Clause structure is the most widely-studied phenomenon within syntactic theory, because it refers to how words and phrases are embedded within a sentence, their relationships to each other within a sentence, and ultimately, how sentences are layered and represented in the human brain. This volume presents a clear and up-to-date overview of the Minimalist Program, synthesizes the most important research findings, and explores the major shifts in generative syntax. As an accessible topic book, it includes chapters on framework, the clause in general, and the semantic, grammatical and pragmatic layers. Designed for graduate students and researchers interested in syntactic theory, this book includes a range of examples taken from data acquisition, typology and language change, alongside discussion questions, helpful suggestions for further reading and a useful glossary.

First published in 2000, this book is about sentences containing the word or, dealing primarily with sentences in which or conjoins clauses, but also some cases in which it conjoins expressions of other categories. The author aims to give an account of the discourse properties and felicity conditions of disjunction, and to use this account in explaining the behaviour of presupposition projection and of anaphora in disjunctive sentences. The author begins by giving an account of the discourse properties and felicity conditions of disjunction before turning to the presupposition projection problem. The final two chapters discuss anaphora and its interactions with disjunction.

First published in 1959, this book aims to provide a practical introduction to semantics, relating the critical study of language to real-life situation, with a wealth of anecdotes and numerous illustrations drawn from everyday personal predicaments. This book provides much information and much material for profitable discussion, helping to make accessible what can be a highly academic subject comprehensible only to a minority. This book provides a highly valuable foundation for students of linguistics and will provide preparation for further study.

Grammar by Diagram is a book designed for anyone who wishes to improve grammatical understanding and skill. Using traditional sentence diagraming as a visual tool, the book explains how to expand ten basic patterns for simple sentences into compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and how to employ verbals (infinitives, gerunds, and participles), other specialized structures, and even punctuation for additional versatility. The third edition includes more exercises at the foundational level and more focus on how to arrange and combine sentences for maximum effect. It also includes a new initial chapter on "preliminaries" to define a few basic but overarching concepts, a separate chapter on pronouns, and a chapter devoted to the connection between understanding grammar and writing effective sentences.

What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding contribute to such modalities of expression: word order, subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.

Drawing on cutting-edge ideas from the biological and cognitive sciences, this book presents both an innovative neuro-computational model of language comprehension and a state-of-the-art review of current topics in neurolinguistics. It explores a range of newly-emerging topics in the biological study of language, building them into a framework which views language as grounded in endogenous neural oscillatory behaviour. This allows the author to formulate a number of hypotheses concerning the relationship between neurobiology and linguistic computation. Murphy also provides an extensive overview of recent theoretical and experimental work on the neurobiological basis of language, from which the reader will emerge up-to-date on major themes and debates. This lively overview of contemporary issues in theoretical linguistics, combined with a clear theory of how language is processed, is essential reading for scholars and students across a range of disciplines.

This collection brings together the authors' previous research with new work on the Register-Functional (RF) approach to grammatical complexity, offering a unified theoretical account for its further study. The book traces the development of the RF approach from its foundations in two major research strands of linguistics: the study of sociolinguistic variation and the text-linguistic study of register variation. Building on this foundation, the authors demonstrate the RF framework at work across a series of corpus-based research studies focused specifically on grammatical complexity in English. The volume highlights early work exploring patterns of grammatical complexity in present-day spoken and written registers as well as subsequent studies which extend this research to historical patterns of register variation and the application of RF research to the study of writing development for L1 and L2 English university students. Taken together, along with the addition of introductory chapters connecting the different studies, the volume offers readers with a comprehensive resource to better understand the RF approach to grammatical complexity and its implications for future research. The volume will appeal to students and scholars with research interests in either descriptive linguistics or applied linguistics, especially those interested in grammatical complexity and empirical, corpus-based approaches.

