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Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Historical & comparative linguistics > General
The developments in linguistic theory over the last three decades have given us a better understanding of the formal properties of language. However, as the truism goes, language does not exist in a vacuum. It in teracts with a cognitive system that involves much more than language and functions as the primary instrument of human communication. A theory of language must, therefore, be based on an integration of its for mal properties with its cognitive and communicative dimensions. The present work is offered as the modest contribution to this research paradigm. This book is a revised and slightly enlarged version of my doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In writing the original version, I had the privilege of working with Professor Charles E. Osgood, who is widely recognized as the founder and one of the leading figures of modern psycholinguistics. I have benefited from ex tensive and stimulating discussions with him, not only on this topic but in the development of his theory of language performance in general (see his Lectures on Language Performance, 1980, in this series). However, the re sponsibility for the particular formulations of the theory, hypotheses, in terpretations, and conclusions found in this work-which have been in fluenced, no doubt, by my training as a linguist, rather than as a psychologist-are my own."
This book is an advanced debate on the nature of scalar implicatures, one of the most popular topics in philosophical linguistics in the last 20 years. Leading theorists in the field offer an up-to-date presentation of the subject in a way that will help readers to orient themselves in the vast literature on the topic.
In this book, Pieter Seuren argues that Ferdinand de Saussure has been grossly overestimated over the past century, while his junior colleague Albert Sechehaye has been undeservedly ignored. Saussure was anything but the great innovator he is generally believed to be. Sechehaye was a genius providing many trenchant analyses and anticipating many modern insights. The lives and works of both men are discussed in detail and they are placed in the cultural, intellectual and social environment of their day. Much attention is paid to the theoretical issues involved, in particular to the notion and history of structuralism, to the great subject-predicate debate that dominated linguistic theory at the time, and to questions of methodology in the theory of language.
This book presents the work on aphasia coming out of the Institute for Aphasia and Stroke in Norway during its 10 years of existence. Rather than reviewing previously presented work, it was my desire to give a unified analysis and discussion of our accumulated data. The empirical basis for the analysis is a fairly large group (249 patients) investigated with a standard, comprehensive set of procedures. Tests of language functions must be developed anew for each language, but comparison of my findings with other recent compre hensive studies of aphasia is faciliated by close parallels in test meth ods (Chapter 2). The classification system used is currently the most accepted neurological system, but I have operationalized it for research purposes (Chapter 3). The analyses presented are based on the view that aphasia is an aspect of a multidimensional disturbance of brain function. Find ings of associated disturbances and variations in the aphasic condition over time have been dismissed by some as irrelevant to the study of aphasia as a language deficit. My view is that this rich and complex set of findings gives important clues to the organization of brain functions in humans. I present analyses of the relationship of aphasia to neuropsychological disorders in conceptual organization, memory, visuospatial abilities and apraxia (Chapters 4, 5, and 6), and I study the variations with time of the aphasic condition (Chapter 8)."
This is the first in-depth study of the extinct Koguryo language, which was once spoken in Manchuria and northern Korea. It covers the ethnolinguistic history of the Koguryo nation, philological treatment of the sources for the language, Koguryo phonology, and a complete glossary of all Archaic Koguryo and Old Koguryo words. Special attention has been given to the theory and practice of lexically-based historical-comparative linguistics. The genetic relationship of Koguryo to Japanese is shown to be secure, unlike the non-relationship of either language to Korean or 'Altaic', and much light is shed on the ethnolinguistic origins of Japanese. The special phonological features of the underlying transcriptional language, the archaic northeastern Middle Chinese dialect once spoken in Korea, are also analyzed.
The present volume is based on the proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute (AS I) sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held in Alvor, Algarve, Portugal. A number of scholars from different countries participated in the two-week institute on Cognitive and linguistic aspects of reading, writing, and spelling. The present papers are further versions with modifications and refinements from those presented at the Advanced Study Institute. Several people and organizations have helped us in this endeavor and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Our special thanks are to: the Scientific Affairs division of NATO for providing the major portions of the financial support, Dr. L.V. da Cunha of NATO and Dr. THo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology of the various aspects of the institute; and (ITST) for their help and support the staff of Hotel Alvor Praia for making our stay a pleasant one by helping us to run the institute smoothly.
In The Dutch Language in Britain (1550-1702) Christopher Joby offers an account of the knowledge and use of Dutch in early modern Britain. Using extensive archive material from Britain and the Low Countries, Chris Joby demonstrates that Dutch was both written and spoken in a range of social domains including the church, work, learning, the home, diplomacy, the military and navy, and the court. Those who used the language included artisans and their families fleeing religious and economic turmoil on the continent; the Anglo-Dutch King, William III; and Englishmen such as the scientist Robert Hooke. Joby's account adds both to our knowledge of the use of Dutch in the early modern period and multilingualism in Britain at this time.
