Despite the current explosion of interest in cognitive linguistics, there has so far been relatively little research by cognitive linguists on narrative comprehension. Emmott draws on insights from discourse analysis and artificial intelligence to present a detailed model of how readers build, maintain, and use mental representations of fictional contexts, and how they keep track of characters and contexts within a complex, changing fictional world. The work has implications for linguistic theory since it questions several long-held assumptions about anaphora, arguing for a `levels of consciousness' model for the processing of referring expressions. The book begins with a summary of current issues in text-processing theory and a discussion of the methodological importance of recognizing the hierarchical structure of discourse. The core of the book explores the significance of contextual monitoring in narrative comprehension and looks particularly at the cognitive demands placed on readers by flashbacks. Later chapters examine the implications of contextual monitoring for reference theory and for a literary-linguistic model of narrative text types. The study focuses on anaphoric pronouns in narratives, assessing the accumulated knowledge required for readers to interpret these key grammatical items.

Antonymy is the technical name used to describe 'opposites', pairs of words such as rich/poor, love/hate and male/female. Antonyms are a ubiquitous part of everyday language, and this book provides a detailed, comprehensive account of the phenomenon.
This book demonstrates how traditional linguistic theory can be revisited, updated and challenged in the corpus age. It will be essential reading for scholars interested in antonymy and corpus linguistics.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203166256

This book argues that language systems determine language use to a greater extent than is generally assumed. The author demonstrates how the typological characteristics of a language determine even the most general aspects of our stylistic preferences.
Through extensive analysis of examples in German and English, the author demonstrates how analogous options of sentence structure must be surrendered in order to achieve felicitous translations. Two major aspects that determine the appropriateness of language use are examined: language processing and discourse-dependency.
Essential reading for translation scholars and linguists involved in the comparative study of English and German, this book will also be of interest to scholars of psycholinguistics and cognitive science, as well as translators and linguists more generally.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203216938

"An African Athens" offers an analysis of a new ecology of rhetoric--the reshaping of a nation into a democracy through rhetorical means. Author Philippe-Joseph Salazar provides a general view of issues as they have taken shape in the apartheid and post-apartheid South African experience, presenting the country as a remarkable stage for playing out the great themes of public deliberation and the rise of postmodern rhetorical democracy. Salazar's intimate vantage point focuses on the striking case of a democracy won at the negotiating table and also won every day in public deliberation.
This volume presents a full-scale rhetorical analysis of a democratic transformation in post-Cold War era, and provides a study of the demise of apartheid and post-apartheid from the standpoint of political and public rhetoric and communication. In doing so, it serves as a template for similar enquiries in the rhetorical study of emerging democracies.
Intended for readers engaged in the study of political and public rhetoric with an interest in how democracy takes shape, "An African Athens" highlights South Africa as a test case for global democracy, for rhetoric, and for the relevance of rhetoric studies in a postmodern democracy.

Contemporary research into written academic discourse has become increasingly polarised between two approaches: corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. This volume presents a selection of recent work by experts in academic written discourse, and illustrates how corpus linguistics and discourse analysis can work as complementary approaches. The overall introduction sets the volume against the backdrop of current work in English for Academic Purposes, and introductions to the each section draw out connections between the chapters and put them into context. The contributors are experts in the field and they cover both novice and expert examples of EAP. The book ends with an afterword that provides an agenda-setting closing perspective on the future of EAP research. It will appeal to reserachers and postgrduates in applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis and EAP.>

The Rhetoric of Videogames as Embodied Practice offers a critical reassessment of embodiment and materiality in rhetorical considerations of videogames. Holmes argues that rhetorical and philosophical conceptions of "habit" offer a critical resource for describing the interplay between thinking (writing and rhetoric) and embodiment. The book demonstrates how Aristotle's understanding of character (ethos), habit (hexis), and nature (phusis) can productively connect rhetoric to what Holmes calls "procedural habits": the ways in which rhetoric emerges from its interactions with the dynamic accumulation of conscious and nonconscious embodied experiences that consequently give rise to meaning, procedural subjectivity, control, and communicative agency both in digital game design discourse and the activity of play.

This groundbreaking collection explores the beliefs and approaches to the history of English that do not make it into standard textbooks.
Orthodox histories have presented a tunnel version of the history of the English language which is sociologically inadequate. In this book a range of leading international scholars show how this focus on standard English dialect is to the detriment of those which are non-standard or from other areas of the world. Alternative Histories of English:
· reveals the range of possible 'narratives' about how different varieties of 'Englishes' may have emerged
· places emphasis on pragmatic, sociolinguistic and discourse-oriented aspects of English rather than the traditional grammar, vocabulary and phonology
· considers diverse topics including South African English, Indian English, Southern Hemisphere Englishes, Early Modern English, women's writing, and politeness.
Presenting a fuller and richer picture of the complexity of the history of English, the contributors to Alternative Histories of English explain why English is the diverse world language it is today.

The concept of social power, who holds it and how they use it is a widely debated subject particularly in the field of discourse analysis, and the wider arena of sociolinguistics. In her new book,Joanna Thornborrow challenges the received notion that power is necessarily held by some speakers and not by others. Through the detailed analysis of communication and interaction within a range of institutional settings, she examines power as an emerging, negotiated phenomenon between participants with different status and goals. Written in a clear style which combines attention to technical detail with accessibility, Power Talk includes: a comprehensive introduction to the theme of power including the analytic approaches to power in language a wide-ranging discussion of theory and practice and, in-depth contemporary case studies. Power Talk is the first book to focus on the topic of power in situated interaction across a range of contexts. As such, it makes a timely, and important contribution to the debate surrounding social power and language use, and will be of value to both students and researchers alike.

"Critical Literacy in a Digital Era" offers an examination of the persuasive approaches used in discussions on and about the Internet. Its aim is to increase awareness of what is assumed, unquestioned, and naturalized in our media experience. Using a critical literacy framework for her analysis, author Barbara Warnick argues that new media technologies become accepted not only through their use, but also through the rhetorical use of discourse on and about them. She analyzes texts that discuss new media and technology, including articles from a major technology-oriented periodical; women's magazines and Web sites; and Internet-based political parody in the 2000 presidential campaign. These case studies bring to light the persuasive strategies used by writers to influence public discourse about technology.
The book includes analyses of narrative structures, speech genres, intertextuality, argument forms, writing formulae, and patterns of emphasis and neglect used in traditional and new media outlets. As a result, this distinctive work identifies the features of online speech that bring people and ideas together and enable communities to form in new media environments.
As a unique study of the ways in which ideology is embedded in rhetorical texts, this volume will play a significant role in the development of critical literacy about writing and speech concerning new communication technology. It will be of interest to readers concerned about how our talk about communication affects how we think about it, in particular those interested in communication and social change, public persuasion, and rhetorical criticism of new media content.

"Critical Literacy in a Digital Era" offers an examination of the persuasive approaches used in discussions on and about the Internet. Its aim is to increase awareness of what is assumed, unquestioned, and naturalized in our media experience. Using a critical literacy framework for her analysis, author Barbara Warnick argues that new media technologies become accepted not only through their use, but also through the rhetorical use of discourse on and about them. She analyzes texts that discuss new media and technology, including articles from a major technology-oriented periodical; women's magazines and Web sites; and Internet-based political parody in the 2000 presidential campaign. These case studies bring to light the persuasive strategies used by writers to influence public discourse about technology.
The book includes analyses of narrative structures, speech genres, intertextuality, argument forms, writing formulae, and patterns of emphasis and neglect used in traditional and new media outlets. As a result, this distinctive work identifies the features of online speech that bring people and ideas together and enable communities to form in new media environments.
As a unique study of the ways in which ideology is embedded in rhetorical texts, this volume will play a significant role in the development of critical literacy about writing and speech concerning new communication technology. It will be of interest to readers concerned about how our talk about communication affects how we think about it, in particular those interested in communication and social change, public persuasion, and rhetorical criticism of new media content.

New Playwriting Strategies offers a fresh and dynamic approach to playwriting that will be welcomed by teachers and aspiring playwrights alike.

Clare Walsh explores the experience of women currently involved in linguistic domains traditionally monopolized by men and considers the impact women have made on the norms in language that govern public sphere discourse.

Series Information:
Interface

This edited volume presents selected works from the 20th Biennial Alta Argumentation Conference, sponsored by the National Communication Association and the American Forensics Association and held in 2017. The conference brought together scholars from Europe, Asia, and North America to engage in intensive conversations about how argument functions in our increasingly networked society. The essays discuss four aspects of networked argument. Some examine arguments occurring in online networks, seeking to both understand and respond more effectively to the acute changes underway in the information age. Others focus on offline networks to identify historical and contemporary resources available to advocates in the modern day. Still others discuss the value-added of including argumentation scholars on interdisciplinary research teams analyzing a diverse range of subjects, including science, education, health, law, economics, history, security, and media. Finally, the remainder network argumentation theories explore how the interactions between and among existing theories offer fruitful ground for new insights for the field of argumentation studies. The wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and methodological approaches employed in Networking Argument make this volume a unique compilation of perspectives for understanding urgent and sustaining issues facing our society.

Series Information:
Interface

Series Information:
SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies

This book presents an extended account of the language of dystopia, exploring the creativity and style of dystopian narratives and mapping the development of the genre from its early origins through to contemporary practice. Drawing upon stylistic, cognitive-poetic and narratological approaches, the work proposes a stylistic profile of dystopia, arguing for a reader-led discussion of genre that takes into account reader subjectivity and personal conceptualisations of prototypicality. In examining and identifying those aspects of language that characterise dystopian narratives and the experience of reading dystopian fictions, the work discusses in particular the manipulation and construction of dystopian languages, the conceptualisation of dystopian worlds, the reading of dystopian minds, the projection of dystopian ethics, the unreliability of dystopian refraction, and the evolution and hybridity of the dystopian genre.

Author Biography:
Jon McKenzie is Visiting Professor of Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, where he teaches courses on globalization, experience design, and organizational performance. He also consults as a strategist in the new media industry. His essays include Laurie Anderson for Dummies and Towards a Sociopoetics of Interface Design: etoy, eToys, TOYWAR.

