This book systematically examines the linguistic features and socio-cultural issues of 'Hong Kong English'. The author focuses on authentic data taken from the International Corpus of English (the Hong Kong component) and the Corpus of Global Web-based English to track the ways in which the English language in Hong Kong has been adapted by its users. She also analyses the emergence of new forms and structures in its grammar and discourse. While the phonetic and phonological aspects of this variety of English have been well documented, its grammatical peculiarities and social language use have been hitherto neglected. This book offers original insights into the grammatical and pragmatic/discoursal features of Hong Kong English and will therefore be of interest to those working in fields such as World Englishes and corpus linguistics.

Are the past participial forms that occur in passive and perfect periphrases substantially identical or should they rather be distinguished into accidentally homophonous passive and perfect(ive) participles? This book discusses the long-standing mystery of past participial (non-)identity on the basis of a broad range of synchronic data from Germanic and Romance, eventually focussing on German and English as these draw the most relevant distinctions (e.g. auxiliary alternation, a passive auxiliary that is not BE). Together with some contrastive insights from Slavic as well as the diachrony of passive and perfect periphrases, this clearly points to an identity-view. The novel approach that is laid out suggests that past participles conflate diathetic and aspectual properties. The former cause the suppression of an external argument, whereas the latter impose event-structure sensitive perfectivity, which only induces the completion of a situation if the underlying eventuality denotes a simple change of state. An approach along these lines sheds light on the intricate properties of past participles and the auxiliaries they occur with, the determinants of auxiliary selection as well as the interplay of argument and event structure.

Jonathan Berg argues for the Theory of Direct Belief, which treats having a belief about an individual as an unmediated relation between the believer and the individual the belief is about. After a critical review of alternative positions, Berg uses Grice's theory of conversational implicature to provide a detailed pragmatic account of substitution failure in belief ascriptions and goes on to defend this view against objections, including those based on an unwarranted "Inner Speech" Picture of Thought. The work serves as a case study in pragmatic explanation, dealing also with methodological issues about context-sensitivity in language and the relation between semantics and pragmatics.

Quantification is central to human experience (cf. Aristotle's Organon): the most basic aspects of human life and reasoning involve quantity assessment. This study sheds lights on a highly frequent way to express quantification in Spanish, viz. the binominal quantifier (e.g. un aluvionN1 de llamadasN2 'a flood of calls') which assesses the quantity of N2 in terms of N1. This volume offers a corpus-based, cognitive-functional analysis of binominal quantifiers (BQ) in Spanish. The first part is dedicated to the development of BQs and starts from the assumption that BQs are cross-linguistically involved in grammaticalization. This monograph frames the history of BQs in Spanish in terms of constructional levels of change and highlights the complex interplay between analogical thinking and conceptual persistence. The second part motivates both the ample variation in the paradigm of quantifying nouns and their combinatorial pattern by the very same mechanism of conceptually-driven analogy. The study thus yields an innovative functional model of BQs in Spanish, in synchrony and in diachrony, with major implications for reference grammars and theory building.

This book examines argumentative situations as they develop in different cultures and language groups. It considers the development of argumentation studies, making greater allowance for the specificities of argument as developed by "non-mainstream cultures"; the contribution of Jainism to the framework of philosophical disputation in India; duel songs as an institutionalized argumentative genre practiced by Ammassalik culture within the Inuit community; the application of the Muslim theological-legal reasoning system to evaluate two traditional, pre-Muslim traditional practices in Borneo; the annotation of schemes on the basis of Walton's taxonomy of argument schemes and Wagemans' Periodic Table of Arguments; methodology proposed for the reconstruction and analysis of "double-mode" arguments in advertisements, combining the instruments developed in social semiotics, pragmatics, and argumentation theory; and a review of the argumentation-theoretical literature on metaphor in argumentative discourse. This book is of interest to students and researchers in argumentation studies, rhetoric, philosophy, cultural studies and language studies. Previously published in Argumentation Volume 35, issue 1, March 2021 Chapters "Annotating Argument Schemes" and "The Study of Metaphor in Argumentation Theory" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The book contains essays in honor of Victor Raskin. The contributions are all directly related to some of the major areas of work in which Raskin's scholarship has spanned for decades. The obvious connecting idea is the encyclopedic script-based foundation of lexical meaning, which informs his pioneering work in semantics in the 1970s and 1980s. The first part of the book collects articles directly concerned with script-based semantics, which examine both the theoretical and methodological premises of the idea and its applications. Script-based semantics is the foundation of both Raskin's ground-breaking work in humor research (addressed by the articles in part 2) and in Ontological semantics (addressed in part 3), the most recent development of script-based semantics. The fourth part is dedicated to a less-known, but equally important, strand of Raskin's research, the applications of linguistics to other fields, including writing, lexicography, and professional applications (e,g., tourism). Overall, the book provides and up-to-date, in-depth discussion of an influential strand of the discussion on semantics and its most recent developments and influence on other seemingly unrelated fields, such as Cognitive Linguistics.

