Focus particles (words such as even, only, also) play an important role in English, in various syntactic and semantic domains, but their characteristics pose numerous problems for current syntactic frameworks and semantic theories. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the syntax, meaning and use of focus particles and related function words in English and many other languages. It also provides a historical perspective on their development.

This book deals with expressions like English myself, yourself, himself and so on, and German selbst from a perspective of language comparison. It is the first book-length study of intensifiers ever written. The study investigates the syntax and semantics of these expressions and provides a thorough account of a much neglected grammatical domain. Given that the approach is both descriptive and analytic, the book will be of interest to linguists, grammar writers and teachers of English and German alike.

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

This book is a detailed high-quality descriptive grammar of the endangered Cavinena language (less than 1200 speakers), spoken in the Amazonian rainforest of Lowland Bolivia, an area where the indigenous languages are virtually unknown. Cavinena belongs to the Tacanan family, comprising five languages, none of which has been the subject of an adequate descriptive grammar. The grammar is based mostly on the extensive fieldwork conducted by the author in traditional Cavinena communities. Cast in the functional-typological framework, and based on natural discourse data, the grammar presents a detailed and copiously exemplified account of most aspects of the language, building up from basic levels (phonetic and phonological) to higher levels (morphological and syntactic), and from brief descriptions of each level to a more comprehensive description of the same level in specific chapters. The language contains a number of unusual features that will be of interest to typologist linguists, such as an unusual pitch accent system, a morpho-phonological rule that deletes case markers, an intricate predicate structure, a system of verbal suffixes coding associated motion, a specific causative of involvement marker, a peculiar prefix e- that attaches to nouns coding body parts and a complex system of second position clitic pronouns. The grammar will also be of interest to historical-comparative linguists, as for the first time one has sufficiently detailed grammatical information to make possible a reliable comparison with other languages with which Tacanan languages might be related, in particular the Panoan family, and to serve as input into hypotheses regarding the population history of this part of South America.

Accessing Noun-Phrase Antecedents offers a radical shift in the analysis of discourse anaphora, from a purely pragmatic account to a cognitive account, in terms of processing procedures. Mira Ariel defines referring expressions as markers signalling the degree of Accessibility in memory of the antecedent. The notion of Accessibility is explicitly defined, the crucial factors being the Salience of the antecedent, and the Unity between the antecedent and the anaphor. This analysis yields an astonishing array of new results. The precise distribution of referring expressions in actual discourse is directly predicted. Several universals of anaphoric relations are stated. Thus, although not all languages necessarily have the same markers, and nor do they assign them precisely the same function, Ariel shows that they all obey the same Accessibility marking hierarchy. This book will be compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in the semantics and pragmatics of referring expressions, in the interaction of semantics and pragmatics, and more generally in the interaction between peripheral and central cognitive systems.

This volume investigates the interconnections between language and literacy in terms of the structures of language as well as the linguistic contexts of literacy. The work for this book was generated in order to focus on studies of the acquisition and impact of literacy on traditional assertions of linguistic analysts. The contributors show that claims regarding descriptions of the linguistic competence of native speakers contain phonemic, morphemic, and sentential constructs applicable only to literate language users. They also suggest that syntactic formalities -- elements lacking extensional reference -- are unlikely in the absence of literacy, and that the notions of "sentencehood" and syntactic well-formedness are functions of literacy. Finally, the book reviews the basic notions of literary relativity and the role of literacy in communication and civilization.

This book investigates the nature of the relationship between phonology and syntax and proposes a theory of Minimal Indirect Reference that solves many classic problems relating to the topic.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Tense is one of the central issues of linguistics, and has been the focus of much attention in recent years. In this book, Declerck offers a detailed discussion of the temporal structures that are expressed by the combination of tense forms with the conjunction when.

