This book is concerned with the diachronic development of selected topic and focus markers in Spanish, Portuguese and French. On the one hand, it focuses on the development of these structures from their relational meaning to their topic-/ focus-marking meaning, and on the other hand, it is concerned with their current form und use. Thus, Romance topic and focus markers – such as sp. en cuanto a, pt. a propósito de, fr. au niveau de or sentence-initial sp. Lo que as well as clefts and pseudo-clefts – are investigated from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. The author argues that topic markers have procedural meaning and that their function is bound to their syntactic position. An important contribution of this study is the fact that real linguistic evidence (in the form of data from various corpora) is analyzed instead of operating with constructed examples.

In A Systemic View as the Base of Philological Thought, Olga Valentinova, Vladimir Denisenko, Sergey Preobrazhenskii, and Mikhail Rybakov explore the interrelation of language material, structure, and functions in various subjects of philological research, such as grammatical systems of language, semantics, linguistic personality, literary text, and formal aspects of verse. Their systemic approach is rooted in the theories of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his followers, including Russian scholars Alexander Potebnya, Gustav Shpet, and more recently Gennadii Prokop'evichMel'nikov (1928-2000). The authors use the concept of systemicity as an opportunity to see the studied whole in development, to show the functional interaction of linear and supra-linear connections, to explain their interdependence, and to predict further changes within the system. This book displays the scientific potential of the systemic approach to linguistics and related spheres, employing the framework of systematicity to revise the modern trends of philology and to map out an alternative paradigm for linguistic and philological thought that could restore the status of philology as a holistic science.

It is increasingly important in our globalised world for people to successfully manage interpersonal relationships. This is the first book to tackle this vital topic, by taking an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the process of relating across cultures. Drawing together key concepts from politeness theory, intercultural communication, and cross-cultural/intercultural psychology, it provides a robust framework for analysing and understanding intercultural encounters. It explores the ways in which individuals make judgements about others, deal with offence and conflict, maintain smooth relations, and build new relationships. These processes are explained conceptually and illustrated extensively with authentic intercultural examples and empirical data. With accessible explanations and follow-up activities, it will appeal not only to academics working in the areas of intercultural communication, pragmatic theory, conflict research and other related academic disciplines, but also to students of these topics, as well as professionals such as intercultural trainers and those working in the third sector.

In view of the considerable number of recent publications devoted to various applications of Cognitive Linguistics, the book focusses on fields that have not been extensively dealt with within the CL framework. The book gathers presentations that deal with fields of application as defined in the introduction to the first volume in the ACL series (Kristiansen et al 2006). The articles in the first section ("From loop to cycle") are defining papers written by eminent scholars whose position within the field of CL has been firmly established. They touch upon issues of continuing relevance to the discipline and introduce thematic areas covered in the next four sections of the volume. Papers in these sections are mainly written by young scholars, whose research illustrates various ways to implement the cycle through different forms of contextualization, either presenting descriptive applications that lead to theoretical amendments or widening the field of possible applications, often interdisciplinary, e.g. to theological or metaphysical discourse. Frequently, section papers provide illustration for the empirical turn in Cognitive Linguistics, demonstrating the ways in which application of theory to new data using new methodologies leads to refinement, development or modification of the theoretical framework. The book is of relevance to students of (applied) linguistics, interested or specializing in language acquisition and pedagogy, intercultural communication, literary and translation studies, as well as to academics and students representing cognate disciplines.

The volume explores the relationship between linguistic universals and language variation. Its contributions identify the recurrent patterns and principles behind the complex spectrum of observable variation. The volume bridges the gap between cross-linguistic variation, regional variation, diachronic variation, contact-induced variation as well as socially conditioned variation. Moreover, it addresses fundamental methodological and theoretical issues of variation research. The volume brings together internationally renowned specialists of their fields while, at the same time, offering a platform for gifted and highly talented young researchers. The authors come from different theoretical backgrounds and through their work illustrate a rich array of scientific methods. All authors share a strong belief in empirically founded theoretical work. The contributions span a high number of languages and dialects from many parts of the world. They are extremely broad in their empirical coverage addressing an impressive selection of grammatical domains.