This book proposes a novel theory of truth and falsity. It argues that truth is a form of reference and falsity is a form of reference failure. Most of the philosophical literature on truth concentrates on certain ontological and epistemic problems. This book focuses instead on language. By utilizing the Fregean idea that sentences are singular referring expressions, the author develops novel connections between the philosophical study of truth and falsity and the huge literature in in the philosophy of language on the notion of reference. The first part of the book constructs the author's theory and argues for it in length. Part II addresses the ways in which the theory relates to, and is different from, some of the basic theories of truth. Part III takes up how to account for the truth of sentences with logical operators and quantifiers. Finally, Part IV discusses the applications and implications of the theory for longstanding problems in philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology. A Referential Theory of Truth and Falsity will appeal to researchers and advanced students working in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and linguistics.

Korangy and Sharifian's groundbreaking book offers the first in-depth study into cultural linguistics for the Persian language. The book highlights a multitude of angles through which the intricacies of Persian and its many dialects and accents, wherever spoken, can be examined. Linguistics with cultural studies as its backdrop is not a new phenomenon; however, with this text we are afforded an insight into the complex relationship that exists between human cognizance and human expression in this ancient civilization. This study helps develop an innovative understanding of history, intent, and meaning as understood by a culture and by a people, in this case the Persian-speaking folk of Iran. The chapters are insightful resources for analyzing and augmenting our knowledge of linguistics under the rubric of Persian culture but also for proposing and foregrounding new ideas in this field of study.

This book contributes to the recent theoretical developments in the area of mutual interactions of valency and aspect, as expressed in different types of verb-related nominal structures (nominalizations and synthetic compounds). A wide range of data from Slavic, Hellenic, Germanic, Romance and Semitic languages provides an empirical testing ground for competing theoretical explanations couched in the lexicalist and construction-based frameworks.

This book offers new perspectives on the study of Chinese lexical semantics, as well as discourse analysis and cognitive pragmatics based on lexical semantics. The first part focuses on fundamental issues in lexical semantic research, while the second features articles highlighting various aspects of the lexical category systems in Chinese. The third part discusses application-oriented research on lexical semantics. Presenting the latest research in the field, the book is a valuable resource for specialists in Chinese lexical semantics, as well as for researchers and students interested in grammar, theory of lexical semantics, and word/meaning processing.

How do library professionals talk about and refer to library users, and how is this significant? In recent decades, the library profession has conceived of users in at least five different ways, viewing them alternatively as citizens, clients, customers, guests, or partners. This book argues that these user metaphors crucially inform librarians' interactions with the public, and, by extension, determine the quality and content of the services received. The ultimate aim of this book is to provide library professionals with insights and tools for avoiding common pitfalls associated with false or professionally inadequate conceptions of library users.

This edited volume provides detailed analyses of multifunctional forms in English and offers hands-on approaches exemplifying relevant implications and useful applications to language and literacy educators in TESOL, ESL/EFL/EAL and research students in applied linguistics and education. The chapters cover: The multifunctionality of utterances in spoken and multimodal corpora, the multifunctionality of linguistic creativity in different genres, multifunctional pronouns in hard and soft sciences, and professional discourse in the university and secondary school contexts. The volume also offers a comparison of the multifunctionality of verbs between ESL textbooks, native written and spoken English corpora, and between ESL and L1 university students in writing a particular genre; comparisons of the multifunctionality of discourse markers between different registers and between L1 and L2 English speakers, as well as multifunctional metadiscourse markers in different disciplines and paradigms. With detailed analysis of authentic corpus data representing different varieties of English, specialized use in different contexts and disciplines, and practical teaching and learning applications, the volume bridges theory and practice, providing a creatively designed resource for students, educators and researchers looking to understand multifunctional forms in English.