Eight Decades of General Linguistics presents the key lectures delivered at the eighteen conferences organized by the Permanent International Committee of Linguists and also a history of the Committee itself. The contributions of outstanding scholars such as Otto Jesperson, Louis Hjelmslev, Andre Martinet, Uriel Weinreich, Noam Chomsky and many other linguists cannot be over-estimated. The majority of the papers address a radically new topic, each of which became one of the central issues in subsequent linguistic research. In addition to their empirical findings and/or the theoretical innovations presented in their papers, each contribution is still interesting and pivotal to the development of contemporary linguistics.
In this text, the authors review the last twenty-five years of progress in research and theory on language and communication in the psychopathological context. They also identify promising avenues for future research. This text will benefit students taking courses in psycholinguistics.
Based on the Tibetan loanwords in an archaic Mongolic language, the author reconstructed an unknown Tibetan dialect which pertains to the North Eastern Archaic Tibetan group. The result is compared with the data known from other NEAT dialects, with the material of the West Archaic Tibetan languages such as Balti, Purig and Ladak, and also with the non-archaic dialects from Central Tibet and Lhasa. With the use of Literary Tibetan and data from Old Tibetan, Tibeto-Mongolica proposes a new approach to the reconstruction of the history of the Tibetan language. Originally published in 1966, and long out of print, the book has served as a standard handbook for historical Tibetan studies for several generations of scholars and is now updated by a new Introduction and enhanced by reprints of a selection of the author's relevant Tibetological papers.
This book proposes a novel CWW model to personalize individual semantics in linguistic decision making, based on two new concepts: numerical scale and consistency-driven methodology. The numerical scale model provides a unified framework to connect different linguistic symbolic computational models for CWW, and the consistency-driven methodology customizes individuals' semantics to support linguistic group decision making by setting personalized numerical scales. The book is a valuable resource for researchers and postgraduates who are interested in CWW in linguistic decision making.
This book shows ways of augmenting the capabilities of Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems by means of cognitive-mode language processing. The authors employ eye-tracking technology to record and analyze shallow cognitive information in the form of gaze patterns of readers/annotators who perform language processing tasks. The insights gained from such measures are subsequently translated into systems that help us (1) assess the actual cognitive load in text annotation, with resulting increase in human text-annotation efficiency, and (2) extract cognitive features that, when added to traditional features, can improve the accuracy of text classifiers. In sum, the authors' work successfully demonstrates that cognitive information gleaned from human eye-movement data can benefit modern NLP. Currently available Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems are weak AI systems: they seek to capture the functionality of human language processing, without worrying about how this processing is realized in human beings' hardware. In other words, these systems are oblivious to the actual cognitive processes involved in human language processing. This ignorance, however, is NOT bliss! The accuracy figures of all non-toy NLP systems saturate beyond a certain point, making it abundantly clear that "something different should be done."
The contributions to the volume examine in detail diverse aspects of second language education, ranging from a focus on the basic contributions of linguistic theory and research to our understanding of second language learning and teaching on the one hand, to a series of reviews of innovative language education practices in selected regions of the world on the other.
This work gives a thorough revision of history through a psychological approach to verbal interaction between listeners and speakers. This book offers a large amount of information on the psychology of language and on psycholinguistics, and focuses on a new direction for a psychology of verbal communication. Empirical research includes media interviews, public speeches, and dramatic performances.
This reproduction of Visser's volumes is more than welcome, and timely, as the volumes have been out of print for quite some time and were sometimes a little bit difficult to navigate. Having a searchable and easy-to-use online version, although maybe not perfect, available now means a revival for scholarship that celebrates its fiftieth birthday without losing any of its relevance.
The Skills of Document Use: From Text Comprehension to Web-Based Learning examines functional literacy from a psychological standpoint. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the cognitive skills involved in reading, comprehending, and making use of complex documents. Understanding such skills is important at times when printed and online information systems are being used more and more extensively for work, education, and personal development. It is also very important to understand how the Internet transforms the way we search, read, and comprehend documents. The core purpose of the book is to inform research scientists, students, and instructional designers about recent advances in the psychology of document comprehension. Whereas reading research has mostly focused on basic cognitive processes involved in simple comprehension tasks, this book extends the psychology of reading to more complex, real-life comprehension activities. The book draws a link between research areas usually separated: language psychology, on the one hand, and Web design, on the other hand. The work also attempts to bridge a gap between research in cognitive psychology and practical issues in the design and use of information systems. It invites the reader to a guided journey from theoretical models of text comprehension to concrete issues in the design and use of instructional technology. The book will be of interest to students specializing in psychology, language, communication, and publishing. It will also be useful to all those who are involved in the training of literacy skills, or in the design of information systems accessible to a wide audience.
Linguists, applied linguists and language teachers all appeal to the native speaker as an important reference point. But what exactly (who exactly?) is the native speaker? This book examines the native speaker from different points of view, arguing that the native speaker is both myth and reality.
Jean-Louis Dessalles explores the co-evolutionary paths of biology, culture, and the great human edifice of language, linking the evolution of the language to the general evolutionary history of humankind. He provides searchingly original answers to such fundamental paradoxes as to whether we acquired our greatest gift in order to talk or so as to be able to think, and as to why human beings should, as experience constantly confirms, contribute information for the well-being of others at their own expense and for no apparent gain: which if this is one of language's main functions appears to make its possession, in Darwinian terms, a disadvantage. Dr Dessalles looks for solutions in the early history of human species and considers the degree to which language evolved as a means of choosing profitable coalition partners and maximizing individual success within a competitive social environment. The author opens with a discussion of the differences between animal and human communication and the biological foundations of language. He looks at the physiological preconditions for language evolution and the early evolution of meaning and communication. He then embarks on an important and original account of the natural history of conversation. Here he considers the roles of language in supporting social cohesion and information exchange. This challenging and original account will appeal to all those interested in the origins of language and the evolution of human behaviour.
This text examines the influence of cultural values and communication styles on intercultural communication and demonstrates how training can develop intercultural communication competencies. A large number of interactions between well-educated immigrants from all continents and from more than a hundred countries, together with some including native speakers, are examined and participants' answers to questionnaires compared with their actual communicative behaviour. The author raises questions of interest to many groups: linguists, educators, business people and sociologists. Which values are most salient and enduring, and which cause clashes between cultural groups? To what extent do people retain the communication style identified with their first language and how do these different styles impact on others?
Focus on Writing is an academic writing program that provides students with essential tools to master not only the key steps in the writing process, but also the grammatical structures, lexical knowledge, and rhetorical modes essential for academic writing. This five-level series progresses with students as they grow in confidence and ability from sentence level (Book 1) through paragraphs (Books 1-3) and essays (Books 3-5). Each unit leads writers step-by-step through the process of prewriting, writing a first draft, revising, and editing before producing a final draft. Not only do students write an entire paragraph or essay in each unit, they are also given plenty of practice at the sentence and word levels. Features: Each unit teaches students how to use one or more common organizational structures: narrative, description, opinion, persuasion, compare-contrast, problem-solution, and cause-effect. High-interest readings and a choice of writing assignments provide a springboard for students' writing. Grammar presentation and practice correlated to Focus on Grammar make the connection between grammar and writing clear. Building Word Knowledge mini-lessons and exercises teach students' how to use word forms, collocations, idioms, compounds, descriptive details, phrasal verbs and other types of vocabulary in their writing. Revision and Editing checklists for each writing assignment help students rewrite and polish their first drafts. Online Teacher's Manuals contain model lesson plans, unit overviews, timed writing assignments, authentic student models, and answer keys.
In A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai, Norquest presents a reconstruction of Proto-Hlai based on data from twelve Hlai languages spoken on Hainan, China. This reconstruction includes chapters on both the Proto-Hlai initials and rimes, and original sesquisyllabic forms are shown to be necessary to account for the reflexes between the daughter languages. A comparison is made between Proto-Hlai and Proto-Tai, and a preliminary reconstruction of Proto Southern Kra-Dai (the immediate ancestor of Proto-Hlai) is performed. When this is compared with Proto-Hlai, it is shown that several important sound changes occurred between Pre-Hlai and Proto-Hlai. The aberrant Jiamao language is also examined, focusing on its complex contact relationships with other Hlai languages.
Linguistics and the Teacher is a collection of essays by linguists on different aspects of the relationship between linguistics and education. All the contributors are united in their belief that linguistics should be a central element in the education of teachers, and argue for principled and systematic analysis in the study of the role of language in learning. The essays range from theoretical accounts of the nature of language study in teacher education to practical examples of how linguistics can help the teacher in such diverse contexts as the assessment of difficulty in textbooks, the teaching of literature, and analysing children's writing. The book offers models for analysis, specific syllabus and course proposals, and, in a key essay, discussion of those areas relevant to language and learning upon which most linguists would agree. The collection as a whole presents teachers with all the materials they need to make informed judgements about what has hitherto been regarded as a difficult area.
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