This book describes three of the main problems that the word-formation process known as conversion presents, namely those related to its definition, its delimitation, and its directionality. The latter constitutes, however, the main focus of the study, which is based on a corpus of over seven hundred lexical units and, more specifically, on 231 actual noun-verb conversion pairs. Considering that directionality is intrinsic to conversion, the main question is whether it is always possible to establish the direction of conversion or whether it is possible to do so only in some cases. Moreover, the study reveals what 'type' of directionality is involved, that is, whether the process is unidirectional, bidirectional or multi-directional. In order to answer these questions, both diachronic (etymology and dates of first records) and synchronic criteria (semantic dependence, restriction of usage, semantic range, semantic pattern, phonetic shape, morphologic type, stress, and the principle of relative markedness) are analysed and assessed.

This book explores the intercultural problems related to the widespread use of English in written and oral communication by native and non-native speakers in institutional and business settings. Each chapter looks at a different set of issues emerging from the confrontation of cultures across national, institutional and organizational discourse communities, taking an intercultural or cross-cultural approach. The focus is on workplace settings, both in institutional and business contexts (e.g. politics, public services, media, international corporate communication, advertising, business negotiations, etc.). The theme is all the more interesting today not only in consideration of the sheer magnitude of this phenomenon and its capillary spread, but above all on account of the pervasive penetration of English into professional and workplace contexts as a communication language also for local/internal communication. The complexity of intercultural communication as an object of research is reflected in the variety of the topics explored, the range of settings investigated, and the diversity of methodological approaches taken.

From the Foreword by Renee Fleming: "Kathryn LaBouff has developed an approach to singing in the English language which is wonderfully user-friendly, and which has surely saved much wear and tear on my voice. It is a technique that has empowered me with the knowledge and skills to bring a text to life and to be able to negotiate all of the sounds of the language with the least amount of effort. I have found her clever and extremely creative use of substitute consonants or combinations of consonants in creating clear diction utterly delightful because they are surprising and because they work. These techniques have been equally useful when singing in foreign languages. We sopranos are not usually known to have good diction, particularly in our high range. I found that working with Kathryn improved my ability to be understood by an enormous percentile of the audience with much less vocal fatigue than I would have experienced if left to my own devices. I have often told my colleagues enthusiastically of her interesting solutions to the frustrating problems of diction. I am thrilled that her techniques are now in print for all to benefit from them." In Singing and Communicating in English, internationally renowned diction coach Kathryn LaBouff provides singers with an accessible guide to the principles of English diction they need to communicate the text successfully. Her thorough and much sought-after technique clarifies the physiology of speech, emphasizes the studied practice of careful and articulate pronunciation, and focuses on the study of English cadence. Covering aspects of phonetics from vowels to diphthongs to fricatives, the book includes multiple practical exercises in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions, helpful diagrams, and pronunciation drills, each chosen from the most essential English art song and operatic repertoire. In addition to standard American and British English, a variety of regional dialects and accents are covered in depth. A companion website features a full range of vowel/consonant drills, poems read aloud by the author and veteran theater and voiceover actor John Keating, as well as an instructor's answer key, and publishers' lists to help the singer locate a vast array of English language works for performance. This book is an invaluable resource for all vocalists (both professional and aspiring), diction instructors, teachers, and coaches, and choral directors. VISIT THE COMPANION SITE AT www.oup.com/us/singinginenglish About the Author Kathryn LaBouff teaches English Diction and English Vocal Literature at the Juilliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Diction Coach for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington Opera, she has coached and prepared more than 300 professional opera productions in English.

This book deals with the notion of reformulation and more specifically with a group of lexico-grammatical units which help codify and signal the activity of reformulation in English. While discourse markers in English have been described in detail, the area of reformulation is a relatively unexplored area in comparison with languages such as French or Spanish. In this respect, this book has been conceived as a contribution to the field of Discourse Markers and in particular to the markers that help display the function of reformulation in English. First of all, a definition of the notion of reformulation is provided as a necessary precondition for the elaboration of a taxonomy of English reformulators. These are grouped into different classes and sub-classes on the basis of the type of reformulation effected. Thus, four main types are identified: Expansion, Modification, Reassessment and Compression. After an inductive and interpretive analysis of examples taken from the British National Corpus (BNC), the syntactic and distributional properties of these units, as well as their environments of use are described and discussed.

Arising from a colloquium held in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, in March 2004, this volume offers fresh insights into Swiss culture and literature from an Irish perspective. It brings together articles by writers and scholars from various academic fields including cultural studies, linguistics and literature. The book is a reflection of the multifaceted interests of Irish academics in Switzerland as a cultural space in the heart of Europe. Ireland as a vantage point, situated at the western margin of the European continent, offers new perspectives from which differences as well as surprising parallels between the two cultures become visible and from which Switzerland appears in a different light. The volume critically addresses questions of identity in Swiss literature and culture and discusses them from various angles - by analysing the representation of minority cultures in Swiss literary and media discourse, by reading Swiss literature in an intercultural context, but also through accounts of Irish visitors in Switzerland and Swiss writers travelling to or living in Ireland.

