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This study presents an overview of the management of language in Singapore. It focuses on the use of language as a resource and as a means of furthering national cohesion. The relative positions of the two major languages, Chinese and English, are traced from colonial times to this century, with reference to education, literature, and the emergence of distinctive local speech varieties. Major government interventions in the form of the Speak Mandarin Campaign and the Speak Good English Movement are discussed against a background of ongoing changes to the education system. A major theme is the influence of Lee Kuan Yew on language policy. Another is the need to strike a balance between the concerns of the different speech communities, and the significance of this balance for the future.

By analysing the folk stories and personal narratives of a cross-section of Palestinians, Sirhan offers a detailed study of how content and sociolinguistic variables affect a narrator's language use and linguistic behaviour. This book will be of interest to anyone engaged with narrative discourse, gender discourse, Arabic studies and linguistics.

Dialectology proper has traditionally focused on the geographic distribution of language variation as an end in itself and has remained relatively segregated from other branches of linguistic and extra-linguistic inquiry. Cross-fertilizing winds have been blowing through the field for more than a decade, but much work remains for adequate synthesis. This book seeks to further the interdisciplinary integration of the field by highlighting, and harnessing, the many dialectic tensions inherent in language variation research and dialect definition. Undertaking a broadscale experiment in applied dialectics, the book demonstrates multiple grounds for insisting on a more robust, integrational approach to dialectology while simultaneously demonstrating grounds for defining the Phula languages of China and Vietnam. The Phula languages belong to the Burmic sub-branch of the Tibeto-Burman family and are primarily spoken in southeastern Yunnan Province, China. With origins as early as the ninth century, these language varieties have been left undefined, and largely unresearched, for hundreds of years. Based on extensive original fieldwork, the book identifies 24 synchronic Phula languages descended from three distinct macro-clades diachronically. This is accomplished by blending typological-descriptive, historical-comparative and socio-cognitive perspectives. Diagnostics include both qualitative and quantitative measurements, and insights from history, geography, ethnology, language contact, sociolinguistics and more are called on for data interpretation. This dialogic approach incorporates complexity by asserting that dialectology itself best flourishes as an interdependent dialectic - a dynamic synthesis of competing perspectives.

Business and culture are inextricably linked, each reflecting and reinforcing trends in the other. In Understanding American Business Jargon, W. Davis Folsom captures the essence of both by focusing on the terms and phrases that make up our business vocabulary. From "AAA" to "Zombie Bonds," Folsom takes us on a tour of over 2500 concepts that cover the spectrum of business-speak. In this fully revised, updated, and expanded edition, Folsom captures the spirit of business in the new millennium, with such colorful terms as "adhocracy," "Dilbert principle," "hyperlink," "traction," and "viral marketing." Each term is succinctly defined and described in context, and many are illustrated with quotations from the popular press. Including slang, acronyms, a bibliography, an introduction that discusses recent trends in business language, and cross-referenced throughout, Understanding American Business Jargon is not only a handy reference for any businessperson, student, or researcher, but an entertaining glimpse into our constantly evolving business culture.

While variation within individual languages has traditionally been focused upon in sociolinguistics, its relevance for grammatical theory has only recently been acknowledged. On the methodological side, there is an ongoing competition between large-scale statistical analyses and investigations that rely more heavily on introspection and elicited grammaticality judgements. The aim of this volume is to bridge the 'cultural gap' between empirical-variationist and formal-theoretical approaches in linguistics. The volume offers case studies that seek to combine corpus-based and competence-based approaches to the description of variation. In doing so, it opens up new avenues for locating and analyzing variability, both at the level of the individual speaker and between speakers of different dialects and generations. The contributions document the plurality of current research into models of grammatical competence that live up to the challenge of variationist data. More specifically, parameter-based (e.g. Minimalist), constraint-based (e.g. Optimality Theoretic), and usage-based (e.g. Construction Grammar) approaches to variation are discussed. The volume therefore is of interest to a broad public within linguistics, including syntacticians of different theoretical persuasion, morphologists and sociolinguists. While a majority of contributions addresses facets of variation in English and German, the volume also includes variationist studies written by specialists of French, Dutch, Icelandic, and Uralic.

This volume contains a selection of papers which have been revised and extended for publication from two working groups held at conferences at Galway (1992) and Goteborg (1993) which celebrated the quincentenary of Columbus' discovery of America in 1492. The pre-Columbian period of language contact is covered by articles on Old Norse in the Faroes, Scotland and Ireland, the Shetland dialect and Norn, and placenames in Iceland and Greenland. The articles on the post-Columbian period are wide-ranging and cover, in the Scandinavian context, the Scandinavian emigration, American Swedish, American Finnish, Swedish-Spanish and various aspects of Norwegian in America and also in Spitzbergen; in the British colonial context, English dialects in New England, Scottish Gaelic in Nova Scotia and Scots in North America (Maryland, the Appalachians and Virginia); in the context of the later continental mass emigration, American Dutch, Texas German, Croatian and Italian. Two papers deal with reverse emigration, that of Sicilian and Calabrian dialects, and the special case of Krio in Sierra Leone."