*assumes no prior knowledge of pragmatics and will take readers through the basics quickly so that they can apply the ideas to online environments *covers a wide range of online media platforms from email, chatrooms, and IM through to social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube *won't date fast as focus is on how ideas and topics from pragmatics can be applied to mediated contexts, irrespective of the particular media

Building on the notion of fiction as communicative act, this collection brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholars to examine the evolving relationship between authors and readers in fictional works from 18th-century English novels through to contemporary digital fiction. The book showcases a diverse range of contributions from scholars in stylistics, rhetoric, pragmatics, and literary studies to offer new ways of looking at the "author-reader channel," drawing on work from Roger Sell, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, and James Phelan. The volume traces the evolution of its form across historical periods, genres, and media, from its origins in the conversational mode of direct address in 18th-century English novels to the use of second-person narratives in the 20th century through to 21st-century digital fiction with its implicit requirement for reader participation. The book engages in questions of how the author-reader channel is shaped by different forms, and how this continues to evolve in emerging contemporary genres and of shifting ethics of author and reader involvement. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars interested in the intersection of pragmatics, stylistics, and literary studies.

This collection extends the conversation beginning with Gail Jefferson's seminal 1996 article, "On the Poetics of Ordinary Talk," linking the poetics of ordinary talk with the work of poets to bring together critical perspectives on new data from talk-in-interaction and applications of Jefferson's poetics to literary discourse. Bringing together contributions from Conversation Analysis and literary scholars, the book begins by analyzing the presentation which served as the genesis for Jefferson's article to highlight the occurrence of poetics in institutional talk. The first section then provides an in-depth examination of case studies from Conversation Analysis which draw on new data from naturally occurring discourse. The second half explores literary poetics as a form of institutional talk emerging from the poetics of ordinary talk, offering new possibilities for interpreting work in classics, biblical studies, folklore studies and contemporary literature. Each chapter engages in a discussion of Jefferson's article toward reinforcing the relationships between the two disciplines and indicating a way forward for interdisciplinary scholarship. The collection highlights the enduring influence of Jefferson's poetics to our understanding of language, both talk-in interaction and literary discourse, making this book of particular interest to students and researchers in Conversation Analysis, literary studies, stylistics, and pragmatics.

i) This title combines qualitative and quantitative methods to study the new field, multimodal pragmatics. ii) The author offers practical guide of building multimodal corpus and gives new attempt of integrating Simulative Modelling into linguistic study iii) The Chinese version was a bestseller in China.

This book offers a unique window to the study of im/politeness by looking at a translation perspective, which offers a different set of data and allows further understanding of the phenomenon. In the arena of real-life translation practice, the workings of im/politeness are renegotiated in a different cultural context and thus pragmatically oriented cross-cultural differences become more concrete and tangible. The book focuses on the language pair English and Greek, a strategic choice with Greek as a less widely spoken language and English as a global language. The two languages also differ in their politeness orientation in certain genres, which allows for a fruitful comparison. The volume focuses on press translation first, then translation of academic texts and translation for the stage, and finally audiovisual translation (mainly subtitles). These genres highlight a public, an interactional, and a multimodal dimension in the workings of im/politeness.

This edited book presents case-studies and reflections on the role of languages and their analytic study in development practices across four regions: Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. The authors highlight the importance of conceptual studies of languages and cultures, as well as language choice, for enhancing development practices, demonstrating the value that language analysis and the humanities can add to the already multi-disciplinary field of Development Studies. The chapters draw on the fields of linguistics, human geography, education, diverse economies, community learning, sociology, and anthropology, and topics covered include some significant areas of interest to sustainable human development: education, work, finances, age, gender; as well as a key approach to development (asset-based community development). Chapters on informal adult learning provide opportunities to explore how and why language and linguistic analysis is relevant to development projects. The volume aims to promote collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue and should be of interest to academics, practitioners and students of language and development, and to those working in the field of development globally.

