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Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Semantics (meaning)
This synchronic study presents a new onomasiological, frame-theoretical model for the description, classification and theoretical analysis of the cross-linguistic content category aspectuality. It deals specifically with those pieces of information, which, in their interplay, constitute the aspectual value of states of affairs. The focus is on Romance Languages, although the model can be applied just as well to other languages, in that it is underpinned by a principle grounded in a fundamental cognitive ability: the delimitation principle. Unlike traditional approaches, which generally have a semasiological orientation and strictly adhere to a semantic differentiation between grammatical aspect and lexical aspect (Aktionsart), this study makes no such differentiation and understands these as merely different formal realisations of one and the same content category: aspectuality.
Language acquisition is a human endeavor par excellence. As children, all human beings learn to understand and speak at least one language: their mother tongue. It is a process that seems to take place without any obvious effort. Second language learning, particularly among adults, causes more difficulty. The purpose of this series is to compile a collection of high-quality monographs on language acquisition. The series serves the needs of everyone who wants to know more about the problem of language acquisition in general and/or about language acquisition in specific contexts.
This volume edited by Eddo Rigotti with the collaboration of Sara Cigada assembles papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Lugano in April 1997. From a variety of perspectives the papers address the question of meaning in argumentation, a phenomenon that has come to be regarded as belonging to the domain of rhetoric. Special attention is given to the connections between rhetoric, argumentation and reason as brought to light by the analysis of written and oral texts.
This is a book about comparison in linguistics in general, rather
than "contrastive analysis" as a distinct branch of linguistics. It
addresses the question "Does the analytical apparatus used by
linguists allow comparisons to be made across languages?" Four
major domains are considered in turn: derivational morphology,
syntax, semantics & pragmatics, and discourse. Contributions
cover a broad spectrum of linguistic disciplines, ranging from
contrastive linguistics and linguistic typology to translation
studies and historical linguistics.
Anaphora is the study of referential relationships in language.
Given the great flowering of the study of this topic in the last
decade, it is time for a book that reports on the major results of
recent research and sets the stage for further inquiry.
The authors represented in "Anaphora: A Reference Guide" are
among the world's leading researchers on anaphora and are ideally
suited to meet this goal. Their work draws on theoretical
principles and methodologies in linguistics, cognitive psychology,
and philosophy, as well as the integrated, broad perspective of
cognitive science. These stimulating reports of cutting-edge research will be useful to both undergraduate and graduate students and will find a large audience among professional researchers of anaphora and scholars who want to catch up on what is new and exciting in the area.
This ground-breaking, provocative book presents an overview of research at the disciplinary intersection of psychoanalysis and linguistics. Understanding that linguistic activity, to a great extent, takes place in unconscious cognition, Thomas Paul Bonfiglio systematically demonstrates how fundamental psychoanalytic mechanisms-such as displacement, condensation, overdetermination, and repetition-have been absent in the history of linguistic inquiry, and explains how these mechanisms can illuminate the understanding of the grammatical structure, evolution, acquisition, and processing of language. Re-examining popular misunderstandings of psychoanalysis along the way, Bonfiglio further proposes a new theoretical configuration of language and expertly sets the future agenda on this subject with new conceptual paradigms for research and teaching. This will be an invaluable, fascinating resource for advanced students and scholars of theoretical and applied linguistics, the cognitive-behavioral sciences, metaphor studies, humor studies and play theory, anthropology, and beyond.
The purpose of this workbook is to provide students with practice
in analyzing second language data. For the student of second
language learning, "hands-on" experience with actual data is
essential in understanding the processes involved in learning a
second language. Working through exemplars of the kinds of
interlanguages that learners do and do not create brings about a
clearer understanding of the principles underlying these
interlanguages, as well as the universal principles of language
learning (those that are independent of particular languages and
interlanguages).
Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, Suzanne Romaine's main
concern is to show how language and discourse play key roles in
understanding and communicating gender and culture. In addition to
linguistics--which provides the starting point and central focus of
the book--she draws on the fields of anthropology, biology,
communication, education, economics, history, literary criticism,
philosophy, psychology, and sociology. The text covers the "core"
areas in the study of language and gender, including how and where
gender is indexed in language, how men and women speak, how
children acquire gender differentiated language, and sexism in
language and language reform. Although most of the examples are
drawn primarily from English, other European languages and
non-European languages, such as Japanese are considered. The text
is written in an accessible way so that no prior knowledge of
linguistics is necessary to understand the chapters containing
linguistic analysis. Each chapter is followed by exercises and
discussion questions to facilitate the book's use as a classroom
text.
Subtitling serves two purposes: to translate the dialogue of foreign language films for secondary audiences (interlingual) and to transform the soundtrack of television programmes into written captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers (intralingual). While both practices have strong linguistic roots, often being compared to text translation and editing, this book reveals the complex influences arising from the audiovisual environment. Far from being simply a matter of linguistic equivalence, the authors show how the effectiveness of subtitles is crucially dependent upon the hidden semiotic relations between text and image; relations which affect the meaning of the visual-linguistic message and the way in which that message is ultimately received. Focusing primarily on intralingual subtitling, The Semiotics of Subtitling adopts a holistic approach, combining linguistic theory with empirical eye-movement analysis in order to explore the full depth of the medium and the reading behaviour of viewers.
This work describes the way in which conversations between drug users vary and change according to context and circumstances in ways that suggest that there is no single "truth" about the state we call "addicted". The central thesis of the book is that the explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not so much as a source of facts, but as primarily functional statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure. Consequently, the signficance of drug conversations lies not in their literal semantics but in the purposes such conversation serve. The argument raises a number of fundamental issues about the performative rather than the informative nature of language, about the nature of the "scientific facts" concerning drug use, and about the very nature of science itself. Starting with a general overview of the problems arising from a mechanistic and deterministic view, the book identifies a need for a new approach to the understanding of verbal behaviour. Secondly, it gives an account of a new form of analysis, based on over 500 conversations carried out with drug users in Scotland and the north of England. In a final data section, evidence is presented link
"Validation in Language Assessment" contributes to the variety of
validation approaches and analytical and interpretive techniques
only recently adopted by language assessment researchers. Featuring
selected papers from the 17th Language Testing Research Colloquium,
the volume presents diverse approaches with an international
perspective on validation in language assessment.
This book focuses on the relationship between syntax and meaning. Terje Lohndal's core claim is that it is possible to create a transparent mapping from syntax to logical form such that each syntactic Spell-Out domain directly corresponds to a conjunct at logical form. The argument focuses on two domains of grammar - phrase structure and argument structure - and brings together two independently established but seemingly unconnected hypotheses: that verbs do not require arguments, and that specifiers are not required by the grammar. Following the introduction, the second chapter looks in detail at the separation of the verb from its thematic arguments, and presents data from argument structure, reciprocals, and adjectival passives, while the third examines the claim that specifiers do not play a role as the target of various grammatical operations. Chapter 4 then brings these arguments together and proposes a syntax that maps transparently onto logical forms where all thematic arguments are severed from the verb. Moreover, the broader consequences of this approach are outlined in terms of Spell-Out, movement, linearization, thematic uniqueness, and agreement. The book closes with an examination of the relationship between grammatical and conceptual meaning, and a detailed discussion of the nature of compositionality.
Ever since the notion of explanatory adequacy was promoted by
Chomsky in his 1965 Aspects, linguists and psycholinguists have
been in pursuit of a psychologically valid theory of grammar. To be
explanatorily adequate, a theory of grammar can not only describe
the general characteristics of a language but can also account for
the underlying psychological processes of acquiring and processing
that language. To be considered psychologically valid, a grammar
must be learnable by ordinary children (the problem of acquisition)
and must generate sentences that are parsable by ordinary people
(the problem of processing). Ultimately, the fields of language
acquisition and processing are concerned with the same goal: to
build a theory that accounts for grammar as it is acquired by
children; accessed in comprehension and production of speech; and
represented within the human mind. Unfortunately, these two fields
developed independently and have rarely been well-informed about
each other's concerns. Both have experienced past difficulties as a
result.
