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This monograph is one of the first theoretical studies of optatives. Optative constructions express desire without an overt lexical item that means ‘desire’. The author specifically investigates optatives with the syntax of embedded clauses that contain prototypical particles such as ‘only’. He rejects the view that optativity arises compositionally from the standard semantics of embedded clauses and prototypical particles. The following system is proposed: Desirability is due to a generalized scalar exclamation operator EX. Furthermore clausal properties such as factivity/counterfactuality are encoded in a Mood head which co-determines morphological mood and complementizer choice. Finally the prototypical particles that optatives contain are truth-conditionally vacuous presupposition triggers. As a result these meaning components do not interact directly but their meanings converge with the consequence that they prototypically co-occur. This monograph is of interest for formal semanticists syntacticians pragmaticists and morphologists and especially relevant for research on mood and particle semantics.

This clear and accessible introduction to linguistic typology covers all linguistic domains from phonology and morphology over parts-of-speech the NP and the VP to simple and complex clauses pragmatics and language change. There is also a discussion on methodological issues in typology. This textbook is the first introduction that consistently applies the findings of the World Atlas of Language Structures systematically includes pidgin and creole languages and devotes a section to sign languages in each chapter. All chapters contain numerous illustrative examples and specific feature maps. Keywords and exercises help review the main topics of each chapter. Appendices provide macro data for all the languages cited in the book as well as a list of web sites of typological interest. An extensive glossary gives at-a-glance definitions of the terms used in the book. This introduction is designed for students of courses with a focus on language diversity and typology as well as typologically-oriented courses in morphology and syntax. The book will also serve as a guide for field linguists.

Consciousness in Interaction is an interdisciplinary collection with contributions from philosophers psychologists cognitive scientists and historians of philosophy. It revolves around the idea that consciousness emerges from and impacts on our skilled interactions with the natural and social context. Section one discusses how phenomenal consciousness and subjective selfhood are grounded on natural and social interactions and what role brain activity plays in these phenomena. Section two analyzes how interactions with external objects and other human beings shape our understanding of ourselves and how consciousness changes social interaction self-control and emotions. Section three provides historical depth to the volume by tracing the roots of the contemporary notion of consciousness in early modern philosophy. The book offers interdisciplinary insight on a variety of key topics in consciousness research: as such it is of particular interest for researchers from philosophy of mind phenomenology cognitive and social sciences and humanities.

Morphology and in particular word formation has always played an important role in Romance linguistics since it was introduced in Diez’s comparative Romance grammar. Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in inflectional morphology and current research shows a strong interest in paradigmatic analyses. This volume brings together research exploring different areas of morphology from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. On an empirical basis the theoretical assumption of the ‘Autonomy of Morphology’ is discussed critically. ‘Data-driven’ approaches carefully examine concrete morphological phenomena in Romance languages and dialects. Topics include syncretism and allomorphy in verbs pronouns and articles as well as the use of specific derivational suffixes in word formation. Together the articles in this volume provide insights into issues currently debated in Romance morphology appealing to scholars of morphology Romance linguistics and advanced students alike.

This is an interdisciplinary volume that focuses on the central topic of the representation of events namely cross-cultural differences in representing time and space as well as various aspects of the conceptualisation of space and time. It brings together research on space and time from a variety of angles both theoretical and methodological. Crossing boundaries between and among disciplines such as linguistics psychology philosophy or anthropology forms a creative platform in a bold attempt to reveal the complex interaction of language culture and cognition in the context of human communication and interaction.

The authors address the nature of spatial and temporal constructs from a number of perspectives such as cultural specificity in determining time intervals in an Amazonian culture distinct temporalities in a specific Mongolian hunter community Russian-specific conceptualisation of temporal relations Seri and Yucatec frames of spatial reference memory of events in space and time and metaphorical meaning stemming from perception and spatial artefacts to name but a few themes.

