The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.

Build your English skills with this bestselling guide to English verbs! Knowing when and why to use certain verbs can be confusing. This easy-to-use book explains everything you need to know to develop a solid understanding of English verbs. There are plenty of clear examples and tons of practice exercises to help you build your English skills and gain the confidence to choose the right verb for every situation. With this book to guide you, you'll master English verbs in no time at all. Practice Makes Perfect: English Verbs, 3rd Edition will help you: * Understand when and why to use different verb tenses* Learn how verbs work with everyday examples from a wide range of topics* Build your verb skills with more than 125 engaging exercises* Gain the skills you need to write and speak English with confidence* New to this edition: additional review questions in the book * Plus fun quizzes for study on-the-go via the McGraw-Hill Education Language Lab app

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

Teiwa is a non-Austronesian ('Papuan') language spoken on the island of Pantar, in eastern Indonesia, located just north of Timor island. It has approx. 4,000 speakers and is highly endangered. While the non-Austronesian languages of the Alor-Pantar archipelago are clearly related to each other, as indicated by the many apparent cognates and the very similar pronominal paradigms found across the group, their genetic relationship to other Papuan languages remains controversial. Located some 1,000 km from their putative Papuan neighbors on the New Guinea mainland, the Alor-Pantar languages are the most distant westerly Papuan outliers. A grammar of Teiwa presents a grammatical description of one of these 'outlier' languages. The book is structured as a reference grammar: after a general introduction on the language, it speakers and the linguistic situation on Alor and Pantar, the grammar builds up from a description of the language's phonology and word classes to its larger grammatical constituents and their mutual relations: nominal phrases, serial verb constructions, clauses, clause combinations, and information structure. While many Papuan languages are morphologically complex, Teiwa is almost analytic: it has only one paradigm of object marking prefixes, and one verbal suffix marking realis status. Other typologically interesting features of the language include: (i) the presence of uvular fricatives and stops, which is atypical for languages of eastern Indonesia; (ii) the absence of trivalent verbs: transitive verbs select a single (animate or inanimate) object, while the additional participant is expressed with a separate predicate; and (iii) the absence of morpho-syntactically encoded embedded clauses. A grammar of Teiwa is based on primary field data, collected by the author in 2003-2007. A selection of glossed and translated Teiwa texts of various genres and word lists (Teiwa-English / English-Teiwa) are included.

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.

This book investigates morpho-syntactic convergences that characterize the languages of the Balkan Sprachbund: Balkan Slavic, Greek, Romanian, Albanian, Balkan Romani. Apart from new data, the volume features contributions within different theoretical frameworks (contact linguistics, functional linguistics, typology, areal linguistics, and generative grammar).

The book presents a systematic theoretical account of the fundamental constructional mechanisms that underlie deverbal nominalization in general, and it makes an original descriptive contribution by discussing a number of nominalization systems in detail. The main theoretical motif is that nominalization strongly calls for a functional rather than purely structural approach. The book goes more deeply into a number of functional constructs needed to model nominalization (drawn from Cognitive Grammar and Systemic-Functional Grammar) and it elaborates on the internal functional organization of nominal and clausal structure [e.g. the notions of type specification, instantiation and grounding (Langacker 1991) are discussed in detail and shown to be crucial for the analysis of deverbal nominalization]. It is argued that deverbal nominalizations are basically re-classifications of verbal predicates into nominal constructions. This re-classification either applies at word rank or it involves the rank shift (Halliday 1966) of a clause-like unit, with its internal structure preserved (e.g. signing the contract quickly). The re-classified unit then adopts a specific nominal strategy, with some form of nominal determination and quantification (e.g. her signing the contract quickly). The descriptive part of the book zooms in on nominalizations that are derived at word rank (deverbal -er nominals) and on nominalizations applying to 'a temporal clausal heads' (e.g. John's playing the piano) and finite clauses. Of the gerundive and finite types of nominalization, those that function in factive contexts are focused on. In the analysis of deverbal -er nominals a case is made for a 'subject' analysis of the system and an elaborate discussion of the clausal middle construction (e.g. this book reads easily) - which is argued to show systematic resemblances with non-agentive -er nominals - is included. Of the remaining nominalization types (John's playing the piano; playing the piano; the fact that he plays the piano; that he plays the piano ), especially the nominal behaviour (e.g. proper name vs. common noun strategy) and (in the case of gerundive nominals) the various structural and semantic subtypes that can be distinguished among them are discussed.

A considerable proportion of our everyday language is "formulaic". It is predictable in form and idiomatic--apparently stored in fixed or semi-fixed chunks. This book explores the nature and purposes of formulaic language, and looks for patterns across the research findings from the fields of discourse analysis, first language acquisition, language pathology and applied linguistics. It gradually builds up a unified description and explanation of formulaic language as a linguistic solution to a larger, non-linguistic, problem, the promotion of self.