This study explores the field of ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom learning within a formal learning institution. Influenced by the sociocultural theory in SLA (Second Language Acquisition), the book sheds light on the question that has been boggling the minds of language practitioners and researchers: Why is ESL classroom talk the way it is? Based on a case study of a school in an ESL community, it argues persuasively that classroom talk may be linked in important ways to an operative sociocultural structure of ESL pedagogy over and above the classroom at the institutional level. The book examines issues which have here-to-fore been avoided by writers and researchers in current SLA writings and classroom studies. It confronts complex and complicated contextual and research methodological issues to make visible what has up to now been that elusive « structure behind the oral practices in language classrooms. Research methods are drawn from language education and several disciplines within linguistics and the social sciences. Emerging from a multidisciplinary methodological framework are a number of surprising revelations about the meanings and functions of ESL classroom talk.

This book explores multiparty, multicultural interaction at international business meetings. It investigates discourse at an Italian company's meetings of its international distributors, conducted mainly in English and attended by participants from different countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Data come from audio recordings of the meetings, normally lasting two to three days, and are supplemented by the author's observations of the meetings. The study uses a series of approaches to analyze selected linguistic and interactional features, presenting an in-depth analysis and discussion of data extracts that draws on both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It highlights the way the main company speaker and some of the multilingual participants use discursive strategies to build common ground, to construct a cooperative business relationship or to negotiate or avert conflict. The study questions the role of cultural differences in approaching multicultural, multilingual meetings and argues that organizational roles, the business context and individual differences must also be considered.

This volume explores the complex relations between normsand exemplars of genres from business and technical communication. Contributors compare a variety of types of norm with textual practices in a variety of ways. The genres examined are typical of the range of audiences and media of workplace and business communication: product withdrawal notices, press releases, job ads, oral presentations, sales letters and tenders, chairman's reports, and technical reports. They are compared with norms set by teachers, by unimaginative practice, by more or less self-appointed experts, or by practioners who may not share the national or professional culture of their colleagues. However accurate these may be they never do justice to the complexity of 'reality'. The contributors to this volume use a wide variety of methods in their attempt to capture this reality. Many analyse texts, but all combine this procedure with at least one other approach and often more: questionnaires, experiments assessing the effect of manipulated texts, analysis of practitioner comments, and use of natural sources of practitioner judgements like award for good practice.

This volume brings together a selection of contributions presented at the 15th European Symposium on Languages for Special Purposes, held at the University of Bergamo (Italy) from 29 August to 2 September 2005. The conference title, « New Trends in Specialized Discourse, reflects the emphasis given to recent orientations in research, coming from established as well as new authors in the field. As suggested by the title of this volume, the analysis of specialized discourse calls for a specialized discourse analysis. When applied linguists deal with vocational discourses, they are faced with a double challenge: on the one hand, an understanding of textualisations often alien to the general language; on the other hand, the use of analytical tools designed specifically for their investigation. The studies presented in this volume position themselves somewhere along this continuum, focusing alternatively on converging/diverging features of texts and discourses.

This book is one of the first systematic studies to describe the linguistic repertoire and the communicative strategies adopted by Ghanaian immigrants in Italy. The linguistic repertoire of the Ghanaian community in Bergamo (Northern Italy) is described with a special focus on the different codes composing it. The author analyzes the role that each code plays in expressing the community members' ethnic and linguistic identity, and the speakers' attitudes towards each code. She draws on the results of qualitative analysis - adopting both a macro-sociolinguistic and a micro-socio-linguistic perspective - of a database of face-to-face interactions and of formal interviews involving a selected group of Ghanaian immigrants.

This volume reflects the results of a workshop on the investigation of specialized discourse in a diachronic perspective, held within the 15th European Symposium on Language for Special Purposes ('New Trends in Specialized Discourse', Bergamo 2005). The articles deal with developments from the late medieval period to the present day, and the book encompasses studies in which the long-established tradition of domain-specific English is highlighted. The fields of contributions range from scientific to legal to political and business discourse. Special attention is given to argumentation, in an attempt to assess the time-depth of typical rhetorical strategies. Some methodological innovations are introduced in corpus linguistics. Numerous contributions bring new materials to scholarly discussion, as recently released or in-progress 'second-generation' corpora are used as data. Recent changes in present-day legal and scientific writing are also discussed as they witness fast adaptation to new requirements, due to the advent and growing familiarity of new technologies, international law and changes in academia.