This book is the first in-depth examination of the application of theories of space to issues of second language learning. The author introduces the work of key thinkers on the theory of space and place and the relevance of their ideas to second language acquisition (SLA). He also outlines a new conceptual framework and set of terms for researching SLA that centre on the idea of 'language learning environments'. The book considers the spatial contexts in which language learning takes place and investigates how these spatial contexts are transformed into individualised language learning environments, as learners engage with a range of human and nonhuman, and physical and nonphysical, resources in their daily lives. Revisiting linguistics and language learning theory from a spatial perspective, the book demonstrates that the question of where people learn languages is equally as important as that of how they do so. This work is essential reading for any researcher wishing to research the role of the environment as an active player in SLA.
This book is a collection of eleven chapters which together represent an original contribution to the field of (multimodal) spoken dialogue systems. The chapters include highly relevant topics, such as dialogue modeling in research systems versus industrial systems, evaluation, miscommunication and error handling, grounding, statistical and corpus-based approaches to discourse and dialogue modeling, data analysis, and corpus annotation and annotation tools. The book contains several detailed application studies, including, e.g., speech-controlled MP3 players in a car environment, negotiation training with a virtual human in a military context, application of spoken dialogue to question-answering systems, and cognitive aspects in tutoring systems. The chapters vary considerably with respect to the level of expertise required in advance to benefit from them. However, most chapters start with a state-of-the-art description from which all readers from the spoken dialogue community may benefit. Overview chapters and state-of-the-art descriptions may also be of interest to people from the human-computer interaction community.
This book is the first to summarize the voluminous literature on
the development of cognitive, codification, language, and
expressive/affective (CCCE) skills "from a clinical standpoint."
Emphasizing the need to ground services in research and theory, the
author constructs three basic clinical models--a conceptual model
for understanding, a descriptive model for formal assessment, and a
facilitative model for intervention. These models have major
implications for the work of all those who deal with CCCE problems
in a professional capacity.
This volume is intended for students who desire a practical
introduction to the use of language in daily and professional life.
It may be used either as part of a course or as an aid to
independent study. Readers will find that concepts relating to
language and discourse are highlighted in the text, explained
clearly, illuminated through examples and practice exercises, and
defined in the "Glossary/Index" at the back of the book.
"Approaches to Discourse Particles" serves as a unique reference by
presenting the spectrum of approaches to discourse particles /
markers in their richness and variability, whilst ensuring that the
differences and similarities between the approaches are clear and
comparable. With the hundreds of studies now published on discourse
particles / markers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make
such comparisons. Fischer addresses this problem by asking renowned
researchers from different linguistic backgrounds to describe their
particular ways of accounting for some of the most important
problem areas by addressing issues such as:
Continuing the tradition of this series, which has become a
standard reference work in language acquisition, Volume 4 contains
chapters on three additional languages/language groups--Finnish,
Greek, and Korean. The chapters are selective, critical reviews
rather than exhaustive summaries of the course of development of
each language. Authors approach the language in question as a case
study in a potential crosslinguistic typology of acquisitional
problems, considering those data which contribute to issues of
general theoretical concern in developmental psycholinguistics and
linguistic theory. Each chapter, therefore, provides the following:
Part of a series that offers mainly linguistic and anthropological research and teaching/learning material on a region of great cultural and strategic interest and importance in the post-Soviet era.
Authors are very experienced in the field Techniques are easy to follow and comprehensive allowing therapists to direct families to continue exercises at home Additional printable resources for families Testimonials from families supported by the Total Speech approach are included The advantage of the proposed book is the combining of clinical experience with describing techniques that are not commonly used or acknowledged (i.e. using tactile input in addition to auditory and visual) to support the speech of children with additional or complex needs. |
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