The functional perspective on Chinese syntax has yielded various new achievements since its introduction to Chinese linguistics in the 1980s. This two-volume book is one of the earliest and most influential works to study the Chinese language using functional grammar. With local Beijing vernacular (Pekingese) as a basis, the information structure and focus structure of the Chinese language are systematically examined. By using written works and recordings from Beijingers, the authors discuss topics such as the relationship between word order and focus, and the distinction between normal focus and contrastive focus. In addition, the authors also subject the reference and grammatical categories of the Chinese language to a functional scrutiny while discussion of word classes and their functions creatively combines modern linguistic theories and traditional Chinese linguistic theories. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese linguistics and linguistics in general.

The functional perspective on Chinese syntax has yielded various new achievements since its introduction to Chinese linguistics in the 1980s. This two-volume book is one of the earliest and most influential works to study the Chinese language using functional grammar. With local Beijing vernacular (Pekingese) as a basis, the information structure and focus structure of the Chinese language are systematically examined. By using written works and recordings from Beijingers, the authors discuss topics such as the relationship between word order and focus, and the distinction between normal focus and contrastive focus. In addition, the authors also subject the reference and grammatical categories of the Chinese language to a functional scrutiny while discussion of word classes and their functions creatively combines modern linguistic theories and traditional Chinese linguistic theories. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese linguistics and linguistics in general.

This volume is a direct result of the International Symposium on Japanese Sentence Processing held at Duke University. The symposium provided the first opportunity for researchers in three disciplinary areas from both Japan and the United States to participate in a conference where they could discuss issues concerning Japanese syntactic processing. The goals of the symposium were three-fold:
* to illuminate the mechanisms of Japanese sentence processing from the viewpoints of linguistics, psycholinguistics and computer science;
* to synthesize findings about the mechanisms of Japanese sentence processing by researchers in these three fields in Japan and the United States;
* to lay foundations for future interdisciplinary research in Japanese sentence processing, as well as international collaborations between researchers in Japan and the United States.
The chapters in this volume have been written from the points of view of three different disciplines, with various immediate objectives -- from building usable speech understanding systems to investigating the nature of competence grammars for natural languages. All of the papers share the long term goal of understanding the nature of human language processing mechanisms. The book is concerned with two central issues -- the universality of language processing mechanisms, and the nature of the relation between the components of linguistic knowledge and language processing. This volume demonstrates that interdisciplinary research can be fruitful, and provides groundwork for further research in Japanese sentence processing.

Most research on children's lexical development has focused on their acquisition of names for concrete objects. This is the first edited volume to focus specifically on how children acquire their early verbs. Verbs are an especially important part of the early lexicon because of the role they play in children's emerging grammatical competence. The contributors to this book investigate:
* children's earliest words for actions and events and the cognitive structures that might underlie them,
* the possibility that the basic principles of word learning which apply in the case of nouns might also apply in the case of verbs, and
the role of linguistic context, especially argument structure, in the acquisition of verbs.
A central theme in many of the chapters is the comparison of the processes of noun and verb learning. Several contributors make provocative suggestions for constructing theories of lexical development that encompass the full range of lexical items that children learn and use.

Containing around 17,000 headwords and detailed phonetic descriptions, this book makes available for the first time the material gathered by the historic "Survey of English Dialects," fully alphabetized. A separate section provides a systematic analysis of the syntactic patterns of various dialects. The book is an indispensable tool for dialectologists worldwide.

This thoroughly revised third edition of Finnish: An Essential Grammar is grounded in fundamental insights of modern linguistics and incorporates some of the latest achievements in the description of written and spoken Finnish. It gives a systematic account of the structures of the written language and offers increased attention to the key characteristics of present-day colloquial Finnish. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader and grammatical rules are clearly explained without jargon. Features of this new edition include: * pronunciation guide, including the tendencies in present-day colloquial Finnish * thorough descriptions of morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure) * clear rules and an abundance of concrete examples, from both written and colloquial Finnish * updated vocabulary in the examples * an effective new scheme for detecting the morphological structure of any word form * subject index. This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.