Subjectivity, the speaker's expression of self in discourse, is a relatively under-researched area in the field of applied linguistics: this book examines the role of subjectivity in the context of second language use. Drawing on insights from discourse analysis and pragmatics, it describes how a group of students studying French at degree level at the University of Cambridge, England, convey expressions of subjectivity in personal narratives and argumentative language. In this book, the author begins by introducing the reader to key areas in the study of discourse. Using a methodology that has much in common with descriptive linguistics, he provides a wide-ranging account of how forms in language are used to convey the expression of subjectivity. His particular concern is to examine how these markers of subjectivity are used differently by native and non-native speakers of French. The discussion is carefully supplemented throughout with a variety of exemplification and discourse types, including personal narratives in French and English and transcripts of video-taped interactions in role-plays. In the course of his analysis, the author questions long-held assumptions about the way French is taught in secondary schools and in higher education institutions. The range of issues discussed, as well as the variety of examples used, will make this a valuable book not only for students of applied linguistics but also for any reader wishing to gain a deeper understanding of how the expression of subjectivity can contribute to the learning of a second language.

Corpus-based studies of diachronic English have been thriving over the last three decades to such an extent that the validity of corpora in the enrichment of historical linguistic research is now undeniable. The present book is a collection of papers illustrating the state of the art in corpus-based research on diachronic English, by means of case-study expositions, software presentations, and theoretical discussions on the topic. The majority of these papers were delivered at the

Genre analysis has become firmly established as one of the most popular frameworks for the study of specialized genres in academic, professional and institutional as well as other workplace contexts. In recent years, genre theory has also developed in the direction of a more comprehensive and powerful multi-dimensional and multi-perspectived framework to examine not only the text but also the context in a much more meaningful manner than had ever been done earlier. The theoretical perspectives and the individual case studies of this volume testify to the wide range of methodological tools made available by genre theory, enabling researchers to handle problems relating to the description of variations in language use. Moreover, the following relevant issues are addressed: how are specialized genres constructed, interpreted and exploited in the achievement of specific goals in highly specialized contexts?

This volume explores the relation between identity and diversity as the essential condition of interculturalism, and the sometimes positive, sometimes negative, role that identity and diversity play within intercultural dialogue in an increasingly globalised world. An international conference, in Madrid, October 2003, brought together scholars from four continents and allowed them to share their knowledge and learn about the issues of « identity and diversity: philological and philosophical reflections. The present volume contains a selection of the conference papers. The contributors explore the dynamics of identity as a process open to differences. Although identity and difference are not exclusively discursive, it is discourse and natural language that incorporate them.

This volume focuses on the nature of official correspondence produced m the period after 1500, from Early Modern to nineteenth-century English. The contributions reflect the extent to which the genre is somewhat plastic in this period, gradually acquiring distinguishing conventions and protocols as the situations in which the letters themselves are encoded acquire more distinctiveness. Although correspondence has long been the object of diachronic studies, very little seems to be available as far as specialized usage is concerned, hence the specific interest in letters exchanged within scientific, diplomatic, and business networks. In addition, the study of business and official correspondence offered here profits from a multi-disciplinary and multi-methodological approach, as it relies on a rich array of databases and corpora of correspondence, ranging from highly specialized collections to more broadly constructed diagnostic corpora, in which correspondence is just one register or text-type. While specific attention is paid to phenomena relating to the expression of positive and negative politeness through the investigation of authentic (rather than constructed) texts, methodological issues are also taken into consideration.

This book reflects the vigorous interest in studies of business discourse(s) and culture(s) emerging from various Asian communities. It also records the diversity of methodological approaches, ontological perspectives and topics characterising a number of studies conducted by Asian and Western scholars on cultural and linguistic strategies and preferences identifiable in Asian or Asian-Western business interactions. The volume is structured in two parts, including chapters that address linguistic and textual issues (Part I) and cultural and pragmatic issues (Part II) of Asian business discourse(s). Even though the different domains identified--"linguistic, textual, pragmatic and cultural--"have been combined to provide useful organising labels, they remain strictly interrelated as their occurrence and variation have significant implications on one another.

Languages are inseparable from their contexts of use. They are not only congruent with, but also involved in the configuration of the worldviews and value systems manifested in cultures and embodied in texts. The spread of English worldwide foregrounds the issue of textual dynamics in intercultural settings. The production/reception of texts in English facilitates international contacts and exchanges, yet it also triggers hegemonic practices. The volume aims to investigate the representations and negotiations of sociocognitive identities in intercultural settings relevant for 'good practice'. Contributions explore 'languaging' strategies (verbal, visual, multimodal; English monolingual, bilingual, multilingual) through a range of methodological perspectives wherein the respect for sociocultural differences is a constitutive value.