This book is the first comparative study of the syntax of Arabic dialects, based on natural language data recorded in Morocco, Egypt, Syria, and Kuwait. These four dialect regions are geographically diverse and representative of four distinct dialect groups.

Kristen E. Brustad has adopted an analytical approach that is both functional and descriptive, combining insights from discourse analysis, language typology, and pragmatics -- the first time such an approach has been used in the study of spoken Arabic syntax. An appendix includes sample texts from her data.

Brustad's work provides the most nuanced description available to date of spoken Arabic syntax, widens the theoretical base of Arabic linguistics, and gives both scholars and students of Arabic tools for greater cross-dialect comprehension.

"On Second Language Writing" brings together internationally recognized scholars in a collection of original articles that, collectively, delineate and explore central issues with regard to theory, research, instruction, assessment, politics, articulation with other disciplines, and standards. In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth of interest in second-language writing and writing instruction in many parts of the world. Although an increasing number of researchers and teachers in both second-language studies and composition studies have come to identify themselves as specialists in second-language writing, research and teaching practices have been dispersed into several different disciplinary and institutional contexts because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This volume is the first to bring together prominent second-language writing specialists to systematically address basic issues in the field and to consider the state of the art at the end of the century (and the millennium).

"On Second Language Writing" brings together internationally recognized scholars in a collection of original articles that, collectively, delineate and explore central issues with regard to theory, research, instruction, assessment, politics, articulation with other disciplines, and standards. In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth of interest in second-language writing and writing instruction in many parts of the world. Although an increasing number of researchers and teachers in both second-language studies and composition studies have come to identify themselves as specialists in second-language writing, research and teaching practices have been dispersed into several different disciplinary and institutional contexts because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This volume is the first to bring together prominent second-language writing specialists to systematically address basic issues in the field and to consider the state of the art at the end of the century (and the millennium).

"The Story Performance Handbook" provides specific, detailed information to help adults develop basic skills in reading aloud, mediated storytelling, and storytelling. Organized sequentially, each chapter moves the reader from the easiest (reading aloud picture books) to the most difficult (creating your own stories for telling) storytelling experience, cumulatively building story performance skill in selecting, preparing, and delivering stories and poetry to audiences. This structure allows individuals to begin reading at various points depending on their prior experience with story performance.
The text includes several features that make learning to perform stories and poetry easy to understand and manage:
* Explicit, thorough advice avoids confusion, such as how to select, prepare, and deliver stories and poetry via reading aloud, mediated storytelling, and storytelling.
* The sequential chapter organization, progressing from easiest to most difficult, and Developmental and Culminating Activities at the end of each skill chapter, enable this text to be used either independently or in conjunction with courses or workshops in story performance.
* Unique among story performance texts, instruction is based not only on the author's own extensive experience but also on empirical research related to teaching adults to tell stories.
* Specific information is easily located throughout the text: Processes are presented in bold type, numbered sequentially and, at the end of specific chapters, skill building activities are provided. Figures (which provide additional detailed information) are boxed. Examples of processes are highlighted with background shading.

The theory of contrastive rhetoric was first put forth by Robert Kaplan in the mid 1960s to explain the differences in writing and discourse between students who were native speakers of English and their international counterparts. Over the past three decades, contrastive rhetoric theory has been used primarily by linguists in language centers and involved in ESL teaching. As the number of international students in American universities has continued to grow, contrastive rhetoric has become increasingly relevant to all disciplines, and to rhetoric and composition in particular.
This volume breaks important new ground in its examination of contrastive rhetoric in the exclusive context of composition. The editor has assembled contributors with varying areas of specialty to demonstrate how the traditional definition of contrastive rhetoric theory can be applied to composition in new and innovative ways and how it can be redefined through the lens of addressing "difference" issues in writing. Thus, the volume as a whole clarifies how the basic principles of contrastive rhetoric theory can help composition instructors to understand writing and rhetorical decisions.
With the inclusion of current research on multicultural issues, this collection is appropriate for all instructors in ESL writing, including teachers in rhetoric, composition, and linguistics. It can also be used as an advanced text for students in these areas. Wherever it is employed, it is certain to offer significant new insights into the application of contrastive rhetoric within the composition discipline.

The New Scriptwriter's Journal places you, the writer, in the center of the complex and challenging process of scriptwriting. Charge up your imagination while learning how to write a professional screenplay. This informational and inspirational guide details the creative aspects of scriptwriting such as crafting dialogue and shaping characters. Inside, you'll find blank pages to jot down your thoughts, ideas, and responses to the text, creating your own source book of script ideas. Whether you're an indie filmmaker longing to shoot your first digital feature or an aspiring screenwriter writing a spec script for Hollywood, your journal will be an invaluable resource. Special chapters offer insights on adaptation, ethics of screenwriting, and the future of storytelling in the digital age, as well as alternative storytelling. Additionally, The New Scriptwriter's Journal includes an invaluable annotated guide to periodicals, trade publications, books, catalogs, production directories, script sources. scriptwriting software, and internet resources.