This volume offers a comprehensive examination of mitigation in speech in English and Spanish, exploring how it is defined and theorized and the various linguistic features employed to soften or downgrade the impact of a particular message across a range of settings. Building on the body of work done on mitigation in English, the book begins by discussing how it has been conceptualized in the literature, drawing on politeness theory among other perspectives from pragmatics, and highlighting increasing research on these topics in native and bilingual Spanish speakers and learners of Spanish. The volume explores examples from a variety of discursive contexts, including institutions, courts, and classrooms, to unpack mitigation as it occurs in spontaneous speech through different lenses, looking both at the actual units of discourse but also taking a broader view by examining differences across dialects as well. The book also looks at the ways in which conclusions drawn from this research might be applied pedagogically in language learning classrooms. This volume will serve as a jumping-off point for broader discussion in the field of mitigation and will be of particular interest to graduate students and researchers in pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis, in addition to learners and pre-service teachers of Spanish.

The introduction and tracking of reference to people or individuals, known as referential movement, is a central feature of coherence, and accounts for "about every third word of discourse". Located at the intersection of pragmatics and grammar, reference is now proving a rich and enduring source of insight into second language development. The challenge for second language (L2) learners involves navigating the selection and positioning of reference in the target language, continually shifting and balancing the referential means used to maintain coherence, while remaining acutely sensitive to the discourse and social context. The present volume focuses on how L2 learners meet that challenge, bringing together both eminent and up-and-coming researchers in the field of L2 acquisition. The chapters address a range of problems in second language acquisition (SLA) (e.g., form-function mapping, first language [L1] influence, developmental trajectories), and do so in relation to various theoretical approaches to reference (e.g., Accessibility Theory, Givenness Hierarchy). The global outlook of these studies relates to the L2 acquisition of English, French, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish and covers a diverse range of situational contexts including heritage language learning, English as a medium of instruction, and the development of sociolinguistic competence.

This collection argues for the need to promote intercultural understanding as a clear goal for teaching and learning pragmatics in second and foreign language education. The volume sees the learning of pragmatics as a challenging yet enriching process whereby the individual expands their capacity for understanding how meaning making processes influence social relationships and how assumptions about social relationships shape the interpretation and use of language in context. This locates pragmatics within a humanistically oriented conception of learning where success is defined relative to the enrichment of human understanding and appreciation of difference. The book argues that intercultural understanding is not an "add on" to language learning but central to the learner's ability to understand and construct meaning with individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Chapters analyse teachers' and learners' ways of making sense of pragmatics, how their assumptions about social relationships impact their perceptions of language use, and how reflection on pragmatic judgments opens up possibilities for developing intercultural understanding. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in intercultural communication, language education, and applied linguistics.

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.

This study investigates adverbial clauses from a cross-linguistic perspective. In line with other recent typological research in the context of complex sentences and clause-linkage, it proceeds from a detailed, multivariate analysis of the morphosyntactic characteristics of the phenomenon under scrutiny.

This book explores if/si-constructions in spoken English, French and Spanish, from a functional-pragmatic and corpus-based perspective. The analysis comprises instances of subordination, namely, conditional constructions - including prototypical cause-consequence patterns as well as other conditionals in which the conditional meaning is weaker - and cases of insubordination introduced by if and si. The theoretical framework is based on the three metafunctions distinguished in Systemic Functional Linguistics, and the data analysed are retrieved from parliamentary discourse and conversations corpora. The examination of conditional constructions and cases of insubordination in parallel offers new light on the characterization of if/si-constructions and their uses and functions in interaction.

Pragmatic ability is crucial for second language learners to communicate appropriately and effectively; however, pragmatics is underemphasized in language teaching and testing. This book remedies that situation by connecting theory, empirical research, and practical curricular suggestions on pragmatics for learners of different proficiency levels: It surveys the field comprehensively and, with useful tasks and activities, offers rich guidance for teaching and testing L2 pragmatics. Mainly referring to pragmatics of English and with relevant examples from multiple languages, it is an invaluable resource for practicing teachers, graduate students, and researchers in language pedagogy and assessment.