Subject collection: Linguistics (2,773 titles, 1967–2015)

This book explores the possibilities and limitations of pragmatic research in classical Sanskrit concentrating on linguistic politeness. The four case studies it comprises are in essence empirical, and try to accurately describe a fairly limited number of interactions between an also limited number of people. The underlying assumption is that a micro-analysis yields recognizable patterns of communicative styles and that these generalizations improve our insight in the workings of politeness (deference) in this language and in languages in general. This book also shows that the relation between classical languages and pragmatics is not necessarily a one-way street. The data provide ample evidence that a detailed text study offers rich opportunities both to supplement experimental studies (e.g. the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project) and to evaluate existing pragmatic theories constructed on the basis of contemporary languages.

This is the first interdisciplinary book-length treatment of paralanguage, briefly defined as: nonverbal vocal or narial communication. After sensitizing the reader to our sound-generating movements and to all human external and environmental sounds for their unquestionable communicative qualities, it realistically combines an anatomical-physiological auditory approach to voice production (identifying many neglected articulations) with the analysis of its visual manifestations as the triple reality of speech: language-paralanguage-kinesics. The primary qualities of speech (loudness, pitch etc.) are extensively discussed, as are the many voice qualities. The longest chapter in the book deals with paralinguistic differentiators: laughter, crying, sighing, yawning, coughing, sneezing etc. Finally the author presents a model for analyzing paralinguistic alternants, word-like independent constructs (such as Pooh, Aah and Brrr). Throughout the discussion of these paralinguistic phenomena, extensive attention is given to cultural, social and psychological aspects. This first, ground-breaking interdisciplinary work on paralanguage will serve as a source of data and a theoretical/methodological model for phoneticians, linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, speech therapists etc.

The volume is divided into four sections: typology, syntax, discourse and phonology. Two of the typology papers study the structure and organization of category systems (Joseph Greenberg, Linda Schwartz); the third discusses language typology and universals from the perspective of language acquisition (Fred Eckman). The eight papers in the syntax section are of three types. Edith Moravcsik and James Tai discuss 'general' issues of linguistic theory/domain. Four papers (Mushira Eid, Michael Kac, Nancy Hedberg, Larry Hutchinson) address specific analyses and their implications from language-particular and theoretical perspectives. The papers by Deborah Dahl and Thomas Rindflesch relate theoretical concepts and analyses to natural language processing. In the section on discourse, the contributions by Anita Barry and Amy Sheldon deal with interpersonal conflict; George Yule discusses the selection between direct and indirect speech forms. Helga Delisle and Cynthia Clamons consider ways in which choices among, or variation in, some grammatical and semantic categories may be explainable on pragmatic and discourse grounds. The phonology papers are focused on two major themes: underspecification and borrowing. Four of the articles address the issue of underspecification in phonological representations (Daniel Dinnsen, Joseph Stemberger, Janet Bing, Gregory Iverson). In the other two papers questions of borrowing are discussed, in Nancy Stenson's contribution from a synchronic perspective, and in Gunter Schaarsmidt's paper from a historical one. The volume is completed by a subject index and a language index.

This is the first major study of the conservative or basilectal English creoles of the Anglophone Caribbean since Bailey's (1966) and Bickerton's (1975) descriptions of Jamaican and Guyanese Creole respectively. The book offers a comprehensive, unified treatment of the core areas of CEC predication, including the verb complex, auxiliary ordering, voice and valency, copular and attributive predication, serial verb constructions and complementation. Particularly note-worthy is its utilization of an extremely rich data base and a variety of sources to provide an up-to-date, state of the art account of predicate structures in CEC. The book presents new analyses of several areas of CEC syntax, including such phenonema as passivization, serialization and complementation, which have not been thoroughly analyzed, if at all, in the previous literature. The areas covered in the book involve a wide range of grammatical phenomena centering around the various sub-classes of verb and their subcategorization. The book consists of an introduction, a conclusion, and six chapters, each of which explores some aspect of the behavior of verbs (or verb-like predicators) and the constructions in which they occur. The book is intended to be a pre-theoretical account of the facts of CEC predication. However, to further elucidate the workings of the grammar and add some degree of explicitness to the description, the author also presents more formal analyses of the grammatical phenomena, employing the framework of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG).