This book reflects on key questions of enduring interest on the nature of syntax, bringing together Grant Goodall's previous publications and new work exploring how syntactic representations are structured and the affordances of experimental techniques in studying them. The volume sheds light on central issues in the theory of syntax while also elucidating the methods of data collection which inform them. Featuring Goodall's previous studies of linguistic phenomena in English, Spanish, and Chinese, and complemented by a new introduction and material specific to this volume, the book is divided into four sections around fundamental strands of syntactic theory. The four parts explore the dimensionality of syntactic representations; the relationship between syntactic structure and predicate-argument structure; interactions between subjects and wh-phrases in questions; and more detailed investigations of wh-dependencies but from a more overtly experimental perspective. Taken together, the volume reinforces the connections between these different aspects of syntax by highlighting their respective roles in defining what syntactic objects look like and how the grammar operates on them. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars in linguistics, particularly those with an interest in syntax, psycholinguistics, and Romance linguistics.

Hands-on, theory-neutral and non-technical, this textbook is a basic introduction to the structure of English words and sentences. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistic analysis, it presents the facts in a straightforward manner and offers a step-by-step guide from small to large building blocks of language. Every chapter contains numerous exercises and discussion questions, which provide essential self-study material, as well as in-chapter tasks which lead students to a more comprehensive understanding of linguistic issues. The book also features concise chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, an inclusive glossary and two consolidation chapters which encourage students to secure their understanding of the English language. The dedicated companion website includes further exercises, answers and solutions to the exercises, as well as useful links.

* A practical guide for students in writing classes of all kinds: creative writing, professional writing and academic writing; * Covers writing for online publication including social media as well as the most common documents in university and writing-reliant workplaces; * Provides extensive practical examples, exercises, activities and quizzes, as well as online resources including video interviews with the top grammarians in the world

* based on solid research in the field of Second Language Acquisition and also addresses the need for better textbooks dealing with the contextualized teaching of grammar * provide grammar in a cultural context to engage and learn at the same time * based on frequency data to enable students to earn the most used words in the German language

Symmetrizing Syntax seeks to establish a minimal and natural characterization of the structure of human language (syntax), simplifying many facets of it that have been redundantly or asymmetrically formulated. Virtually all past theories of natural language syntax, from the traditional X-bar theory to the contemporary system of Merge and labeling, stipulate that every phrase structure is "asymmetrically" organized, so that one of its elements is always marked as primary/dominant over the others, or each and every phrase is labeled by a designated lexical element. The two authors call this traditional stipulation into question and hypothesize, instead, that linguistic derivations are essentially driven by the need to reduce asymmetry and generate symmetric structures. Various linguistic notions such as Merge, cyclic derivation by phase, feature-checking, morphological agreement, labeling, movement, and criterial freezing, as well as parametric differences among languages like English and Japanese, and so on, are all shown to follow from a particular notion of structural symmetry. These results constitute novel support for the contemporary thesis that human language is essentially an instance of a physical/biological object, and its design is governed by the laws of nature, at the core of which lies the fundamental principle of symmetry. Providing insights into new technical concepts in syntax, the volume is written for academics in linguistics but will also be accessible to linguistics students seeking an introduction to syntax.

This collection brings together work from scholars across sociolinguistics, World Englishes and linguistic landscapes to reflect on developments and future directions in Irish English, building on the ground-breaking contributions of Jeffrey Kallen to the discipline. Taking their cue from Kallen's extensive body of work on Irish English, the 20 contributors critically examine advances in the field grounded in frameworks from variationist sociolinguistics and semiotic and border studies in linguistic landscapes. Chapters cover pragmatic, cognitive sociolinguistic, sociophonetic, historical and World Englishes perspectives, as well as two chapters which explore the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland through the lens of perceptual dialectology and linguistic landscape research. Taken together, the collection showcases the significant role Kallen has played in the growth of Irish English studies as a field in its own right and the impact of this work on a new wave of researchers in the field today and beyond. This volume will be of particular interest to scholars of varieties of English, variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic landscape research.