A groundbreaking new work that sheds light on case studies of linguistic human rights around the world, raising much-needed awareness of the struggles of many peoples and communities The first book of its kind, the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights presents a diverse range of theoretically grounded studies of linguistic human rights, exemplifying what linguistic justice is and how it might be achieved. Through explorations of ways in which linguistic human rights are understood in both national and international contexts, this innovative volume demonstrates how linguistic human rights are supported or violated on all continents, with a particular focus on the marginalized languages of minorities and Indigenous peoples, in industrialized countries and the Global South. Organized into five parts, this volume first presents approaches to linguistic human rights in international and national law, political theory, sociology, economics, history, education, and critical theory. Subsequent sections address how international standards are promoted or impeded and cross-cutting issues, including translation and interpreting, endangered languages and the internet, the impact of global English, language testing, disaster situations, historical amnesia, and more. This essential reference work: Explores approaches to linguistic human rights in countries of great demographic diversity and conflict Covers cases of linguistic human rights in the Americas, China, Europe, North Africa, India, Nepal and New Zealand, including international minorities, such as the Kurds and the Roma, and the Deaf worldwide. Illustrates how education worldwide has often blocked off minority languages by not offering mother-tongue medium education Presents and assesses conventions, declarations, and recommendations that recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples and minorities. Includes a selection of short texts that present additional existential evidence of linguistic human rights. Edited by two renowned leaders in the field, the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students of language and law, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy, language education, indigenous studies, language rights, human rights, and globalization.

Twenty-four researchers from various academic disciplines dealing with the production of language, such as theoretical and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, social psychology, psycholinguistics, and psychology of language, contributed to this volume. The chapters center on five areas: psycholinguistic models of production; second language speech production; cognition and production; narrative understanding and production; and verbal interaction. The aim of the volume is to come to a general picture of the range of questions and methods of investigation dealing with language production.

This book offers a range of perspectives and insights from around the world on the teaching and learning of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It brings together contributors from across six continents, who analyse a wide range of teaching and learning contexts, including primary, secondary, tertiary, private, and adult ESL/EFL classes. In doing so, they provide locally relevant accounts that nonetheless resonate with other contexts and wider concerns. This informative and practical edited collection will appeal to students and scholars who are interested in the four building blocks of language learning, as well as language education and teacher education.

This book presents a new reconstruction of Proto-Basque, the mother language of modern Basque varieties, historical Basque, and Aquitanian, grounded in traditional methods of historical linguistics. Building on a long tradition of Basque scholarship, the comparative method and internal reconstruction, informed by the phonetic bases of sound change and phonological typology, are used to explain previously underappreciated alternations and asymmetries in Basque sound patterns, resulting in a radically new view of the proto-language. The comparative method is then used to compare this new Proto-Basque with Proto-Indo-European, revealing regular sound correspondences in basic vocabulary and grammatical formatives. Evaluation of these results supports a distant genetic relationship between Proto-Basque and Proto-Indo-European, and offers new insights into specific linguistic properties of these two ancient languages. This comprehensive volume, which includes a detailed appendix including Proto-Basque/Proto-Indo-European cognate sets, will be of general interest to linguists, archeologists, historians, and geneticists, and of particular interest to scholars in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonology, language change, and Basque and Indo-European studies. Errata for the book can be found at: https://julietteblevins.ws.gc.cuny.edu/proto-basque/

This book presents a comprehensive, state-of-the-art treatment of the acquisition of Indo- and Non-Indo-European languages in various contexts, such as L1, L2, L3/Ln, bi/multilingual, heritage languages, pathology as well as language impairment, and sign language acquisition. The book explores a broad mix of methodologies and issues in contemporary research. The text presents original research from several different perspectives, and provides a basis for dialogue between researchers working on diverse projects with the aim of furthering our understanding of how languages are acquired. The book proposes and refines new theoretical constructs, e.g. regarding the complexity of linguistic features as a relevant factor forming children's, adults' and bilingual individuals' acquisition of morphological, syntactic, discursive, pragmatic, lexical and phonological structures. It appeals to students, researchers, and professionals in the field.

This book showcases fresh research into the underexplored territory of complementation through a detailed analysis of gerunds and 'to' infinitives involving control in English. Drawing on large electronic corpora of recent English, it examines subject control in adjectival predicate constructions with 'scared', 'terrified' and 'afraid', moving on to a study of object control with the verbal predicate 'warn'. In each chapter a case study is presented of a matrix adjective that selects both infinitival and gerundial complements, and a central theme is the application of the Choice Principle as a novel factor bearing on complement selection. The authors argue that it is helpful to view the patterns in question as constructions, as combinations of form and meaning, within the system of English predicate complementation, and convincingly demonstrate how a new gerundial pattern has emerged and spread in the course of the last two centuries. This book will appeal to scholars of semantics, corpus linguistics, and historical linguistics as well as those with an interest in variation and change in recent English more generally.