We now know that natural signed languages such as American Sign Language, French Sign Language, British Sign Language and others are fully independent languages. But natural signed languages are only one way of conveying language in the visual/gestural modality. Signed languages also have mechanisms for representing the material of oral languages. Fingerspelling is one example of such a representational system. This book examines fingerspelling from a phonetic perspective. Several studies of the kinematics of fingerspelling articulators are reported. From these detailed analyses of articulator timings and velocities, conclusions are drawn which suggest that, like speech, fingerspelling may be explained in terms of coordinative structures and task dynamics. The thrust of the book is to explore the notion that signed and spoken languages can be compared not only as abstract linguistic systems but also at the physical level as dynamically structured articulations. An implication of these studies is that a common basis in gesture can be found for the production, perception, and neural organization of signed and spoken languages.

The papers in this volume deal with subjects ranging from sound change and general phonological issues to analyses of specific problems in Polish and English, while some papers are of a crosslinguistic/contrastive nature. No single phonological paradigm has been followed, and this diversity of theoretical approaches, from natural phonology to non-linear phonology, reflects recent developments in Europe and the U.S.

This volume includes papers on the study of Arabic dialects and their implications for general linguistics (Section I), as well of papers of a more general nature (Sections II and III). Because the Arabic dialects are similar in many ways, a study of their differences can help isolate precisely the range of permissible interlinguistic variation (i.e. the “parameters” of universal grammar). A number of papers in Section I focus on the contribution of dialect studies to a theory of crossdialectal and crosslinguistic variation; others focus on individual dialects, thus providing data and analyses that can further contribute to our understanding of this type of variation. The papers in Sections II and III of the volume are selected from the general session of the symposium and address sociolinguistic and historical aspects of Arabic, respectively.

This volume, which has partly grown from a Round Table at the XIVth International Congress of Linguists, argues for a large amount of underlying unity in outlook among different frameworks in present-day linguistics: the contemporary Prague School; the Noematic approach; the UNITYP model; Integrational Linguistics; Natural Morphology; much recent work in phonology; and Popperian Interactionism as applied, in particular, to historical linguistics. Section I discusses philosophical issues such as realism vs. cognitivism; Section II characterizes current frameworks; and Section III deals with individual linguistic areas like phonology. Leading representatives of the various approaches are shown to agree in subscribing to most if not all of nine 'Principles of New Structuralism' that combine ontological realism with non-cognitivist mentalism. These principles define a position that is structuralist in a novel sense and appears to be partly represented also in approaches such as Katzian 'Platonism' and Searle's intentionalism; it should be compatible with frameworks like GPSG. There are definite historical connections with European structuralism. The position is incompatible with current cognitivism of the 'mechanism' type but otherwise bridges traditional oppositions such as the dichotomy of generative vs. non-generative frameworks.

This volume comprises the first part of selected papers of the International Pragmatics Conference in Antwerp, August 1987.

Point Counterpoint offers a series of papers and replies originally presented at a special session of the Second Language Research Forum, UCLA, March 1989. The focus of the papers is primarily the role of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition, though the agenda also includes discussion of other fundamental questions, viz., the explanatory potential of linguistic theory in native-language development. It may come as no surprise that the contributors and their respondents often present very different perspectives on the issues, for most of the authors were known in advance to hold contrasting points of view. Contributors (c) and Respondents (r) are: Wolfgang Klein (c)/Nina Hyams (r); Sascha Felix (c)/Jacquelyn Schachter (r); Suzanne Flynn & Sharon Manuel (c)/David Birdsong (r); Lydia White (c)/Robert Bley-Vroman (r); Peter Jordens (c)/Lynn Eubank (r); Jurgen Meisel (c)/Bonnie Schwartz (r); Sharon Hilles (c)/William O'Grady (r); Daniel Finer (c)/Margaret Thomas (r); Usha Lakshmanan (c)/Nina Hymans & Ken Safir (r).