First Published in 1997. The alternation between high vowels and glides is shown here to follow from the interaction of phonological constraints as defined by Prince and Smolensky's (1993) Optimality Theory. The alternation stems from simultaneously comparing moraic and nonmoraic parses of high vowels for constraint satisfaction

Teaching computers to solve language problems is one of the major challenges of natural language processing. There is a large amount of interesting research devoted to this field. This book fills an existing gap in the literature with an up-to-date survey of the field, including the author's own contributions. A number of different fields overlap in anaphora resolution - computational linguistics, natural language processing (NLP), grammar, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and artificial intelligence. This book begins by introducing basic notions and terminology, moving onto early research methods and approaches, recent developments and applications, and future directions. It addresses various issues related to the practical implementation of anaphora systems, such as rules employed, algorithms implemented or evaluation techniques used. This is an ideal reference book for students and researchers in this particular area of computational linguistics. Since anaphora resolution is vital for the development of any practical NLP system, the book will be of interest to readers from both academia and industry.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This standard introductory textbook presents in systematic form an account of current English practice. The introduction provides a full scheme of sentence analysis. Part I contains a treatment of syntactical phenomena based on the analysis of sentences; Part II classifies the uses of forms. Cross-references indicate how the two parts supplement one another.

Translation Studies and linguistics have been going through a love -hate relationship since the 1950s. This book assesses both sides of the relationship, tracing the very real contributions that linguists have made to translation studies and at the same time recognizing the limitations of many of their approaches. With good humour and even handedness, Fawcett describes detailed taxonomies of translation strategies and deals with traditional problems such as equivalence. Yet he also explains and assesses the more recent contributions of text linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics. This work is exceptional in that it presents theories originally produced in Russian, German, French and Spanish as well as English. Its broad coverage and accessible treatment provide essential background reading for students of translation at all levels.

This collection reviews 20 years of research into Spoken Discourse by the Birmingham group, allowing, for the first time, a developmental perspective. It combines previously published but unavailable work with new research. Bringing together recent theories of discourse structure, with a new and detailed analytic framework, the book emphasises both historical context and new developments. The articles are comprehensive, ranging from the theoretical to the highly applied. Practical applications include language teaching, literary stylistics and forensic linguistics with examples taken from literature and language classrooms, telephone conversations, disputed witness statements and corpuses of spoken English.

This rich volume deals comprehensively with cross-linguistic variation in the morphosyntax of ditransitive constructions: constructions formed with verbs (like give) that take Agent, Theme and Recipient arguments. For the first time, a broadly cross-linguistic perspective is adopted. The present volume, consisting of an overview article and twenty-odd in-depth studies of ditransitive constructions in individual languages from different continents, arose from the conference on ditransitive constructions held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) in 2007. It opens with the editors' survey article providing an overview of cross-linguistic variation in ditransitive constructions, followed by the questionnaire on ditransitive constructions, compiled by the editors in order to elicit various properties of these patterns. The editors' overview discusses formal properties of ditransitive constructions as well as behavioral (or syntactic) and lexical properties (i.e., the extension of ditransitive constructions across different verb classes). The volume includes 23 contributions describing properties of ditransitive constructions in languages from all over the world, written by leading experts. Care has been taken that the contributions to the volume will be representative of structural, geographic and genealogical diversity in the domain of ditransitive constructions. Thus the present volume provides a unique source of information on typological diversity of ditransitive constructions. It is expected that it will be of central interest to all scholars and advanced students of linguistics, especially to those working in the field of language typology and comparative syntax.

Offering a new perspective on auxiliaries in particular and language structure in general, this study argues that language cannot be explained satisfactorily with reference to linguistic variables alone; what is required in addition are extra-linguistic parameters relating to how we perceive the world around us, and how we utilize the linguistic resources available to us to conceptualize our experiences, and to communicate successfully. Rather than a closed, self-contained system, language is an entity that is constantly shaped by such external factors as cognitive forces, pragmatic manipulation, history, etc. These factors are responsible for the emergence of chain-like linguistic structures, and auxiliaries are typical examples of such structures, which Heine describes as grammaticalization chains. A limited number of concrete event schemas are discussed and these schemas are shown to be responsible for much of the linguistic diversity that auxiliary constructions exhibit in the languages of the world.