In this scholarly volume, each of the living Slavonic languages are analyzed and described in depth, together with the two extinct languages--Old Church Slavonic and Polabian. In addition, the various alphabets of the Slavonic languages--especially Roman, Cyrillic, and Glagolitic--are discussed, and the relationships of the Slavonic languages to other Indo-European languages and to one another, are explored. The last chapter provides an account of those Slavonic languages "in exile" such as Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak in the US.
Each language chapter is written by an expert in the field, in a format designed for comparative study. Information on each language includes an introductory description of social context and development, a discussion of phonology, a detailed presentation of synchronic morphology, noting major historical developments, comprehensive treatment of syntactic properties, a discussion of vocabulary, an outline of main dialects, and an extensive bibliography listing English and other sources.
Contributors include P. Cubberley, University of Melbourne, A. Schenker, Yale University, D. Short, University of London, G. Stone, University of Oxford, and A. Rothstein, University of Massachusetts.

* The first book to be devoted exclusively to understanding and mastering this challenging area of Portuguese grammar. * Ideal for Intermediate to Advanced learners of European or Brazilian Portuguese who wish to master the use of the subjunctive. * Clearly structured to guide students through the six subjunctive modes through clear and accurate explanations with a range of exercises to test and consolidate learning

This book is the final volume of a four-volume set on modern Chinese complex sentences, assessing the key attributes, related sentence structures, and semantic and pragmatic relevance of complex sentences. Complex sentences in modern Chinese are unique in formation and meaning. Following on from analysis on coordinate, causal, and adversative types of complex sentences, the ten chapters in this volume review the characteristics of complex sentences as a whole. The author discusses the constituents, related structures, semantic and pragmatic aspects of complex sentences, covering topics such !!as the constraints and counter-constraints between sentence forms and semantic relationships, six type crossover markers, distinctions between simple sentences and complex sentences, clauses formed by a noun/nominal phrase followed by le, the shi structure, subject ellipsis or tacit understanding of clauses, as well as double-subject sentences, alternative question groups and their relationships with complex sentences. The book will be a useful reference for scholars and learners of the Chinese language interested in Chinese grammar and language information processing.

Loanwords and Japanese Identity: Inundating or Absorbed? provides an in-depth examination of public discussions on lexical borrowing in the Japanese language. The main objective of this book is to explore the relationship between language and identity through an analysis of public attitudes towards foreign loanwords in contemporary Japanese society. In particular, the book uncovers the process by which language is conceived of as a symbol of national identity by examining an animated newspaper controversy over the use of foreign loanwords. The book concludes that the fierce debate over the use of loanwords can be understood as a particular manifestation of the ongoing (re-)negotiation of Japanese national identity. This book will appeal to scholars and students in sociolinguistics, translation studies, and discourse analysis, while its cultural and geographic focus will attract readers in Japanese studies and East Asian studies.

As the second volume of a two-volume set that presents a comprehensive syntactical picture of Singapore Mandarin, this title analyses various expressions relating to number, quantity, time and place, composite sentences and the characteristics and standardisation of Singapore Mandarin. The first two chapters discuss expressions of number, quantity, time and place in Singapore Mandarin and touch upon the differences in these expressions between Singapore and Chinese Mandarin (Putonghua). Composite sentences are then analysed, covering seven types of compound sentences and eight types of complex sentences, as well as connective words with a focus on conjunctions. The final part of the volume analyses the characteristics of Singapore Mandarin grammar compared with Chinese Mandarin, on the level of phrase, lexicon and sentence. From the perspectives of language contact, political and social contexts and bilingualism, it summarises the possible reasons for the differences between the two varieties of Chinese and points out primary challenges and major concerns of the standardisation of Singapore Mandarin. With rich and authentic language examples, the book will serve as a must read for learners and teachers of Mandarin Chinese and linguistics scholars interested in global Chinese and especially Singapore Mandarin.