It was traditionally assumed that having a single official language was a necessary condition for the wellbeing of the state, particularly in France and Britain. This assumption is now questioned, and the regional languages are making, in some cases, an impressive comeback. It is the story of their decline, their survival and, more recently their efforts to re-establish themselves as effective tools of normal communication which is tackled in this book. Each language is analyzed in terms of its development from the earliest times, through its period of decline to present-day efforts at regeneration.

Multi-Dimensional studies (MD) is a new statistical approach to language variation developed by Doug Biber. The methodology involved in this approach means that for the first time, using corpora of spoken and written language from different periods, we can demonstrate how language varies from one type of text to another, for example, how American style varies from British. Doug Biber begins Variation in English: Multi-Dimensional Studies with a discussion of the methodology required and emphasizes the new insights into language variation and use that can be gained from the MD approach.

Drawing on a dual expertise of rare intensity, Mirco Ghini's book is a major contribution to both Romance dialectology and phonological theory. It gives a comprehensive account of the segmental and metrical phonology of the Ligurian dialect of the village of Miogliola, North-west Italy. Based on the author's own fieldwork, it is the first in-depth study of this area, also tracing its development from Latin. Feature assignment, underspecification, and quantity alternations are most prominent among the general theoretical issues on which the particulars of Miogliola phonology, meticuously analysed, are brought to bear with elegance and force.

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

Can language change be modelled as an evolutionary process? Can notions like variation, selection and competition be fruitfully applied to facts of language development? The present volume ties together various strands of linguistic research which can bring us towards an answer to these questions. In one of the youngest and rapidly growing areas of linguistic research, mathematical models and simulations of competition based developments have been applied to instances of language change. By matching the predicted and observed developmental trends, researchers gauge existing models to the needs of linguistic applications and evaluate the fruitfulness of evolutionary models in linguistics. The present volume confronts these studies with more empirically-based studies in creolization and historical language change which bear on key concepts of evolutionary models. What does it mean for a linguistic construction to survive its competitors? How do the interacting factors in phases of creolization differ from those in ordinary language change, and how - consequently - might Creole languages differ structurally from older languages? Some of the authors, finally, also address the question how different aspects of our linguistic competence tie in with our more elementary cognitive capacities. The volume contains contributions by Brady Clark et al., Elly van Gelderen, Alain Kihm, Manfred Krifka, Wouter Kusters, Robert van Rooij, Anette Rosenbach, John McWhorter, Teresa Satterfield, Michael Tomasello and Elizabeth C. Traugott. The book brings together contributions from two areas of research: the study of language evolution by means of methods from artifical intelligence/artificial life (like computer simulations and analytic mathematical methods) on the one hand, and empirically oriented research from historical linguistics and creolisation studies that uses concepts from evolutionary theory as a heuristic tool in a qualitative way. The book is thus interesting for readers from both traditions because it supplies them with information about relevant ongoing research and useful methods and data from the other camp.

This monograph is an anthropological study of the social significance of English among Kru residents of Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. The volume contributes to our understanding of how contemporary Africans use language to negotiate conflicts and aspirations based on socioeconomic position and ethnic solidarity. aftermath of the first modern war.

A range of electronic corpora has become increasingly accessible via the WWW and CD-ROM. This development coincided with improvements in the standards governing the collecting, encoding and archiving of such data. Less attention, however, has been paid to making other types of digital data available. This is especially true of that which one might describe as 'unconventional', namely, the fragmentary texts and voices left to us as accidents of history. This book is a first step toward developing similar standards for enriching and preserving these neglected resources.

Taming the Vernacular: From Dialect to Written Standard Language examines the differences between 'standard' and 'nonstandard' varieties of several different languages. Not only are some of the best-known languages of Europe represented here, but also some that have been less well-researched in the past. The chapters address the syntax of Dutch, English, French, Finnish, Galician, German and Spanish. For these languages, and many others, it is the standard varieties on which the most extensive syntactic research has been carried out, with the result that very little is known about the syntax of their dialects or the spoken colloquial varieties. The editors of this volume seek to redress the balance by taking a cross-linguistic perspective on the historical development of the standardised varieties. This allows them to identify some common characteristics of spoken language. It also helps the reader to understand the kinds of filtering processes that are involved in standardization, which result in the syntax of spoken colloquial language being different from the syntax of the standard varieties. Taming the Vernacular: From Dialect to Written Standard Language is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Linguistics, particularly those taking courses in sociolinguistics, dialectology, and historical linguistics. The focus on a variety of languages also makes this text suitable for students studying courses which cover the linguistic aspects of European languages.

A range of electronic corpora has become increasingly accessible via the WWW and CD-ROM. This development coincided with improvements in the standards governing the collecting, encoding and archiving of such data. Less attention, however, has been paid to making other types of digital data available. This is especially true of that which one might describe as 'unconventional', namely, dialects, child language and bilingual databases. This book is a first step toward developing similar standards for enriching and preserving these neglected resources.

This book examines the intersection of culture and language in Ireland and Irish contexts. The editors take an interdisciplinary approach, exploring the ways in which culture, identity and meaning-making are constructed and performed through a variety of voices and discourses. This edited collection analyses the work of well-known Irish authors such as Beckett, Joyce and G. B. Shaw, combining new methodologies with more traditional approaches to the study of literary discourse and style. Over the course of the volume, the contributors also discuss how Irish voices are received in translation, and how marginal voices are portrayed in the Irish mediascape. This dynamic book brings together a multitude of contrasting perspectives, and is sure to appeal to students and scholars of Irish literature, migration studies, discourse analysis, traductology and dialectology.

Time-Bound Words argues that changes in English society and the English language are woven together, often in surprising ways, and investigates this claim by following eleven words from Chaucer's time to Shakespeare's. Middle English words like corage, estat, thrift , and virtu come to serve the logic of new social discourses by 1611. Language from Chaucer, Wyclif, More, Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson and others is examined both as current and emerging usage, and as verbal play that accomplishes cultural work.

While it is accepted that the pronunciation of English shows wide regional differences, there is a marked tendency to under-estimate the extent of the variation in grammar that exists within the British Isles today. In addressing this problem, Real English brings together the work of a number of experts on the subject to provide a pioneer volume in the field of the grammar of spoken English.

This sociolinguistic series examines the relationships between language, society and social change. It takes a critical approach to the subject, aiming to challenge current orthodoxies and deal with familiar topics in new ways. This volume provides an insight into the language use of Afro-Caribbeans in London. It places emphasis on the linguistic background of the community and in particular on young people of the first and second British-born generations. In addition, it explores the use of different language varieties within families, and demonstrates how young bilingual users switch rapidly between English and Creole in the course of everyday conversation. Bringing together number of different approaches, this case study offers an account of adolescent bilingual behaviour, and examines the history and future potential of Black English within the British education system. Conversational data, often recorded by black adolescent themselves, is used.

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

This in-depth study of the use of pragmatic markers by Spanish and English teenagers offers insight into the currently under-investigated area of teenage talk through the analysis of the Corpus Oral de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid and The Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Talk.

This volume presents Middle English studies as a modern discipline which unites linguistics, literature, philology, the history of ideas, textual studies including recent developments in the study of text types and genres, as well as the sociohistorical perspective. This large variety of both traditional and new approaches is mirrored in the four main parts of the book, starting with texts and text types, and moving on to vocabulary, syntax and morphology, and finally phonology and orthography. Aspects of language contact as well as corpus linguistic studies are also addressed in a number of contributions. Author are leading experts in their fields, and come from the United States, South Africa, and all parts of Europe.

This book presents the most contemporary and comprehensive description of the acoustics of the sounds used in American English. Intended to serve as an introductory text for students and professionals interested in acoustic phonetics, linguistics, physics, electrical engineering, and computer science, the authors bring to the subject the points of view of both linguistics and physics. The book uses numerous examples of acoustic spectrograms to show the continuities and variability of natural speech. The book begins by introducing the basic concepts of phonetics, phonology, and linguistics to readers whose background is in physics or engineering and introducing the physics of sound generation and analysis for speech scientists and linguists. The authors then use the tools developed in the first part to examine the characteristics of individual phonemes as well as the changes introduced when individual sounds are combined in speech. Modern applications of speech acoustics, especially speech synthesis and recognition, are also discussed.

1. 0. V2 AND NULL SUBJECTS IN THE HIS TORY OF FRENCH The prototypical Romance null subject language has certain well known characteristics: verbal inflection is rich, distinguishing six per sonlnumber forms; subject pronouns are generally emphatic; and, when there is no need to emphasize the subject, the pronoun is not expressed at all. Spanish and Italian, for example, fit this description rather weIl. Modem French, however, provides a striking contrast to these lan guages; it does not allow subjects to be missing and, not unexpectedly, it has a verbal agreement system with few overt endings and subject pronouns which are not emphatic. One of the goals of the present work is to examine null subjects in two dialects of Romance that fit neither the Italian nor the French model: later Old French (12th-13th centriries) and MiddIe French (14th- 15th centuries). Old French has null subjects only in contexts where the subject would be postverbal if expressed (cf. Foulet (1928)), and Mid dIe French has null subjects in a wider range of syntactic contexts but does not freely allow a11 persons of the verb to be null. The work of Vanelli, Renzi and Beninca (1985) (along with many other works by these authors individually) shows that a number of other geographically proximate medieval dialects had similar systems, though it appears that there are significant differences in detail among them."