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This study covers a number of topics that are prominent in the grammars of Australian Aboriginal languages, especially ergativity and manifestations of the hierarchy that runs from the speech-act participants down to inanimates. This hierarchy shows up in case marking, number marking and agreement, advancement and cross-referencing. Chapter 1 provides an overall picture of Australian languages. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 deal with case systems, including voice alternations and other advancements. Chapter 5 deals with the distribution of case marking within the noun phrase. Chapter 6 deals with systems that allow the cross-referencing of bound pronouns. Chapter 7 deals with clauses which appear to have more than one verb. Chapter 8 deals with compound and complex sentences. Chapter 9 deals with word order, and emphasises a theme introduced in Chapter 5, namely the widespread use of discontinuous phrases. Chapter 10 draws together ergativity and various manifestations of the hierarchy, and attempts to interpret their distribution. The final section provides an interesting hypothesis about the evolution of core grammar in Australia.

Structure and Meaning in English is designed to help teachers of English develop an understanding of those aspects of English which are especially relevant for learners who speak other languages. Using corpus research, Graeme Kennedy cuts to the heart of what is important in the teaching of English. The book provides pedagogically- relevant information about English at the levels of sounds, words, sentences and texts. It draws attention to those linguistic items and processes which research has shown are typically hard for learners and which lead to errors. Each chapter contains: a description of one or more aspects of English an outline of typical errors or problems for learners specific learning objectives listed at the beginning of each chapter exercises or tasks based on aEURO~real EnglishaEURO (TM) taken from newspapers and other sources. discussion topics which can be worked through independently either as part of a course, or self study With answers to many of the tasks given at the back of the book, this groundbreaking work provides a comprehensive and accessible textbook on the structure and use of the language for teachers of English.

This work provides an overview of a wide range of approaches to written text analysis. It includes both classic and specially commissioned papers by distinguished authors, which share a common linguistic framework. The pieces contain a variety of focuses from the patterning of paragraphs, sections or whole texts to the organization of clauses, individual expressions and single words, as well as a variety of text-types. The examples used range from pure science through social science, academic journals, weekly magazines and newspapers, to literary narratives. This collection forms the basis for an course on written text analysis that should be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The ideal companion to developing the essential skills needed to undertake the core module of contract law as part of undergraduate study of law or a qualifying GDL/CPE conversion course. Providing support for learning and revision throughout, the key skills are demonstrated in the context of the core topics of study with expertly written example sets of notes, followed by opportunities to learn and test your knowledge by creating and maintaining your own summaries of the key points. The chapters are reinforced with a series of workpoints to test your analytical, communication and organisational skills; checkpoints, to test recall of the essential facts; and research points, to practice self-study and to gain familiarity with legal sources. 'Course Notes: Contract Law' is designed for those keen to succeed in examinations and assessments with view to taking you one step further towards the development of the professional skills required for your later career. In addition, concepts are set out both verbally and in diagrammatic form for clarity, and the essential case law is displayed in a series of straightforward and indisposable tables illustrating how best to analyse and compare legal points as expressed by the opinions of the authorities in each case. To check your answers to questions examples are provided online along with sample essay plans and web links to useful web sites and sources as part of the ever popular resources at www.unlockingthelaw.co.uk, making this the ideal resource to guide you through the demands of compiling and revising the information you will need for your exams.

This book focuses on two major traditions in the study of Modern English grammar: 'old grammar' in the Great Tradition of Sweet, Poutsma, Kruisinga, Curme, Jespersen and Quirk; and 'new grammar' in applications to Modern English of Chomskyan generative syntax. The purpose is to promote the study of Modern English grammar through proper acquaintance with both these two approaches; and in general to promote positive evaluations of pluriformity in Modern English grammar. For the first time, this book brings together in one place general presentations of the two traditions, and of their mutual relations and perceptions. But it argues against the view that the one approach to grammar may 'use' the other. It sees the two approaches as essentially incompatible: 'old' grammar proceeds inductively and aims at comprehensive coverage of facts; 'new' grammar is deductive and attempts to attain depth in its accounts of pertinent facts. As the case studies show, both approaches make contributions to the study of Modern English grammar - precisely provided they retain their own distinctive natures. The core of book is it's a-Z case studies. These are detailed comparisons, arranged alphabetically by title for ease of reference, of twenty-six problems in Modern English grammar, from both the 'old' and 'new' viewpoints.

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