This book is the third volume of a four-volume set on modern Chinese complex sentences, with a focus on adversative complex sentences and relevant forms. Complex sentences in modern Chinese are unique in formation and meaning. The author proposes a tripartite classification of Chinese complex sentences according to the semantic relationships between the clauses, i.e., coordinate, causal, and adversative. This volume analyzes representative forms of adversative type, including the prototype, the clauses linked by connectives referring to otherwise, the combinations of clause structures and certain adversative conjunctions or linking adverbs indicating an adversative relationship, the adversative factors and relationship in two typical progressive structures, factive sentences and concessive forms. It also discusses the adversative type in the broad sense, classifying the different forms and also analyzing the semantic meaning, pragmatic value, and implications for research and language teaching. The book will be a useful reference for scholars and learners of the Chinese language interested in Chinese grammar and language information processing.

This volume is comprehensively designed to help prospective English Language Teaching (EFL) teachers specializing in EFL mainly in South Asian countries. It analyses the application of ELT theories, concepts, and methods to sharpen their understanding of the various techniques used for teaching English effectively in the EFL context. The book discusses the basic concepts of language aimed to develop a sense of the language phenomenon as a unique human attribute. It covers the theories of language from various disciplines such as biology, sociology, psychology, and linguistics. The book explains the underlying structures or components that shape the edifice of languages such as phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar, phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. While taking the reader through language learning theories with a focus on English as the second language, it discusses the different teaching methods that can be adopted by teachers in classroom settings. The book will be of interest to teachers, students and researchers of education, teacher education, and English Language Teaching. It will also be useful for educators, English language teachers, language learners, professionals working in the field of education and language, and those who aspire to teach and learn English in Foreign context.

This book explores theoretical issues of the syntax-phonology interface within the Minimalist Program of linguistic theory and proposes an entirely new approach to prosodic categories. Conceptual as well as empirical questions are addressed, concerning how syntactic objects are mapped to the sensorimotor system through the processes of externalization. Elaborating on recent progress in the theories of labelling and workspace-based syntactic derivation, this book further develops a null theory of the prosodic domains, and recasts these as the domains of interpretation that are reducible to more fundamental concepts of linguistic theory. Phonological phrases are characterized by Minimal Search, a third factor principle of efficient computation. Intonational phrases are taken to be reflexes of the termination of syntactic derivation, which is formulated in terms of the workspace to which MERGE applies. This book explores the new implications this theory has for the general architecture of grammar as well as for linguistic interfaces. It provides a comprehensive review of the development of theories of the syntax-phonology interface from over the past three decades. The book is well-suited for general linguistic readers as well as phonologists, syntacticians, and any linguist interested in interface research.

The objective of the work of W. South Coblin has been to collect various materials on Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages into a single list and to arrange this list in a clear and convenient form, with indexes which make the information easily accessible.The author presents the view that Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages must have descended from a common proto-language. He reconstructs Sino-Tibetan proto-forms from which Chinese and Tibeto-Burman reflexes can be derived by regular rules. The importance of the reconstructive exercise lies not in the detail of this or any other reconstructed system but in the fact that the exercise can be successfully carried out, regardless of theoretical convictions or orientations.

With a wide range of contributors from all over the world and from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, this handbook offers a truly global perspective on developments in research on writing. The new edition draws greater attention to writing and human development within a range of cultures, from childhood through adulthood. Attention to multimodalities, and writing/learning to write in digital spaces.