* highlights important language elements by utilising original and recent Chinese texts regarding social issues * Designed to progress learners' language competency to an advanced level through a natural connection between Chinese language learning and Chinese Social Studies. * Facilitates language learning and provides important insight for the formation of cross-cultural relationships. * Prepares readers for the transition from academic study to employment. * Written by a team of native and non-native speakers.

This volume offers a critical examination of the construction of the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 (Spoken BNC2014) and points the way forward toward a more informed understanding of corpus linguistic methodology more broadly. The book begins by situating the creation of this second corpus, a compilation of new, publicly-accessible Spoken British English from the 2010s, within the context of the first, created in 1994, talking through the need to balance backward capability and optimal practice for today's users. Chapters subsequently use the Spoken BNC2014 as a focal point around which to discuss the various considerations taken into account in corpus construction, including design, data collection, transcription, and annotation. The volume concludes by reflecting on the successes and limitations of the project, as well as the broader utility of the corpus in linguistic research, both in current examples and future possibilities. This exciting new contribution to the literature on linguistic methodology is a valuable resource for students and researchers in corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, and English language teaching.

Morphology is particularly challenging, because it is pervaded by irregularity and idiosyncrasy. This book is a study of word structure using a specific theoretical framework known as 'Network Morphology'. It describes the systems of rules which determine the structure of words by construing irregularity as a matter of degree, using examples from a diverse range of languages and phenomena to illustrate. Many languages share common word building strategies and many diverge in interesting ways. These strategies can be understood by distinguishing different notions of 'default'. The Network Morphology philosophy promotes the use of computational implementation to check theories. The accompanying website provides the computer coded version of the Network Morphology model of word structure for readers to test, customize and develop. This book will be a valuable contribution to the fields of linguistic typology and morphology and will be welcomed by researchers and graduate students in these areas.

* based on solid research in the field of Second Language Acquisition and also addresses the need for better textbooks dealing with the contextualized teaching of grammar * provide grammar in a cultural context to engage and learn at the same time * based on frequency data to enable students to earn the most used words in the German language

Modern Russian Grammar Workbook is an innovative book of exercises and language tasks for all learners of Russian. The book is divided into two parts.

• Section 1 provides exercises based on essential grammatical structures.
• Section 2 practises everyday functions such as making introductions, apologizing and expressing needs.

A comprehensive answer key at the back of the book enables students to check on their progress.

Main features include:

• exercises graded according to level of difficulty
• cross referencing to the related Modern Russian Grammar
• topical exercises which develop students vocabulary base.

The Modern Russian Grammar Workbook is ideal for all learners of Russian, from beginner to intermediate and advanced students. It can be used both independently and alongside the Modern Russian Grammar: A Practical Guide, also published by Routledge.

John Dunn is Honorary Research Fellow and Shamil Khairov is Lecturer in Russian, both at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow.

The order and behaviour of the premodifier (an adjective, or other modifying word that appears before a noun) has long been a puzzle to syntacticians and semanticists. Why can we say 'the actual red ball', but not 'the red actual ball'? And why, conversely, do some other premodifiers have free variation in sentences; for example we can say both 'German and English speakers' and 'English and German speakers'? Why do some premodifiers change the meaning of a phrase in some contexts; for example 'young man', can mean 'boyfriend', rather than 'man who is young'? Drawing on a corpus of over 4,000 examples of English premodifiers from a range of genres such as advertising, fiction and scientific texts, and across several varieties of English, this book synthesises research into premodifiers and provides a new explanation of their behaviour, order and use.

The most complete and up-to-date text published on Portuguese phonetics and phonology, including topics which are missing from most Portuguese phonetics texts Includes a meaningful introduction to language and linguistics with a necessary theoretical base for phonetics and phonology Clear treatments of acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, and phonotactics Written by phoneticians using linguistic terminology, but with all linguistic concepts and terminology carefully introduced and amply described in order to assist learners in applying the principles for the betterment of their pronunciation Every chapter ends with a "Resumo," a summary which reviews the salient points, as well as review questions relating to the material presented in each chapter. Presents both Brazilian and Continental varieties of Portuguese, based on a solid theoretical framework.