Die Arbeiten zu Goethe und Thomas Mann spüren der Ranghöhe ihrer Sprachkunst nach. Diese wird an der Wortverwendung sichtbar gemacht und durch Textvergleiche verdeutlicht. Bei der Untersuchung des Tierepos vom Reineke Fuchs erweist sich das textbezogene Aufstellen von Wortfeldern als produktiv. Diese werden grafisch veranschaulicht. Die Thomas-Mann-Studien ermitteln lexikalische Gemeinsamkeiten in unterschiedlichen Romanen. Dieses Überschreiten der Textgrenze bedingt das Verlassen der Bereiche Lexik und Semantik, es werden auch Kategorien der Kommunikations-, der Literatur- und der Musikwissenschaft sowie Forschungsergebnisse von Zeithistorikern vergleichend herangezogen. In ihrer Diktion lässt sich die geistige Verwandtschaft beider Künstler überzeugend nachweisen.

Das Thema Fremdwortbildung gehoert erst seit kurzem zum Forschungsgegenstand der germanistischen Wortbildungslehre. In traditionellen Arbeiten blieb dieser Bereich - auch aus puristischen Grunden - dagegen weitgehend ausgespart. Die Bestrebungen, diese Lucke zu schliessen, reichen bis in die 1960er Jahre zuruck. Seitdem wurde die Fremdwortbildungsforschung zwar intensiviert, doch bestehen auch noch heute zahlreiche Forschungsdesiderate, wozu sowohl empirische Untersuchungen als auch methodisch-theoretische UEberlegungen zahlen. Der Band zeichnet anhand von 31 Beitragen die Forschungsgeschichte nach und soll zugleich Anregungen fur die zukunftige Klarung offener Fragen und Probleme liefern. Eine Einfuhrung und eine Bibliographie runden die Textsammlung ab und dienen der weiteren Orientierung.

This book begins the Spoken Standard Chinese series, which emphasizes natural dialogue and familiarity with a modern, adult vocabulary. Book One uses pinyin romanization and no Chinese characters. An accompanying audio program is available.

This volume is a collection of eight articles on the general topics of translation. The common element running through them all is the analysis of samples of tourist literature and their translations, from a pragmatic point of view. The languages concerned are mainly English and Spanish, but examples of German and French texts are also included. The theoretical approaches are multifaceted. Relevance theory, systemic-functional linguistics and discourse analysis are some of the theoretical standpoints taken as a background. The book covers phenomena as varied as translation quality assessment, audience design and perlocutionary effects, dealing also with more specific features like thematic structure, inference and propositional meaning, discourse makers and grammatical metaphor in order to provide a wide range of analyses for the specialised reader.

Drawing on the recent renewal of interest in the debate on orality and literacy this book investigates the varying perceptions and representations of orality in contemporary Italian fiction, providing a fresh perspective on this rich and fast-developing debate and on the study of the Italian literary language. The book brings together a number of complementary approaches to orality from the fields of linguistics, literary and media studies and offers a detailed analysis of a broad variety of authors and texts that appeared over the last three decades - ranging from internationally acclaimed writers such as Celati, Duranti and Tabucchi, through De Luca and Baricco, to the latest generation of writers, such as Campo, Ballestra and Nove. By exploring the complementary facets of Italian orality, and its diachronical developments since the seventies, this study questions the traditionally dichotomic approach to the study of orality and literacy and posits a more flexible, cross-modal approach that accounts for the increasing hybridisation of text forms and media and for the greater interaction between the spoken and the written as well as their representations.

Topic of this volume is Pomattertitsch, a German dialect which is doomed to extinction. This Allemanic (Walser) dialect is spoken at Formazza, a tiny Alpine community in Italy, and after centuries of semi-secluded existence is now undergoing major transformations due to the rapidly declining number of its speakers and the limited range of its functions. Within the framework of language decay and death this analysis focuses on phenomena of linguistic variation at a morphosyntactic level. This comprehensive study includes a large body of spoken data collected from informants of different age groups and with different levels of language fluency and thus displays a unique picture of an endagered language.

How are migrants referred to in the media? What roles do they play and when are they quoted in news reports on immigration? Whose views are implicitly reinforced? Have these changed similarly in different European newspapers in recent years? Media and Migrants systematically addresses such questions by exploring the representation of immigration in two relatively new reception countries, Spain and Ireland, over the past decade. It focuses on the discourses (re)produced in four newspapers (El Pais, ABC, The Irish Times and the Irish Independent) in 1990, 1996 and 1999-2000. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are combined within a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, mainly bases on discourse-historical and socio-cognitive approaches. The analysis of descriptive and content categories is followed by the scrutiny of strategies of reference, predication, intertextuality and argumentation. The results illustrate an ongoing convergence of perceptions and discourses on ethnic alterity in Europe, as collective 'self' and 'other' are being redefined in the context of supranational integration and increasing migration worldwide.