A systematic examination of Chinese complex sentences Compares the syntactical differences between Chinese and English Gives insights into Chinese langauge information processing

A new intermediate course that introduces students of Modern Standard Arabic to the most widely spoken and understood spoken dialect. Based on the cumulative experience of three leading teachers of Arabic as a foreign language, Kalaam Gamiil builds and develops communicative skills in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, along parallel tracks of vocabulary and grammar. It is designed for students who have reached the lower intermediate level of Modern Standard Arabic and are now ready to branch out into their first experience of a major spoken dialect. Structured around basic topics that crop up in daily conversations, lessons each include a situation, a vocabulary list, preparatory sentences using the new vocabulary items, explanations of grammar in English, cultural information, and a variety of mechanical drills and communicative exercises. The book, volume one of a two-part series, focuses on the speaking and listening skills that will enable intermediate students to handle a variety of uncomplicated communicative tasks with native speakers of Egyptian Arabic successfully. Volume two is scheduled to be published in 2010.

Using novel examples from live, unscripted radio/TV broadcasts and the internet, this path-breaking book will force us to reconsider the nature of everyday English and its complex interplay of syntactic, pragmatic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors. Uncovering unusual types of non-standard relative clauses, Andrew Radford develops theoretically sophisticated analyses in an area that has traditionally hardly been touched on: that of nonstandard (yet not clearly dialectal) variation in English. Making sense of a huge amount of data, the book demonstrates that some types of non-standard relative clauses have a complex syntactic structure of their own in which the relation between the relative clause and its antecedent is either syntactically encoded or pragmatic in nature, while others come about as a result of hypercorrection, and yet others arise from processing errors.

Book 3 of the book series is designed for intermediate to advanced learners of Cantonese. This volume provides an authentic and contextualized approach to the learning of the language. This volume includes language scenarios various language functions, such as expressing views, summarizing, suggesting, persuading, and presenting data. The language examples in Book 3 contain speeches, connected discourses and narrations. Some sample discourse structures are presented in the 'Learning points' sections. Learners can apply the structure templates to build up longer connected discourses. Book 3 of the book series can be used by universities, colleges, schools in Hong Kong, and by institutions around the world. This book is suitable for learners who are looking for self-study materials.

'A masterpiece' - Daily Mail 'A fascinating and funny look at what really goes into the making of a book' Sunday Times 'Inject this straight into my veins!' Lucy Mangan 'Engaging, informative, and fascinating!' David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Once upon a time, a writer had an idea. They wrote it down. But what happened next? Join Rebecca Lee, professional word-improver, as she embarks on the fascinating journey to find out how a book gets from author's brain to finished copy. She'll learn the dark arts of ghostwriters, uncover the hidden beauty of typesetting and find out which words end up in books (and why). And along the way, her quest will be punctuated by a litany of little-known considerations that make a big impact: ellipses, indexes, hyphens, esoteric grammar and juicy errata slips. Whoops. From foot-and-note disease to the town of Index, Missouri - turn the page to discover how books get made and words get good. Or, at least, better.

Description of an endangered and under-documented Austronesian language. Socio-historical information relating to the Tondano sppech comunity Detailed explanations of phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax of the language Data from in-situ fieldwork completed 2011-2015 Applies fieldwork and experience to describe details of the language

The book contributes to a fuller description and a uniformed analysis of Mandarin cleft constructions. The book provides the first Mandarin empirical data towards some heated theoretical debates. The book yields a good combination of theoretical formal semantics, semantic-pragmatic interface studies, corpus analyses, and the newly emerging experimental semantics. Typologically speaking, Mandarin shi...(de) presents some characteristics of the that are rarely found with its counterparts in other languages.

The Semitic Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the individual languages and language clusters within this language family, from their origins in antiquity to their present-day forms. This second edition has been fully revised, with new chapters and a wealth of additional material. New features include the following: * new introductory chapters on Proto-Semitic grammar and Semitic linguistic typology * an additional chapter on the place of Semitic as a subgroup of Afro-Asiatic, and several chapters on modern forms of Arabic, Aramaic and Ethiopian Semitic * text samples of each individual language, transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet, with standard linguistic word-by-word glossing as well as translation * new maps and tables present information visually for easy reference. This unique resource is the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of linguistics and language. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, linguistic anthropology and language development.