First published in 1977, Social Class, the Nominal Group and Verbal Strategies reports on the results of a grammatical analysis of the speech of a large sample (about 300) of five-year-old middle- and working-class children. The author is concerned in particular to answer the questions: What is the relationship, within certain restricted contexts, between the use of particular grammatical structures and factors such as social class, IQ and sex? How are any differences in the type or frequency of structures to be interpreted? The central part of the book presents the results of a set of correlations: the correlations of linguistic categories on the one hand, with sociological or 'background' categories on the other. The author then sets this study and its results in the perspective of related research and comments on some aspects of the 'deficit-difference' controversy. Finally, he presents his own conclusions in a detailed discussion. He argues that, instead of trying to ascertain the purely linguistic competence of children from different backgrounds, we must rather compare the different verbal strategies they use in a particular situation or context. The book will be of interest to students of language, linguistics, pedagogy and education.

*A fresh and engaging take on English grammar, exploring the subject as an intellectual challenge and aiming to reinvigorate interest in a traditionally dry field *grammar is a major part of any course on English language and linguistics and also is a topic of wide general interest; both authors are experienced in addressing these groups *the overall concept of seeing grammar as a set of puzzles and not a set of rules and the irreverent engaging style sets it apart from other titles

This collection explicates one of the core ideas underpinning Minimalist theory - explanation via simplification - and its role in shaping some of the latest developments within this framework, specifically the simplest Merge hypothesis and the reduction of syntactic phenomena to third factor considerations. Bringing together recent papers on the topic by Epstein, Kitahara, and Seely, with one by Epstein, Seely and Obata, and one by Kitahara, the book begins with an introduction which situates the papers in a cohesive overview of some of the latest research on Minimalism, as facilitated by current theoretical developments. The volume integrates a historical overview of evolutions in Merge, starting with Chomsky's (pre-Merge) Aspects model up to current theoretical models, including a primer of Chomsky's most recent theory of Merge based on the concept of Workspace. The Minimalist notions of "perfection" and "simplification" are also outlined, providing clearly explicated coverage of key technical concepts within the framework as applied to grammatical phenomena. Taken as a whole, the collection both introduces and advances Minimalist theory for students and scholars in linguistics and related sub-disciplines of psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science, as well as offering new directions for future research for researchers in these fields.

This grammar provides a clear and comprehensive overview of contemporary West Greenlandic. It follows a systematic order of topics beginning with the alphabet and phonology, continuing with nominal and verbal morphology and syntax, and concluding with more advanced topics such as complex sentences and word formation. Grammatical points are illustrated with authentic examples reflecting current life in Greenland. Grammatical terminology is explained fully for the benefit of readers without a background in linguistics. Features include: Full grammatical breakdowns of all examples for ease of identifying individual components of complex words. A detailed contents list and index for easy access to information. An alphabetical list of the most commonly used West Greenlandic suffixes. A glossary of grammatical abbreviations used in the volume. The book is suitable for a wide range of users, including independent and classroom-based learners of West Greenlandic, as well as linguists and anyone with an interest in Greenland's official language.

History and Development of the Arabic Language is a general introduction for students to the history of the Arabic language. It is divided into two parts; the pre-Islamic language up to the emergence of the first well-known works of Classical Arabic. Secondly, the transition from the pre-Islamic situation to the complex Arabic language forms after the emergence of Islam and the Arab conquests, both in Arabia and in the diaspora. The book focuses on the pre-Islamic linguistic situation, where the linguistic geography and relevant demographic aspects of pre-Islamic Arabia will be introduced. In addition, the book will also discuss the communicative contexts and varieties of Modern Arabic. The book includes readings, discussion questions and data sets to provide a complete textbook and resource for teachers and students of the history of Arabic.