Linguistic Morphology is a unique collection of cutting-edge research in the psycholinguistics of morphology, offering a comprehensive overview of this interdisciplinary field. This book brings together world-leading experts from linguisics, experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience to examine morphology research from different disciplines. It provides an overview of how the brain deals with complex words; examining how they are easier to read, how they affect our brain dynamics and eye movements, how they mould the acquisition of language and literacy, and how they inform computational models of the linguistic brain. Chapters discuss topics ranging from subconscious visual identification to the high-level processing of sentences, how children make their first steps with complex words through to how proficient adults make lexical identification in less than 40 milliseconds. As a state-of-the-art resource in morphology research, this book will be highly relevant reading for students and researchers of linguistics, psychology and cognitive neuroscience. It will also act as a one-stop shop for experts in the field.

This book contains a selection of papers on issues of current interest in syntax and morpho-syntax. Most topics pertain to the question of the relation between word order and syntactic structure. The discussion starts with a proposal of extending the theory of relativization to reason clauses. It continues with the analysis of the realization of focus in Basque and the discussion of current views on the syntax of cleft constructions. Next, an inquiry into the rigidity of sentence left-periphery is offered in a cross-linguistic perspective. The two final contributions discuss feature-free derivations in syntax applied to a single morpho-syntactic problem, and the question of gradient acceptability of Polish sentences featuring possessive items in the context of the competition between their reflexive and pronominal forms.

Primatology, Ethics and Trauma offers an analytical re-examination of the research conducted into the linguistic abilities of the Oklahoma chimpanzees, uncovering the historical reality of the research. It has been 50 years since the first language experiments on chimpanzees. Robert Ingersoll was one of the researchers from 1975 to 1983. He is well known for being one of the main carers and best friend of the chimpanzee, Nim Chimpsky, but there were other chimpanzees in the University of Oklahoma's Institute for Primate Studies, including Washoe, Moja, Kelly, Booee, and Onan, who were taught sign language in the quest to discover whether language is learned or innate in humans. Antonina Anna Scarna's expertise in language acquisition and neuroscience offers a vehicle for critical evaluation of those studies. Ingersoll and Scarna investigate how this research failed to address the emotional needs of the animals. Research into trauma has made scientific advances since those studies. It is time to consider the research from a different perspective, examining the neglect and cruelty that was inflicted on those animals in the name of psychological science. This book re-examines those cases, addressing directly the suffering and traumatic experiences endured by the captive chimpanzees, in particular the female chimpanzee, Washoe, and her resultant inability to be a competent mother. The book discusses the unethical nature of the studies in the context of recent research on trauma and offers a specific and direct psychological message, proposing to finally close the door on the language side of these chimpanzee studies. This book is a novel and groundbreaking account. It will be of interest to lay readers and academics alike. Those working as research, experimental, and clinical psychologists will find this book of interest, as will psychotherapists, linguists, anthropologists, historians of science and primatologists, as well as those involved in primate sanctuary and conservation.

As the fourth volume of a multi-volume set on the Chinese language, this book studies the lexical system of Old Chinese and the development of different types of lexicons during the period. Focusing on lexicons in Old Chinese, the early form of the Chinese language used between the 18th century BC and the 3rd century AD, this volume first introduces the methods of word formation in Old Chinese by analyzing words inscribed in oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty. Illustrated with examples, it then examines the lexical features of Old Chinese and explores the progress and evolutionary features of monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, lexical meanings, synonyms, and idioms and proverbs over the course of the volume. This comprehensive groundwork on Chinese lexical history is a must read for scholars and students studying ancient Chinese language, linguistics and especially for beginning learners of the Old Chinese lexicon.

As the fifth volume of a multi-volume set on the Chinese language, this book studies the development of monosyllables and polysyllables in Middle Chinese and the overall evolution of lexical meanings during the period. Focusing on lexicons in Middle Chinese, the Chinese language used between the 4th century AD and the 12th century AD, the book first introduces the monosyllabic neologisms of Middle Chinese, including characters and words derived from Old Chinese lexicons and those newly created. It then examines the development of polysyllabic words in Middle Chinese, ranging from single morpheme words, tautologies and compound words. The final chapter discusses the changes and extension of word meanings in medieval Chinese. Illustrated with abundant examples, this comprehensive groundwork on Chinese lexical history will be a must read for scholars and students studying ancient Chinese language, linguistics and especially for beginning learners of the Middle Chinese lexicon.

As the sixth volume of a multi-volume set on the Chinese language, this book studies the influence of foreign culture on Middle Chinese lexicon and the development of synonyms, idioms and proverbs during the period. Focusing on lexicons in Middle Chinese, the middle form of the Chinese language used between the 4th century AD and the 12th century AD, this book first analyzes loanwords in Middle Chinese, a product of cultural exchange with western regions on the silk road and the impact of Buddhism. It then discusses the differences in meaning between monosyllables and polysyllables. The final chapter describes enriching idioms and proverbs and the major sources of words, including classical works, Buddhist texts and the spoken language. Illustrated with abundant examples, this comprehensive groundwork on Chinese lexical history will be a must read for scholars and students studying ancient Chinese language, linguistics and especially for beginning learners of the Middle Chinese lexicon.

As the seventh volume of a multi-volume set on the Chinese language, this book studies the Mongolian influence on neologisms in Modern Chinese and innovations in word formation and lexical meanings during the period. Focusing on lexicons in Modern Chinese, the Chinese language used since the 13th century AD, this book first introduces new monosyllables and the entry of spoken idioms and dialects into the written language as well as the mingling of the Chinese language with the Mongolian and Manchu languages. It then focuses on the development and features of polysyllabic words in Modern Chinese, covering alliterative and rhyming compounds, trisyllabic and four-syllable words. The final chapter discusses the change of lexical meaning systems in Modern Chinese based on an analysis of monosyllables, disyllables and polysyllables. Illustrated with abundant examples, this comprehensive groundwork on Chinese lexical history will be a must read for scholars and students studying modern Chinese language, linguistics and especially for beginning learners of the modern Chinese lexicon.

Parenthesis has recently seen a considerable surge in interest. This volume presents the - often contrasting - theoretical positions on parenthetical verbs and examines them from different analytical perspectives. It covers parenthetical verbs in English as well as in several other languages. Methodologically, the volume is marked by its empirical orientation: Most contributions are based on data from experiments or corpora.

This book challenges the dominant tendency in world Englishes scholarship to rely on the 'nation' as a static spatial entity and reliable analytic category. Using the transnational Korean context as a case in point, the authors analyse how the practices and ideologies of the English language reflect the complex and unexpected flows of globalisation. Examining topics such as the spoken English of South Korean youth and English education in North Korea, this interdisciplinary work gathers both established and emerging scholars from a range of language-related fields to evaluate English as a dynamic and evolving language beyond purely 'English-speaking' countries. This edited collection will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of world Englishes, multilingualism, second language acquisition and globalisation.

People constantly talk to each other about experience or knowledge resulting from spatial perception; they describe the size, shape, orientation and position of objects using a wide range of spatial expressions. The semantic treatment of such expressions presents particular challenges for natural language processing. The meaning representation used must be capable of distinguishing between fine-grained sense differences and ambiguities grounded in our experience and perceptual structure. While there have been many different approaches to the representation and processing of spatial expressions, most computational characterisations have been restricted to particularly narrow problem domains. The chapters in the present volume reflect a commitment to the development of cognitively informed computational treatments of spatial language and spatial representation. Therefore the chapters present computational work, empirical work, or a combination of both. The book will appeal to all those interested in spatial language and spatial representation, whether they work in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, cognitive psychology or linguistics.

The notions of 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' are associated with relatively new developments and insights in several areas of cognition. This book brings together different definitions, insights and research related to defining these notions from such diverse areas as language, perception, categorization and development. Each of the contributors in this book explicitly defines the notion of 'function', 'feature' or 'functional feature' within their own theoretical framework, presents research in which such a notion plays a pivotal role, and discusses the contribution of functional features in relation to their insights in a particular area of cognition. As such, this book not only presents new developments devoted to defining 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' in several sub-disciplines of cognitive science, but also offers a focused account of how these notions operate within the cognitive interface linking language and spatial representation. All book chapters are accessible for the interested novice, and offer the specialized researcher new empirical and theoretical insights into defining function, both with respect to the language and space interface and across cognition. The introduction to the book presents the reader with the main issues and viewpoints that are discussed in more detail in each of the book chapters.

Sicilian Elements in Andrea Camilleri's Narrative Language examines Camilleri's unique linguistic repertoire and techniques over his career as a novelist examines the intensification of Sicilian linguistic features in Camilleri's narrative works focusing on features pertaining to the domains of sounds and grammar since these have been marginalized in linguistic-centered research on the evolution of Camilleri's narrative language and remain overall understudied. Through a systematic comparative analysis of the distribution patterns of selected Sicilian features in a selection of Camilleri's historical novels and novels of the Montalbano series, the author identifies the individual features that have become most widespread and the lexical items that are targeted with highest frequency and consistency. The results of the analysis show that in the earlier novels Sicilian features are rather sparse and can be attributed linguistic situational functionality; that is, they function as indices of salient, distinctive aspects of topics, settings, events/situations and characters. Conversely, in the latest novels Sicilian elements pervade the entire novels and the texts are written almost entirely in Camilleri's own Sicilian, "vigatese", so that Sicilian is stripped of any linguistic situational functionality.