The topic of space and time in language and culture is also represented from a different albeit related point of view in the sister volume Space and Time in Languages and Cultures: Linguistic diversity (HCP 36) which focuses on the language-specific vis-à-vis universal aspects of linguistic representation of spatial and temporal reference.

The origins of sound change is one of the oldest and most challenging questions in the study of language. The goal of this volume is to examine current approaches to sound change from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives including articulatory variation and modeling speech perception mechanisms and neurobiological processes geographical and social variation and diachronic phonology. This diversity of perspectives contributes to a fruitful cross-fertilization across disciplines and represents an attempt to formulate converging ideas on the factors that lead to sound change. This book is addressed to scholars in historical linguistics linguistic typology and phonology as well as to researchers in speech production and perception cognition and modeling. Given the theoretical and methodological interest of the contributions as well as the novel instrumental techniques applied to the study of sound change this volume will interest professionals teaching language typology laboratory phonology sound change phonetics and phonological theory at the graduate level.

This monograph explores the tense aspect mood and evidentiality of Korean which has a rich verbal inflectional system and proposes novel treatments within the framework of compositional semantics. One of the major contributions is the demonstration that Korean has two types of deictic tense—simple deictic and spatial deictic tense. Spatial deictic tense refers to the notion of the speaker’s ‘perceptual field’ (or deictic range) as well as to temporality functioning to set up a condition for a systematic evidential distinction. The research in this volume shows that the basic paradigm of evidentiality of Korean derives from the standard TMA system combined with the notion of space. This volume also shows that perfect and past tense utilize different primitives. The intended readership of this volume extends beyond Koreanists to scholars interested specifically in tense mood aspect and evidentiality as well as in general theories of grammar and semantics-pragmatics.

This book investigates variation in the classroom speech of 7-year-old children who are learning Standard Jamaican English as a second language variety in rural Jamaica. For sociolinguists and second language/dialect researchers interested in the acquisition and use of sociolinguistic variables an important challenge is how to efficiently account for language learning mechanisms and use. To date this book is the first to offer an interdisciplinary look into phonological and phonetic variation observed in primary school in Jamaica that is from the perspective of classic variationist and quantitative sociolinguistics and a usage-based model. Both frameworks function as explanatory for the children’s learning of phono-stylistic variation which they encounter in their immediate linguistic environment i.e. most often through their teachers’ speech. This book is intended for sociolinguists interested in child language variation linguists working on formal aspects of the languages of the Caribbean applied linguists concerned with the teaching and learning of second language phonology and any researchers interested in applying variationist and quantitative methods to classroom second language learning.

Acclaimed when it first appeared as a seminal work – a groundbreaking book that was both informative and highly readable – Translators through History is being released in a new edition substantially revised and expanded by Judith Woodsworth. Translators have played a key role in intellectual exchange through the ages and across borders. This account of how they have contributed to the development of languages the emergence of literatures the dissemination of knowledge and the spread of values tells the story of world culture itself.

Content has been updated new elements introduced and recent directions in translation scholarship incorporated providing fresh insights and a more nuanced view of past events. The bibliography contains over 100 new titles and illustrations have been refreshed and enhanced.

An invaluable tool for students scholars and professionals in the field of translation the latest version of Translators through History remains a vital resource for researchers in other disciplines and a fascinating read for the wider public.

Switzerland is renowned for having a diverse linguistic and dialectal landscape in a comparatively small and confined space. Possibly this is one of the reasons why Swiss German dialects have been investigated thoroughly on various linguistic levels. Nevertheless natural speech intonation has until today not been examined systematically. The aim of this study is to analyze natural Swiss German fundamental frequency behavior according to linguistic paralinguistic and extralinguistic variables using statistical tests against the backdrop of detecting dialect-specific patterns as well as cross-dialectal differences. The intonation analyses were conducted with the mathematically-formulated Command-Response model. This is the first large-scale study that applies this framework on a large corpus of natural dialectal speech. It brings to light detailed underlying patterns of Swiss German dialectal fundamental frequency behavior and provides a holistic account of the truly multilayered features of natural speech intonation.