set of contrasts. The method is first briefly applied to English in order to familiarize the reader with the methodological concepts and terminology and comparisons are made with the general outline of the French system.
The major sub-systems of the French verb are analysed in the four central chapters (4-7) entitled Aspect Voice Tense Mood followed by a chapter on systemic comparison and two final chapters of detailed analysis of the verbal morphology and its relevance to the cognitive system.
The word system in this work as explained in the very first chapter is intended in the Saussurian sense of a closed set of contrasts. The method is first briefly applied to English in order to familiarize the reader with the methodological concepts and terminology and comparisons are made with the general outline of the French system.
The major sub-systems of the French verb are analysed in the four central chapters (4-7) entitled Aspect Voice Tense Mood followed by a chapter on systemic comparison and two final chapters of detailed analysis of the verbal morphology and its relevance to the cognitive system.
Contact Languages : A wider perspective
Mar 1997
Book
This book contributes to a more balanced view of the most dramatic results of language contact by presenting linguistic and historical sketches of lesser-known contact languages. The twelve case studies offer eloquent testimony against the still common view that all contact languages are pidgins and creoles with maximally simple and essentially identical grammars. They show that some contact languages are neither pidgins nor creoles and that even pidgins and creoles can display considerable structural diversity and structural complexity; they also show that two-language contact situations can give rise to pidgins especially when access to a target language is withheld by its speakers. The chapters are arranged according to language type: three focus on pidgins (Hiri Motu by Tom Dutton; Pidgin Delaware by Ives Goddard; and Ndyuka-Trio Pidgin by George L. Huttar and Frank J. Velantie) two on creoles (Kituba by Salikoko S. Mufwene and Sango by Helma Pasch) one on a set of pidgins and creoles (Arabic-based contact languages by Jonathan Owens) one on the question of early pidginization and/or creolization in Swahili (by Derek Nurse) and five on bilingual mixed languages (Michif by Peter Bakker and Robert A. Papen; Media Lengua and Callahuaya both by Pieter Muysken; and Mednyj Aleut and Ma’a both by Sarah Thomason). The authors’ collective goal is to help offset the traditional emphasis within contact-language studies on pidgins and creoles that arose as an immediate result of contact with Europeans starting in the Age of Exploration. The accumulation of case studies on a wide diversity of languages is needed to create a body of knowledge substantial enough to support robust generalizations about the nature and development of all types of contact language.