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.

Semantic alignment refers to a type of language that has two means of morphosyntactically encoding the arguments of intransitive predicates, typically treating these as an agent or as a patient of a transitive predicate, or else by a means of a treatment that varies according to lexical aspect. This collection of new typological and case studies is the first book-length investigation of semantically aligned languages for three decades. Leading international typologists explore the differences and commonalities of languages with semantic alignment systems and compare the structure of these languages to languages without them. They look at how such systems arise or disappear and provide areal overviews of Eurasia, the Americas, and the south-west Pacific, the areas where semantically aligned languages are concentrated. This book will interest typological and historical linguists at graduate level and above.

No legacy from antiquity to the Latin Middle Ages was more pervasive, or more enduring, than that of grammar and rhetoric. Cicero's son would have felt at home in a Tudor schoolroom, and the classical curriculum is readily recognizable in that of the Tudor schoolroom. And yet, grammatical and rhetorical theory and practice did change during those 1500 years, in ways that continue to demand, and richly reward, investigation. The twelve essays in this book contribute to the rapidly growing body of knowledge about the teaching and uses of grammar and rhetoric in the Latin West from late antiquity to the dawn of a new era in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Since grammar and rhetoric dominated (indeed, almost monopolized) schooling from Cicero's Rome until the twelfth-century revival of Roman law and the rise of universities, clearly a collection of essay examining aspects of these two subjects will, by definition, enrich the larger history of education as well.This transitional period of profound cultural change throughout the former Roman Empire-including the spread of Christianity, the decline of public schools, and the influx of non-Latin-speaking peoples-rewards a diachronic focus on delimited, sharply focused topics. Each author considers such questions as: How did medieval teachers and writers interpret or "repurpose" grammatical and rhetorical texts they inherited from antiquity? What innovations, what new attitudes, did they bring to the task of teaching these two foundational subjects? The book should appeal to students and teachers of classics and late antiquity, rhetoric, the history of education, monasticism, and medieval studies in general.

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.

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.

A revised, updated and expanded edition of the first concise introduction to the study of the Etruscan language in English. The standard historical reference and a popular textbook for students of languages, linguistics, ancient civilization and Etruscan studies. Provides the best collection of Etruscan inscriptions and texts currently in print. A substantial archeological introduction sets language and inscriptions in their historical, geographical and cultural context. The overview of Etruscan grammar, the glossary and chapters on mythological figures all incorporate the latest scholarship and innovative discoveries. -- .

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.

American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice provides an accessible introduction to basic articulatory phonetics for students of American English. Built around an extensive collection of practice materials, this book teaches the pronunciation of modern standard American English to intermediate and advanced learners worldwide. This book: * provides an up-to-date description of the pronunciation of modern American English; * demonstrates the use of each English phoneme with a selection of high-frequency words, both alone and in context in sentences, idiomatic phrases and dialogues; * provides examples and practice material on commonly confused sounds, including illustrative pronunciation diagrams; * is supported by a companion website featuring complete audio recordings of practice material to check your pronunciation against; * can be used not only for studying pronunciation in the classroom but also for independent practice. American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice is essential reading for any student studying this topic.

This textbook is an accessible introduction to both English phonology and phonology in general. It analyzes some central phenomena of the sound system of two standard varieties of English, Southern British English and General American. The framework adopted is Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar, and this entails in particular that all the elements of the sound system are tightly interwoven with the meaningful units: morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. The book contains chapters on articulatory phonetics, sounds and meaning, alternation patterns, word stress and intonation. Each chapter ends with an invitation to analyze English and other languages with the tools of Cognitive Linguistics. The book is designed for students as well as teachers of English and linguistics, and while the target readership should already have a background in linguistics, a beginner in phonology will find all the basic concepts clearly defined.

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.

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

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.

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

This book aims to clarify some puzzles that have been topical in formal linguistics for many decades now. It concerns the status of English and, for comparison, Czech infinitives, as opposed to finite clauses and marginally also gerunds. The book systematically demonstrates the functional (meaning) and syntactic (form) properties of infinitives. It highlights the essential properties common to all infinitives, their core structure in Logical Form (LF) and their relation to an irrealis feature. It also investigates the particularities of the various infinitival constructions.

The volume contains most updated theoretical and empirical research on foreign or second language processes analyzed from the perspective of cognition and affect. It consists of articles devoted to various issued related to such broad topics as gender, literacy, translation or culture, to mention a few. The collection of papers offers a constructive and inspiring insight into a fuller understanding of the interconnection of the language-cognition-affect trichotomy.

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert