Metaphor: A Practical Introduction
By Zoltan Kovecses
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:304
* Publication Date:2002-01-24
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0195145119
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780195145113
* Binding:Paperback
Product Description:
This clear and lucid primer fills an important need by providing a comprehensive account of the many new developments in the study of metaphor over the last twenty years and their impact on our understanding of language, culture, and the mind. Beginning with Lakoff and Johnson's seminal work in Metaphors We Live By, Kovecses outlines the development of "the cognitive linguistic theory of metaphor" by explaining key ideas on metaphor. He also explores primary metaphor, metaphor systems, the "invariance principle," mental-imagery experiments, the many-space blending theory, and the role of image schemas in metaphorical thought. He examines the applicability of these ideas to numerous related fields.
Summary: Excellent, highly readable summary of research in conceptual metaphor
Rating: 5
Excellent book. Provides a clear and concise overview of current understanding of metaphor. Much more accessible than Lakoff's presentation in Woman, Fire, and Dangerous Things, although Lakoff is due significant credit for his seminal work in showing that metaphors are not just linguistic constructs but truly conceptual. Discusses cultural aspects, conceptual metaphor in idioms, restrictions on how metaphors are mapped, and theories of how metaphors relate to each other and metonymy.
Summary: Essential book for writers, teachers and thinkers.
Rating: 5
This is a great introduction to Metaphor and its practical uses. Although I'm interested in the scientific theory and research aspects of it, I am more interested in using these ideas to help students to become better writers. This book inspired further research, especially works by Lakoff, Turner, Johnson, Black, Pinker and their various collaborations over the years. As a writer, it provided a road map through the labyrinth of understanding and creating quality literature.
Kovecses is a natural teacher, and each chapter builds on the previous with clear accessibility. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in literature, writing or how our minds work. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction is now included in the intermediate fiction writing courses at Writers' Village University for 2008.
Summary: Thorough, within its limits
Rating: 3
The preface of this book says it's about "what has happened in the past two decades in the cognitive linguistic study of metaphor." I hadn't read a book on the subject of metaphor since 1978, so the precision of that comment went totally over my head. I'm writing this review so that the same doesn't happen to you.
The cognitive linguistic (CL) approach to metaphor is based on the work of Lakoff and Johnson (with whom the author of this book has worked, and to whom he dedicates the book). It emphasizes the conceptual, rather than merely linguistic, character of metaphor. It regards metaphor as a "mapping" from a "source (conceptual) domain" to a "target domain". So a statement like "I defended my argument" can be explained by a conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR, where "argument" is the target and "war" is the source. The same mapping also underlies many other expressions (e.g., "He won the argument"). Using one concept to explain many expressions (and even non-linguistic instantiations) is supposed to be a special benefit of the CL approach.
The book seems to be a very comprehensive exposition of the CL theory of metaphor. Metonymy is also discussed quite thoroughly. There are exercises after each chapter, together with a complete answer key. But that's as far as it goes. The CL theory is one theory of metaphor among several, and you won't learn anything about any of the others (other than a bit about "blending") from this book.
Some of book's aplications of the CL approach were pretty neat, including the discussions of complex abstract systems (Ch. 10), pedagogical applications (Ch. 14) and historical semantics and grammar (Ch. 15). But it's hard to tell from this book whether the theory really has the "scientific" quality to which it seems to aspire (as evidenced by, among other things, its mathematical-sounding jargon: "domains", "mappings" etc.)
In particular: The book names hundreds of conceptual metaphors, as if they have some objective existence. But it leaves a lot unexplained. How can you know that a particular conceptual metaphor is the correct one to invoke in a given case, to the exclusion of others or even just in preference to others? (BTW, the exercises often ask you to do just that.) When a name is given to a conceptual metaphor, does this mean that the source domain and its mapping to the target have been verified by historical research? Does the giving of a name suggest, as with the naming of species in modern biology, that some effort has gone into verifying that there really is a distinct species, with specific features that can be reproducibly distinguished? Or are the names more ad hoc, and bestowed according to individual taste (or the taste of Lakoff and his clique)?
The book never addresses such questions, but the author's attributions of conceptual metaphors provide some clue. They're often arbitrary or downright bizarre. For example, he cites "The sight filled them with joy," "She couldn't contain her joy any longer," and "I was bursting with happiness," as examples of HAPPINESS IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER (p. 86). OK, fluids are plausible here, though couldn't one also be filled with solids? Next he mentions "I couldn't keep my happiness to myself," "She gave way to her feelings of happiness," "His feelings of joy broke loose," and "He couldn't hold back tears of joy," as examples of HAPPINESS IS A CAPTIVE ANIMAL (id.). Where is the necessity of invoking a captive animal to explain these? Fluids could do just as well for most of them. Moreover, since we're told (at p. 16) that the "central idea" of the CL school is that the human body is the most important source of conceptual metaphors, excretion seems at least as appropriate a source for these metaphors as a captive animal. However, the author doesn't offer any justification for invoking the captive animal concept over any competing alternatives -- in fact, he doesn't mention any alternatives at all.
Such examples left me with the feeling that the CL theory is just as subjective as literary criticism and other traditional approaches to metaphor, but with an added layer of scientific pretension. That doesn't mean it can't produce occasional insights, but the pretension is irritating -- and misleading. Rather than having the relative rigor found in some branches of linguistics, CL theory of metaphor seems like just a lot of hand-waving (and a bit too much deference to Lakoff & Johnson). I'm not qualified to determine whether this is more a reflection of the theory per se or of the book's exposition of it, but it's disappointing in either case.
Mind Design and Minimal Syntax
By Wolfram Hinzen
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:314
* Publication Date:2006-04-27
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:019927441X
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780199274413
Product Description:
This book introduces generative grammar as an area of study and asks what it tells us about the human mind. Wolfram Hinzen lays the foundation for the unification of modern generative linguistics with the philosophies of mind and language. He introduces Chomsky's program of a "minimalist" syntax as a novel explanatory vision of the human mind. He explains how the Minimalist Program originated in work in cognitive science, biology, linguistics, and philosophy, and examines its implications for work in these fields. He considers the way the human mind is designed when seen as an arrangement of structural patterns in nature, and argues that its design is the product not so much of adaptive evolutionary history as of principles and processes that are ahistorical and internalist in character. Linguistic meaning, he suggests, arises in the mind as a consequence of structures emerging on formal rather than functional grounds. From this he substantiates an unexpected and deeply unfashionable notion of human nature.
Clearly written in nontechnical language and assuming a limited knowledge of the fields it examines and links, Minimal Mind Design will appeal to a wide range of scholars in linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also provides an exceptionally clear insight into the nature and aims of Chomsky's Minimalist Program.
Summary: On the nature of the mind
Rating: 5
In great detail, considerable insight and no slight illumination, Hinzen covers the most important elements and effects of generative grammar. He places the overall theory in the perspective of a Galilean Philosophy of science and a new approach to biology, which, again, draws its inspiration from earlier work. Indeed, while the Galilean intuitions may be easily found in Chomksy's work, the chapter that Hinzen has written on "Biological Internalism" is a classic of sorts. There is no better way to introduce oneself to one of the most important insights in the field of biology and philosophy of biology. And the chapter is a greater joy to read if one has some acquaintance with Mayr and Dawkins's work.
Hinzen's clarifications on the nature of "grammar", "UG", "minimalism" are quite worthwhile, especially as these words have caused endless confusion, mostly amongst philosophers.
There are marvelous discussions of phrase structure in chapter 5 that both introduce and take the reader to the cutting edge of the subject. Chapter 6 too has a fine overview on the nature of "phases" and "Spell-Out" and why NUM should be there or not and those who like arguments and the race for an explanatory theory should thoroughly enjoy these.
There is also an interesting discussion of modularity and Hinzen advances a fairly tight argument against this "massively" popular notion. One could only wish his argument was clearer.
Hinzen's account is not a mere repetition of Chomsky;s views but a substantially clarifying, clearer and often more surprising account than has been provided so far in the literature. Uriagereka;s Rhyme and Reason, of course, has a rich discussion on all the issues. But Hinzen;s book takes a fairly strong line and argues with great scholarship and not a little effectiveness for it.
The end of the book is occupied with the issue of nativism of concepts and Hinzen has only a few comments to offer, that are more or less available in the literature, largely in Chomsky. The concept of a WAD - a word acquisiton device - is a nice touch from Hinzen though.
Definitely a great book for beginners and aficionados alike, both in linguistics and philosophy. More so for philosophers.
From Molecule to Metaphor: A Neural Theory of Language (Bradford Books)
by: Jerome A. Feldman
By
* Publisher:The MIT Press
* Number Of Pages:377
* Publication Date:2006-06-02
* Sales Rank:285571
* ISBN / ASIN:0262062534
* EAN:9780262062534
* Binding:Hardcover
* Manufacturer:The MIT Press
* Studio:The MIT Press
* Average Rating:4.5
* Total Reviews:5
Book Description:
In From Molecule to Metaphor, Jerome Feldman proposes a theory of language and thought that treats language not as an abstract symbol system but as a human biological ability that can be studied as a function of the brain, as vision and motor control are studied. This theory, he writes, is a "bridging theory" that works from extensive knowledge at two ends of a causal chain to explicate the links between. Although the cognitive sciences are revealing much about how our brains produce language and thought, we do not yet know exactly how words are understood or have any methodology for finding out. Feldman develops his theory in computer simulations--formal models that suggest ways that language and thought may be realized in the brain. Combining key findings and theories from biology, computer science, linguistics, and psychology, Feldman synthesizes a theory by exhibiting programs that demonstrate the required behavior while remaining consistent with the findings from all disciplines.
After presenting the essential results on language, learning, neural computation, the biology of neurons and neural circuits, and the mind/brain, Feldman introduces specific demonstrations and formal models of such topics as how children learn their first words, words for abstract and metaphorical concepts, understanding stories, and grammar (including "hot-button" issues surrounding the innateness of human grammar). With this accessible, comprehensive book Feldman offers readers who want to understand how our brains create thought and language a theory of language that is intuitively plausible and also consistent with existing scientific data at all levels.
Date: 2007-08-17Rating: 5
Review:
Remarkable, but perhaps too ambitious
This is a remarkable book, albeit possibly too ambitious. Feldman has little use for Chomsky's theory of language (but admires his analysis of language structures). By analogy, he shows the same kinds of arguments could be used to show the ability to dance is genetic, and embodied in its own dedicated brain structure, as to say language is. What Feldman is about, though, is not to engage in polemics, but to attempt to develop a theory of language which draws on current knowledge and perspectives from a variety of fields. In fact, he says tongue in cheek, "the human genome does seem to code for a tendency to engage in bitter (academic) wars that are senseless to an outsider".
The key point is that any theory of language should reflect what we know about neuro-science. He implicitly makes the case that mastering language, while a wonderful achievement, is not much more amazing than mastering visual interpretation. There is a progression: one learns to control one's body, then use many of the same "mirror" neurons to interpret visually movements by others, than use many of the same neurons to give meaning to language describing movement. Grammar is a link between language and meaning, and is first learned by "matching sentences to what the child already knows visually". More abstract uses of language build on schema's for movement and emotional experience by way of metaphor, and Feldman does a wonderful job in giving the reader a great feel for how metaphor works, and how metaphor builds on past mastery of other metaphors organized in "cultural frames", and the role of parameterization.
Feldman may be overly ambitious in trying to communicate too much of the technical underpinnings, so that the reader sometimes gets bogged down. He does a nice job in giving some basics of neuro-science such as Hebb's rule for how neural connections are developed and embody learning. He nicely shows how triangular nodes can be used to represent and retrieve facts, and the neural basis for the well known concept of priming, in which visual or verbal cues impacts subsequent interpretation of language, when the two follow closely in time. However, he is less successful with belief networks, and "PDP connectionism" (what is known in other fields as neural network algorithms). Feldman uses the approach of providing toy problems, i.e. very simplified examples, and sometimes this just is not sufficient to get a real feel for things.
Date: 2007-05-07Rating: 5
Review:
How do we learn, use and construct language?
Jerome Feldman wrote a nice book on the question of how language came to be. It is readable for outsiders (and has some little jokes that make you smile once in a while). By taking you step to step to the concept of a neural theory of language the book can be read chapter by chapter. For me, the theory it develops looks quite satisfactory. Noam Chomsky is one of the guys I would like to comment on this book, maybe sometime in the future he does. Buy this book if you want to know how we construct and communicate information to others and how we use context, experience and grammar to understand. This is a typical American book, providing readers outside the field with a comprehensible overview of recent research. Well done!
Date: 2006-09-17Rating: 2
Review:
Wordy, convoluted, unsatisfying
I read this book immediately after reading Hawkins' _On Intelligence_. Whereas OI was written in very layman's language, FMTMANTOL was written in a very academic style. Its style seemed to contradict the content. On the one hand, it gave some very simplified and hand-waving view of molecules, but went over the same simple points again and again in too much detail. Specifically, the author seemed fascinated with metaphor. Obviously that's the title of the book, but it seemed rather than just explaining how metaphor works, he as obsessed with pointing out the metaphors he was using to try to describe neurons and such. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment so I can't give any specific examples. Then (on the other hand), the meat of the book covers some theories on schemas and other logical/symbolic processing the brain allegedly does. This too is done in excruciating and difficult-to-read detail. The same points are repeated over and over in numerous ways, like one of those online personality tests that asks you the same question with slightly different wording. It seems that if he's covering things as simply as he does in the molecular section, then he doesn't need to go into too much detail, and certainly doesn't need the formal tone he takes. And if he's covering the more advanced stuff, then he also doesn't need to go into so much repetition that it seems he's writing for an unsophisticated audience.
I actually described the experience of reading it as "The most excruciating displeasure I've ever had".
Anyway, I think the book could have been 1/2 to 1/3rd the length it was.
Also, especially after reading Hawkins' book, I was especially disappointed that it didn't discuss the role of anatomy and brain structure. Certainly in a book that alleges to explain "from molecule to metaphor", there should be some discussion about brain regions, anatomy, cortex, etc. There wasn't even any relevant mention of how strong a role feedback plays.
He talks about molecules leading to synaptic transmission, but doesn't even show a spike train or time-voltage plot, as would be expected in even the most rudimentary exposition on neural function. A Hodgkins-Huxley model would also have gone well here as one level in between purely molecular function and neural transmission. He also could have/should have covered something about how memories are formed, at a molecular level (given the title of the book), rather than at the neural networks level, where he treats memories simply as synaptic weightings.
He seems to motivate his writing with how wonderful it'll be when we have intelligent machines, but he doesn't discuss anything other than some cheesy software models of "schemas", which seem to be able to parse natural languages, and says nothing of what people normally consider "real" intelligence. I think he should have made mention of the vast differences in processing power, power consumption (watts), operations/joule, memory, and associative power of the brain vs. real computers. I'm not a linguist or cognitive researcher, but my sense is that although schemas might be a theory of how it all works, it's not really what's going on. My analogy is that Newton had a theory of physics, but then Relativity adds more detail and classical physics "falls out" of more modern physics. I think schemas are like this: once we have a better (and artificially reproducible) theory of intelligence and language, then schemas as they are represented in this book will "fall out" of the theory.
Also, I'm puzzled about his insistence on equating intelligence with language. Although he is very clear about embodiment being a requirement for language, he makes little mention of how to get an artificial system to interact with the environment. Personally, I don't think you can begin to tackle language until you have a robot that can physically deal with the real world 1/10th as well as a real animal does -- something that can run on uneven terrain, use stereoscopic vision, and fumble for its keys in the dark. THAT to me is true embodiment, and until we have that figured out, I think theories about how language works with so-called schemas are too far out there to believe what's "really" going on in the brain. The schemas viewpoint of things seems waaay too much like computer science and trying to hack some way to parse a language without a lot of input.
The other stuff he should have mentioned, which, being an EE like me I think he should have, and being interested in artificial embodiment, is the research happening in neuromorphic engineering. People are using silicon to build neurally plausible *actual* systems, that work in hardware, without resorting to schemas, etc. They are mimicking cortex, visual areas, auditory function, etc., in real circuitry with similar orders of power, speed (faster than, even), and parallelism as real wetware. The advantage is of course that these circuits don't just simulate function like a digital computer, they *do* the function; he even says in his philosophical chapter at the end that the simulation of water, no matter how realistic, still isn't wet. Anyway, I'm getting off course here. The point is I think he gets way too far away from the physicality of the brain in trying to support his schemas idea.
Also, I don't think he did any of the research in his book himself. Not that that's such a bad thing, but given the level of wordiness, redundancy, and trying-to-explain-ness of it all, it almost seemed as though he were explaining his own theories. The book is a summary of other people's theories on language and not a whole lot on other things related to intelligence. One notably missing item in his explanation of language is the ability of humans to *hear* language. No serious mention of auditory processing or phonemic understanding is made. All the experiments on the computer are made with text.
Anyway, despite the shortcomings, some of the ideas are a little interesting. After all, I did finish the book. I think his ideas for language processing would be well suited for expert systems or other domains of limited scope. It was interseting to read about how non-english languages allow for variations in color understanding and word endings.
Overall I'm giving this book a crappy grade for style, readability, and comprehensibility. The subject matter really wasn't that difficult, but his writing styile made it so. The only reason it gets a 2 is because there was some interesting content. I thought it would extend my knowledge after reading Hawkins' book, but instead just made me more scornful of computer science oriented people trying to recreate "intelligence".
Also, some of my biases coming into this were having read Pinker's Blank Slate, Language Instinct, and How the Mind Works, and of course Hawkins' books. Also, I have done some graduate level research in neuromorphic engineering, which further biases my opinions towards that of feeling the need to embody physical stuff before you can think about tackling the language problem.
Date: 2006-08-23Rating: 5
Review:
Deep Thoughts on the Relation between the Brain and the Mind
"How do our brains compute our minds?" If you have thought about this question, and even if you haven't, you will likely find this book fascinating. Dr. Feldman's answer is a theory developed after years of research by his group at U. C. Berkeley and workers at other places that holds that the embodiment of all thought, and of language in particular, is central to how this works.
While I certainly wouldn't classify this book as bedtime reading, these ideas are presented with great care so that the non-specialist reader can grasp the big picture, even if he doesn't get every detail. The details are there, so the book would also be useful to researchers and students, but Feldman charts a course through them so the layman (like me) can focus on the central notions and not get lost in nor be intimidated by the wealth of information provided.
And what a picture it is - the Neural Theory of Language (NTL) is shown to be consistent with all the experimental findings from relevant disciplines, and to provide a framework that allows for further work where the outstanding scientific questions can be posed with precision. Computer programs are described based on the NTL that have achieved remarkable results, and the ongoing work to address their shortcomings is exhilarating in its promise.
The writing is clear and straightforward, and Dr. Feldman displays flashes of wry humor and a becoming sense of humility regarding what they are about. This is meaty stuff, but if you are interested in doing some thinking about thinking, I definitely recommend this book.
Date: 2006-07-31Rating: 5
Review:
Great Presentation of the Brain, the Mind, Language, and Thought
If you read "On Intelligence" [...] and it left you hanging, wanting more, this book is perfect for you. But, be prepared to spend a lot more time thinking.
As the book's title promises, Dr. Feldman walks the reader through an explanation of how language and thought have their roots in chemical reactions at the molecular level, a neuron firing. Through twenty-seven masterfully staged chapters, one is exposed to all of the mind-boggling complexity that leads to communication and understanding. I'm sure that each chapter is deserving of a book of its own but the author has managed to give you just the right exposure in a dozen or so pages.
I read the book over a period of a few weeks as I could seldom dedicate more time in a sitting than what it took me to process one chapter. But, this always left me looking forward to getting back to where I left off. It turned out to be a good approach for me; the book is full of backward references for review, and forward references to keep things in context.
Dr. Feldman takes a low-key approach (little sensationalism, mostly matter-of-fact descriptions) to concepts presented. I enjoyed the journey the book took me on; the highlight for me (background in computer science) was the computer models, the simulations. Computer programs can only do what they are told. So, constructing and running computer models is sure to point out any existing weakness in the author's understanding. But, when they exhibit the proposed behavior, how satisfying!
From the preface:
"This book proposes to begin integrating current insights from many disciplines into a coherent neural theory of language... Understanding language and thought requires combining findings from biology, computer science, linguistics, and psychology... If you want to understand how our brains create thought and language, there is a fair chance that this book can help."
There are nine sections to the book:
I. Embodied Information Processing
II. How the Brain Computes
III. How the Mind Computes
IV. Learning Concrete Words
V. Learning Words for Actions
VI. Abstract and Metaphorical Words
VII. Understanding Stories
VIII. Combining Form and Meaning
IX. Embodied Language
Dr. Feldman has spent twenty-five years working in the area and you can tell from the story he has put together. A very interesting one.
guy
Experimental Pragmatics (Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Languages and Cognition)
By Ira A. Noveck, Dan Sperber
* Publisher:Palgrave Macmillan
* Number Of Pages:320
* Publication Date:2005-01-15
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1403903506
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781403903501
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
How does our knowledge of the language on the one hand, and of the context on the other, permit us to understand what we are told, to resolve ambiguities, to grasp both explicit and implicit content, to appreciate metaphor and irony? These issues have been studied in two disciplines: linguistic pragmatics and psycholinguistics, with only limited interactions between the two. This volume lays down the foundation for a new field: Experimental Pragmatics. Contributions review pioneering work and present novel ways of articulating theories and experimental methods in the area.
Summary: Important confluence linguistics, psychology
Rating: 5
Excerpt: The book is divided into 3 parts devoted, respectively, to pioneering approaches (Chapters 2-6), to current issues in experimental pragmatics (Chapters 7-11), and to the special case of scalar implicatures (Chapters 12-15). Although this volume aims to develop and give a name to a budding field of inquiry, the chapters in Part I are devoted to researchers who have been working in this area all along.
Chapter 2, by Herb Clark and Adrian Bangerter, provides both a historical and a contemporary perspective on reference, which is the ubiquitous activity involved in picking out an object for an addressee. Consider the utterance Put the small coffee cup over there. One would have to pick out the cup (presumably from among other candidate objects) and know where over there is (presumably from a gesture). Their chapter describes how reference was initially viewed as autonomous and addressee-blind before it came to be viewed as an activity that requires the coordination of both speaker and addressee. Among the features of referring highlighted are: (a) the multiple methods of directing an addressee's attention to individual objects; and (b) speaker-addressee pacts to arrive at a reference (i.e., to agree to certain provisional names). The coordination involved in referring is extensive, Clark and Bangerter argue, leading them to conclude that it is far from being an autonomous act. In fact, it requires more than mere coordination, it is an act that requires the full participation of both initiator and addressee. The chapter highlights how armchair reflection, field observations and careful experimentation have combined to lead to a more profound understanding of this fundamental communicative act. The chapter also provides an opportunity to appreciate Clark's well-known contributions to discourse analysis (the Given-New contract, common ground) in the context of pragmatic theory-making.
For more than 20 years, Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., has embodied the aim of this book, by specifically testing linguistic-pragmatic theories using experimental psychological methods. In Chapter 3, Gibbs describes how his experiments have constrained theories with respect to four areas that are at the heart of linguistic-pragmatics: making and understanding promises, under-standing definite descriptions, making and interpreting indirect speech acts, and the distinction between what is said and what is meant. In each case, he has - like most accomplished experimentalists - come up with one or more clever designs that, in the end, either elucidate a given theory (e.g., the short-circuited nature of indirect requests) or force one to rethink a theory's claims (e.g., Searle's speech act theory with respect to promises). The aim of Gibbs's chapter is to convince experimentalists of the value of linguistic-pragmatic theories and to convince linguists of the value of experimentation.
Metaphor is a classic pragmatic form whose understanding has been greatly advanced by psycholinguistic investigations. As Sam Glucksberg shows in Chapter 4, metaphor comprehension in psycholinguistics was initially viewed through a Gricean lens, in which the literal interpretation of a metaphor is given priority. According to Grice (or Searle), a metaphor renders an utterance 'defective' and prompts one to look for another meaning. In his chapter, Glucksberg argues that this standard pragmatic model persisted in the literature because its literal-first hypothesis resonates with an approachthat assumes that both semantics and syntax are primary while pragmatics is secondary, an assumption that is common in psycholinguistic circles. Through his and his colleagues' pioneering work on metaphor, Glucksberg demonstrates how metaphorical interpretations of sentences such as Some jobs are jails are carried out as automatically as other linguistic processes. He extends his analysis to other related phenomena (e.g., showing how novel features emerge in conceptual combinations like peeled apples) in order to show just how automatic pragmatic processes are in comprehension tasks. He concludes by suggesting that experimentation is needed to determine the correct division of labour between linguistic decoding and pragmatic inferencing, a central issue in current pragmatic theory. The pragmatic process, as shown by Sam Glucksberg, does not merit its 'stepchild' status; pragmatics is so automatic that it is arguably a module. In Chapter 5, Guy Politzer - who was often a lone voice underlining the importance of linguistic-pragmatics to the field of reasoning - provides a pragmatic analysis of both classic and modern reasoning tasks along with experimental results that stress the importance of the way individual premises, conclusions and task information in general are interpreted. For a notable example, consider Piaget's famous class-inclusion problem, in which children are shown a picture of five daisies and three tulips and then asked, 'Are there more daisies or more flowers?' After presenting a 'microanalysis' of the way the task's demands are interpreted, Politzer shows that young children (5-year-olds) fail to answer correctly (to say flowers) because they interpret 'flowers' to mean flowers-that-are-not-daisies. He also shows how a short series of disambiguating questions prompts even the youngest children to demonstrate their class-inclusion skills. Such microanalyses can be applied equally to many of Kahneman and Tversky's tasks (e.g., the Linda problem and the Engineer-Lawyer problem), Wason's tasks (the 2-4-6 problem and the Selection Task), as well as to individual terms like conditionals and quantifiers. The implications for this approach are clear: one cannot do reasoning work without linguistic-pragmatics.
Chapter 6 by Tony Sanford and Linda Moxey reviews their previous work on the psychological processing of quantifier understanding and demonstrates how experimental approaches can inform linguistic-pragmatics. They begin by pointing out that not all quantifiers are alike. A large set of 'non-standard' quantifiers, such as few, many and most, convey much more than a rough notion of quantity or proportions; they have communicative functions as well. For example, polarity plays a determinative role in quantifier interpretation. A negative quantifier like few and a positive quantifier like a few have quite different effects on the interpretation of sentences. Compare few versus a few of the MPs attended the meeting. Few is more likely than A few to place the focus on the complementary set, those MPs who did not show up. Their findings show that the interpretation of quantifiers goes well beyond the semantics of these terms.
Current issues in experimental pragmatics
The chapters in this section extend both the range of topics one can investigate in Experimental Pragmatics and the techniques one can use. The chapters here cover inter alia disambiguation, metaphor and joke comprehension, promise understanding, the import of saying even-if, and the telling of time. All these topics are addressed using various experimental paradigms from neuropsychology, developmental psychology, reasoning, psycholinguistics and anthropology.
In Chapter 7, Jean-Baptiste Van der Henst and Dan Sperber review experiments that test central tenets of Relevance Theory and in particular the cognitive principle of relevance ('human cognition is geared to the maximization of relevance'), and the communicative principle ('every utterance conveys a presumption of its own relevance'). Some of these experiments draw on two standard paradigms in the psychology of reasoning: relational reasoning and the Wason Selection Task. Others investigate the behaviour of people asked the time by a stranger in public places. All involve manipulating separately the two factors of relevance, effect and effort. These experiments illustrate how a pragmatic theory that is precise enough to have testable consequences can put previous experimental research in a novel perspective and can suggest new experimental paradigms.
Orna Peleg, Rachel Giora and Ofer Fein give an account of the role of the context in accessing the appropriate meaning of ambiguous terms in sentence comprehension in Chapter 8. They argue against: (a) a modular view which assumes that lexical access to all meanings of a word are automatic and encapsulated only to be refined by an independent non-modular system; and against (b) a direct access view which relies largely on just the context to arrive at a word's intended meaning. Rather, they propose the graded salience hypothesis, which assumes that: (a) more salient meanings are accessed faster from the start; and that (b) context also affects comprehension on-line. Their chapter presents four experiments whose results lend strong support to their claims.
In Chapter 9, Seana Coulson provides a review of the way Evoked Response Potentials' (ERP) methods can be applied to language comprehension, with a focus on what this technique has to offer pragmatics. The chapter is instructive in that it describes ERP's various dependent variables (P300, N400, P600 etc.) and the aspects of comprehension with which these measures are associated. Coulson cites studies of pragmatic import - for example, on joke comprehension and metaphor integration - including many that come from Coulson herself. She works from a model that predicts that processing difficulty is related to the extent to which comprehension requires the participant to align and integrate conceptual structure across domains. She goes on to suggest ways in which ERP experiments could be exploited to investigate other linguistic-pragmatic issues, such as prosody and thedistinction between explicatures and implicatures. Overall, her chapter shows very clearly how imaging can be exploited and indicates what one should expect from this technique in the future.
In Chapter 10, Josie Bernicot and Virginie Laval focus on children between the ages of 3 and 10 and their developing understanding of promises, based on the theoretical framework of Speech Act Theory (Austin 1962; Searle, 1969, 1979; Searle and Vanderveken, 1985). The authors summarize a programme of research that has been investigating promise comprehension among children from the point of view that language is a communication system and that language competence is the acquisition and use of that system. What counts as a promise? Here the authors present two experiments investigating the extent to which interlocutors' intentions (listener's wishes about the accomplishment of an action) and textual characteristics of utterances (verb tense) play a role in understanding that a promise was made.
In Chapter 11, Simon J. Handley and Aidan Feeney develop a psycho-logical account of the way in which people reason with even-if, working in a mental models' framework (Johnson-Laird, 1983). According to the mental model approach, many errors of reasoning arise because people represent only one or a few of all the models of a given set of premises and leave the other models implicit. They then draw their conclusions on the sole basis of the explicitly represented models. Handley and Feeney compare two possible ways in which this partial representation of problems might arise. In one, all models are represented before being pared down by extra-logical, namely pragmatic, factors; in the other, which the authors advocate, initial representations are limited to one model while pragmatic considerations add new models. They present two experiments based on inference making from even-if premises that lend support to their account. They discuss the implications of their work for experimental pragmatics in general.
The case of scalar implicatures
The chapters in the third section of the book focus on one pragmatic phenomenon, scalar implicature, which is at the heart of ongoing debates in pragmatic theory. As described earlier, there are two main accounts of these inferences. One assumes that such implicatures are automatically associated with the use of a weak term (as exemplified by Levinson, 2000) and the other assumes that the implicature is drawn out effortfully (as exemplified by Relevance Theory). In these chapters, four authors (or groups of authors) present experimental findings that lend support either to Relevance Theory or to some form of the default view.
In Chapter 12, Anne Bezuidenhout and Robin Morris first describe how they operationalized the two theoretical accounts into testable pragmatic-processing models. This is less obvious than it might seem because it is hard to do justice to the rich and detailed accounts that have been offered by these rival theories on the topic of scalar implicatures. They then report on two eye-movement experiments that test predictions generated from the models as participants read a series of sentence-pairs such as Some books had colour pictures. In fact all of them did, which is why the teachers liked them. One can determine whether Some in the first sentence readily prompts Not all by investigating potential slowdowns and look-backs when processing the second sentence. They argue that the weight of the evidence favours the Underspecification Account (which is the one inspired by Relevance Theory); however, they argue that their Default Model (the one inspired by a neo-Gricean account) could be modified to accommodate their results.
In Chapter 13, Gennaro Chierchia, Maria Theresa Guasti, Andrea Gualmini, Luisa Meroni, Stephen Crain and Francesca Foppolo present a novel account of implicatures based on the Semantic Core Model, which challenges a way of interpreting Grice's proposal that has become dominant in the field. According to the dominant view, one first retrieves the semantics of a whole root sentence and then processes the implicatures associated with it (in a strictly modular way). The Semantic Core Model proposes, instead, that semantic and pragmatic processing take place in tandem. Implicatures are factored in recursively, in parallel with truth conditions. They go on to present experimental evidence from adults and children that support this new model. One of the novel findings from this work demonstrates how particular grammatical contexts predict the non-existence of scalar implicatures.
In Chapter 14, Ira A. Noveck reviews the two rival accounts and the processing predictions they engender, before summarizing his laboratory's findings from experiments investigating those logical terms (i.e., might, some, or and and) that could be interpreted either minimally (i.e., with just their linguistically encoded meanings) or as pragmatically enriched. His developmental studies show how children are less likely than adults to pursue pragmatic inferences, leading to a robust experimental effect in which children actually appear more logical than adults. Follow-ups show how task-demands, and not just age, can affect the production of pragmatic inference making, pointing to the important role of context in these paradigms. The adult studies, which include an ERP investigation, primarily explore the time-course of scalar inferences. Whereas participants' pragmatic treatments of underinformative statements (e.g., the time taken to respond False to Some cows are mammals) are very time consuming, True responses are not. Furthermore, time pressure encourages True responses. Noveck presents his findings as support for Relevance Theory.
In Chapter 15, Anne Reboul presents a novel task, which she calls Koenig's puzzle, as promising ground for testing between the two rival theories. Imagine that after being handed a glass of wine, a speaker says Better red wine than no white wine. The puzzle consists in determining the speaker's wine preference and inferring what she was actually given. While referring to the two sides of the debate as localists and globalists (for the Default and Relevance accounts, respectively), Reboul describes Koenig's puzzle in detail and proposes a solution to it. Reboul then explains why such sentences may be used to test between the two accounts. Finally, her paper reports two experiments whose results show how implicatures are actually involved in the puzzle. Her results are presented as support for global over local theories for this specific pragmatic phenomenon.
How to approach the book
The chapters are representative of what we are calling Experimental Pragmatics. Each summarizes previous experimental work or presents original experiments that address topics central to pragmatic theory - metaphor, quantifier interpretation, scalar inference, disambiguation, reference and promise understanding, to name a few. Many of the chapters share common themes, especially the last four, but each can be read and appreciated separately. Our intention has been to illustrate how Experimental Pragmatics may contribute to linguistics and psychology, and to the cognitive sciences in general.
Terminology: Theory, Methods, and Applications (Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice)
By M. Teresa Cabre
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages:252
* Publication Date:1999-10
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:155619787X
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781556197871
Product Description:
Beginning with an overview of terminology, this work goes on to discuss the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the foundations of terminology, terminography, computerized terminology, terminology and standardization, and the role of terminologists in a language service,
Terminology: Theory, methods and applications addresses language specialists, terminologists, and all those who take an interest in socio-political and technical aspects of Terminology. The book covers its subject comprehensively and deals among other things with concepts (the relation between linguistics, cognitive science, communication studies, documentation and computer science); Methodology, especially with regard to specialised language and dictionaries; the social-political challenges of the modern technological society and some solutions from a Terminological point of view; Terminology as a standard in multilingual communication and guardian of cultures. It is particularly suited as a course book.
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
xi
Chapter I : An Overview of Terminology
1.Social and political aspects
1
2.Scientific and functional aspects
6
3.Organizaional aspects
14
Chapter II: Terminology, an interdisciplinary field
1.Terminology and linguistics
25
2.Terminology and cognitive science
39
3.Terminology and communication
45
4.Terminology and documentation
50
5.Terminology, computer science and knowledge engineering
52
Chapter III: The Foundations of Terminology
1.Special languages
56
2.The terminological unit
80
Chapter IV: Terminology in Practice: Terminology
1.The foudations of terminological practice
115
2.Materials used in terminography
116
3.Working methods
129
Chapter V: Computerized terminology
1.The concept and scope of computerized terminology
161
2.Contribution of computer science to terminology
162
3.Terminology and data bank
168
4.Terminological data banks
175
Chapter VI: Terminology and Standardization
1.General standardization
194
2.Terminological standardization
199
3.Terminology and neology
203
Chapter VII: Professional Terminology: The role of Terminologists in a Language Service
1.Linguistic needs ans language planning
215
2.Planning and language services
216
3.The technical tasks of language services
217
4.Language services and terminology
219
5.The training of terminologists
220
Notes
225
References
233
Index
245
The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form
By Chris Knight, Michael Studdert-Kennedy, James Hurford
* Publisher: Cambridge University Press
* Number Of Pages: 438
* Publication Date: 2000-11-20
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0521786967
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780521786966
* Binding: Paperback
Book Description:
The Evolutionary Emergence of Language covers the origins and early evolution of language. Its main purpose is to synthesize current thinking on this topic, particularly from a standpoint in theoretical linguistics. It is suitable for students of human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology and general linguistics. It is the outcome of a major international conference on the evolution of language and includes contributions from many of the best known figures in this field. Very few truly interdisciplinary volumes on this topic have previously been published.
Download Description:
Language has no counterpart in the animal world. Unique to Homo sapiens, it appears inseparable from human nature. But how, when and why did it emerge? The contributors to this volume - linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, and others - adopt a modern Darwinian perspective which offers a bold synthesis of the human and natural sciences. As a feature of human social intelligence, language evolution is driven by biologically anomalous levels of social cooperation. Phonetic competence correspondingly reflects social pressures for vocal imitation, learning, and other forms of social transmission. Distinctively human social and cultural strategies gave rise to the complex syntactical structure of speech. This book, presenting language as a remarkable social adaptation, testifies to the growing influence of evolutionary thinking in contemporary linguistics. It will be welcomed by all those interested in human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology, and general linguistics.
Linguistic Universals and Language Change
By Jeff Good
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:360
* Publication Date:2008-03-20
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0199298491
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780199298495
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
This book looks at the relationship between linguistic universals and language change. Reflecting the resurgence of work in both fields over the last two decades, it addresses two related issues of central importance in linguistics: the balance between synchronic and diachronic factors in accounting for universals of linguistic structure, and the means of distinguishing genuine aspects of a universal human cognitive capacity for language from regularities that may be traced to extraneous origins. The volume brings together specially commissioned work by leading scholars, including prominent representatives of generative and functional linguistics. It examines rival explanations for linguistic universals and assesses the effectiveness of competing models of language change. The authors investigate patterns and processes of grammatical and lexical change across a wide range of languages; they consider the degree to which common characteristics condition processes of change in related languages; and examine how far differences in linguistic outcomes may be explained by cultural or external factors. This book will interest the wide range of scholars in linguistics and related fields concerned with language change, historical linguistics, linguistic typology and universals, and the nature of the human language faculty
Syntax and Semantics of Prepositions (Text, Speech and Language Technology)
By Patrick Saint-Dizier
* Publisher:Springer
* Number Of Pages:332
* Publication Date:2006-03-08
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1402038496
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781402038495
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
This book is the first to provide an integrated view of preposition from morphology to reasoning, via syntax and semantics. It offers new insights in applied and formal linguistics, and cognitive science. It underlines the importance of prepositions in a number of computational linguistics applications, such as information retrieval and machine translation. The reader will benefit from a wide range of views and applications to various linguistic frameworks, among which, most notably, HPSG. The book is for researchers working in the fields of computational linguistics, linguistics, and artificial intelligence.
Developmental Variations in Learning: Applications to Social, Executive Function, Language, and Reading Skills (Lea's Communication Series)
By Dennis L. Molfese, Victoria J. Molfese
* Publisher:Lawrence Erlbaum
* Number Of Pages:376
* Publication Date:2001-10-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0805822291
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780805822298
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
Developmental changes in cognitive abilities in childhood have long been of interest to researchers across many fields, including behavioral sciences, communications, education, and medicine. With the publication of research findings showing individual differences in the development of children's learning skills has come the realization that models, methodologies, and analysis approaches that include consideration of individual differences are needed. It has brought an increase in research collaborations among experts in different fields who bring different approaches together in studies of cognitive abilities. This work has yielded a growing body of knowledge about how children with normal abilities and those with developmental disorders learn, gain skills in social competency, develop decision making and planning abilities, and acquire language skills and the skills needed for reading and writing. More recently, researchers have sought to use this body of knowledge as a basis for the early identification ofchildren at risk for cognitive delays and for the development and evaluation of intervention approaches. The chapters in this book review literature in five areas of cognition, and provide theory- and research-based information on the applications of research findings and intervention approaches. Throughout the chapters, information on the interactions of different cognitive abilities and the role of individual differences in development that influences development assessments is included.
The Neurocognition of Language
By Colin M. Brown, Peter Hagoort
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:424
* Publication Date:2001-06-07
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0198507933
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780198507932
Product Description:
The Neurocognition of Language is the first critical overview of the cognitive neuroscience of language, one of the fastest-moving and most exciting areas in language research today. And it is a necessity for anyone requiring a summary of our current understanding of the relation between language and the brain. It brings together human language experts who discuss the representations and structures of language as well as the cognitive architectures that underlie speaking, listening, and reading. In addition to valuable reviews of existing brain imaging literature on word and sentence processing and contributions from brain lesion data, this book provides a basis for future brain imaging research. It even explains the prospects and problems of brain imaging techniques for the study of language, presents some of the most recent and promising analytic procedures for relating brain imaging data to the higher cognitive functions, and contains a review of the neuroanatomical structure of Broca's language area. Uniquely interdisciplinary, this book offers researchers and students in cognitive neuroscience with state-of-the-art reviews of the major language functions, while being of equal interest to researchers in linguistics and language who want to learn about language's neural bases.
Figurative Language and Thought (Counterpoints, Cognition, Memory and Language)
By Albert N. Katz, Cristina Cacciari, Raymond W. Gibbs, Mark Turner
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:208
* Publication Date:1998-09-10
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0195109627
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780195109627
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
Our understanding of the nature and processing of figurative language is central to several important issues in cognitive science, including the relationship of language and thought, how we process language, and how we comprehend abstract meaning. Over the past fifteen years, traditional approaches to these issues have been challenged by experimental psychologists, linguists, and other cognitive scientists interested in the structures of the mind and the processes that operate on them. In Figurative Language and Thought, internationally recognized experts in the field of figurative language, Albert Katz, Mark Turner, Raymond W. Gibbs Jr., and Cristina Cacciari, provide a coherent and focused debate on the subject. The book's authors discuss a variety of fundamental questions, including: What can figures of speech tell us about the structure of the conceptual system? If and how should we distinguish the literal from the nonliteral in our theories of language and thought? Are we primarily figurative thinkers and consequently figurative language users or the other way around? Why do we prefer to speak metaphorically in everyday conversation, when literal options may be available for use? Is metaphor the only vehicle through which we can understand abstract concepts? What role do cultural and social factors play in our comprehension of figurative language? These and related questions are raised and argued in an integrative look at the role of nonliteral language in cognition. This volume, a part of Counterpoints series, will be thought-provoking reading for a wide range of cognitive psychologists, linguists, and philosophers.
Reporting Discourse, Tense, and Cognition
By T.I. Sakita
* Publisher:Elsevier Science
* Number Of Pages:304
* Publication Date:2002-08-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:008044041X
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780080440415
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
Reporting discourse has attracted rigorous analyses in linguistics, literary theory, cognitive psychology, sociology, and ethnomethodology. This book provides innovative analyses of controversial topics in reporting discourse like tense alternation, reporting styles, patterns, and functions. After critically examining existing theories, Tomoko I. Sakita offers new theoretical perspectives and empirical analyses within the scope of actual language performance. Her analysis covers tenses that previous studies have neglected or have considered 'ungrammatical' or 'mistaken.' Based on models of cognitive recollection and stream of consciousness, tense reveals cognitive, attitudinal, and consciousness state markers in complex reporting processes, as well as identity, speaker psychology, and deictic relations, embedded in discourse and narrative contexts.
Twenty-First Century Psycholinguistics: Four Cornerstones
By Anne Cutler
* Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
* Number Of Pages: 424
* Publication Date: 2005-07
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0805852085
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780805852080
* Binding: Hardcover
Product Description:
Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field, and hence relationships are at its heart. First and foremost is the relationship between its two parent disciplines, psychology and linguistics, a relationship which has changed and advanced over the half century of the field's independent existence. At the beginning of the 21st Century, psycholinguistics forms part of the rapidly developing enterprise known as cognitive neuroscience, in which the relationship between biology and behavior plays a central role. Psycholinguistics is about language in communication, so that the relationship between language production and comprehension has always been important, and as psycholinguistics is an experimental discipline, it is likewise essential to find the right relationship between model and experiment. This book focuses in turn on each of these four cornerstone relationships: Psychology and Linguistics, Biology and Behavior, Production and Comprehension, and Model and Experiment. The authors are from different disciplinary backgrounds, but share a commitment to clarify the ways that their research illuminates the essential nature of the psycholinguistic enterprise.
Language in Action: Psychological Models of Conversation (International Series in Social Psychology)
By W. Turnbull
* Publisher:Psychology Press
* Number Of Pages:208
* Publication Date:2003-04-11
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0415198674
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780415198677
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
In this book, Turnbull proposes a new Social Pragmatic model of conversation as social interaction. He also describes the research paradigm of Social Pragmatics that experimental psychologists can use to study conversation. This book will be invaluable for advanced students in psychology, sociology, language and linguistics and communication.
Summary: Code Model is a major idea
Rating: 4
If you approach this book from the point of view of automatic speech recognition, hoping for some insight, then you might be disappointed. The level of treatment is not about the electromechanics of how speech is produced and recognised.
But there is one useful idea. The Code Model. It attempts to model communications between two members of a species. Bees are studied as one key example. To try and abstract out the representation of information that is communicated. One major difference with humans is readily apparent. Bees' ability seems innate. With them being able to learn not very much. The Code Model's popularity in psychology is explained, as a cognitive approach that helps us understand human talk.
The text goes on to describe other models. Some of which you might also find useful.
Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution (Studies in the Evolution of Language)
by: Maggie Tallerman
en
By
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:448
* Publication Date:2005-07-15
* Sales Rank:1261706
* ISBN / ASIN:0199279047
* EAN:9780199279043
* Binding:Paperback
* Manufacturer:Oxford University Press, USA
* Studio:Oxford University Press, USA
* Average Rating:
* Total Reviews:
Book Description:
This book addresses central questions in the evolution of language: where it came from; how it relates to primate communication; how and why it evolved; how it came to be culturally transmitted; and how languages diversified. The chapters are written from the perspective of the latest work in linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and computer science, and reflect the idea that various cognitive, physical, neurological, social, and cultural prerequisites led to the development of full human language. Some of these evolutionary changes were preadaptations for language, while others were adaptive changes allowing the development of particular linguistic characteristics. The authors consider a broad spectrum of ideas about the conditions that led to the evolution of protolanguage and full language. Some examine changes that occurred in the course of evolution to Homo sapiens; others consider how languages themselves have adapted by evolving to be learnable. Some chapters look at the workings of the brain, and others deploy sophisticated computer simulations that model such aspects as the emergence of speech sounds and the development of grammar. All make use of the latest methods and theories to probe into the origins and subsequent development of the only species that has language. The book will interest a wide range of linguists, cognitive scientists, biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and experts in artificial intelligence, as well as all those fascinated by issues, puzzles, and problems raised by the evolution of language.
Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure (Typological Studies in Language)
By Joan L. Bybee, Paul Hopper
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages:492
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1588110281
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781588110282
* Published: 2001
Summary: A must-read on functionalism
Rating: 5
This book shows a wonderful range of clearly stated frequentist and emergentist views of functional linguistics. I heartily recommend this...
Quoting the publisher's blurb for this book:
A mainstay of functional linguistics has been the claim that linguistic elements and patterns that are frequently used in discourse become conventionalized as grammar. This book addresses the two issues that are basic to this claim: first, the question of what types of elements are frequently used in discourse and second, the question of how frequency of use affects cognitive representations.
Reporting on evidence from natural conversation, diachronic change, variability, child language acquisition and psycholinguistic experimentation the original articles in this book support two major principles. First, the content of people's interactions consists of a preponderance of subjective, evaluative statements, dominated by the use of pronouns, copulas and intransitive clauses. Second, the frequency with which certain items and strings of items are used has a profound influence on the way language is broken up into chunks in memory storage, the way such chunks are related to other stored material and the ease with which they are accessed to produce new utterances...
Of Minds and Language: A Dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque Country
By Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Pello Salaburu, Juan Uriagereka
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:480
* Publication Date:2009-02-15
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0199544662
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780199544660
Product Description:
This book presents a state-of-the-art account of what we know and would like to know about language, mind, and brain. Chapters by leading researchers in linguistics, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, cognitive neuroscience, comparative cognitive psychology, and evolutionary biology are framed by an introduction and conclusion by Noam Chomsky, who places the biolinguistic enterprise in an historical context and helps define its agenda for the future.
The questions explored include:
What is our tacit knowledge of language?
What is the faculty of language?
How does it develop in the individual?
How is that knowledge put to use?
How is it implemented in the brain?
How did that knowledge emerge in the species?
The book includes the contributor's key discussions, which dramatically bring to life their enthusiasm for the enterprise and skill in communicating across disciplines. Everyone seriously interested in how language works and why it works the way it does are certain to find, if not all the answers, then a convincing, productive, and lively approach to the endeavour.
Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition
By Danuta Gabry?-Barker
(May 15, 2008)
* Publisher:Multilingual Matters
* Number Of Pages:279
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1847690653
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781847690654
Product Description:
This volume presents a selection of second language acquisition studies at the level of morphosyntax. It looks at different aspects of morphosyntactic development of bilingual language learners/users such as language transfer, syntactic processing, morphology and the pragmatics of language among others. The studies report on projects carried out in different language contact contexts, ranging from: English, German, Polish, Greek and Turkish. The volume also includes those studies which show the interface between research findings and pedagogy of foreign language teaching.
Preface
Many recent publications have focused on problems operating at the
lexical level in second language acquisition (SLA), which itself was the
consequence of an overwhelming emphasis on grammar research in
the past and a corresponding neglect of vocabulary. It seems however that
the whole movement of language awareness in the area of applied linguistics
and language pedagogy has revived an interest in grammatical issues
in language acquisition and learning. Also, SLA research has shown that
lexical development does not occur on its own but interacts and overlaps
with the morphosyntactic development of a learner. This has entailed a
growing need for more research in this area of language acquisition.
The present volume aims to make a serious contribution to this
developing fi eld. It consists of chapters on various issues relating to the
morphosyntactic development of foreign language learners from different
L1 backgrounds, in many cases involving languages which are
typologically distant from English, such as Polish, Greek and Turkish.
In addition, it highlights areas which one might expect to be especially
transfer-prone not only at the level of interlingual transfer but also at the
intralingual level.
The chapters in the fi rst part of the volume ‘Studies on ESL/EFL
Morphosyntactic Development’ report on empirical studies on word
morphology and sentence patterns, and also look at the interface of lexis
and grammar in the discourse and syntactic processing of foreign language
learners. Odlin’s chapter is an overview of theories and research on focus
constructions in L2 acquisition from a pragmatic and psycholinguistic
perspective. It also discusses the crosslinguistic infl uences observed in
focus constructions, as produced in written texts. A corpus-based study
presented by Callies also looks at the written production of a bilingual
and compares it with native speakers’ written discourse in terms of
clause syntactic operations and, more precisely, tough- constructions (toconstructions
with such words as diffi cult, easy, hard and impossible). He
observes that these constructions are under-used in non-native productions
of advanced L2 users as they are typologically marked and functionally and
semantically complex. Another chapter that investigates language transfer
is Ewert’s empirical study of the infl uence of intensive L2 classroom
instruction on the development of L1, which the data demonstrates is
facilitative as it contributes visibly to the development of language
awareness. The data show different syntactic preferences in the case of
bilingual and monolingual learners as the result of developmental change
and language transfer. Two chapters discuss language (syntactic) performance
from a process-oriented perspective, Sharwood-Smith and
Truscott’s, and Gabrys
nterfaces + Recursion = Language?: Chomsky's Mini-malism and the View from Syntax-Semantics (Studies in Generative Grammar 89) (Studies in Generative Grammar)
By Uli Sauerland (Editor); Hans-Martin Gaertner (Editor)
* Publisher:Mouton de Gruyter
* Number Of Pages:289
* Publication Date:2007-05-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:3110188724
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9783110188721
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
Human language is a phenomenon of immense richness: It provides finely nuanced means of expression that underlie the formation of culture and society; it is subject to subtle, unexpected constraints like syntactic islands and cross-over phenomena; different mutually-unintelligeable individual languages are numerous; and the descriptions of individual languages occupy thousands of pages. Recent work in linguistics, however, has tried to argue that despite all appearances to the contrary, the human biological capacity for language may be reducible to a small inventory of core cognitive competencies. The most radical version of this view has emerged from the Minimalist Program: The claim that language consists of only the ability to generate recursive structures by a computational mechanism. On this view, all other properties of language must result from the interaction at the interfaces of that mechanism and other mental systems not exclusively devoted to language. Since language could then be described as the simplest recursive system satisfying the requirements of the interfaces, one can speak of the Minimalist Equation: Interfaces + Recursion = Language. The question whether all the richness of language can be reduced to that minimalist equation has already inspired several fruitful lines of research that led to important new results. While a full assessment of the minimalist equation will require evidence from many different areas of inquiry, this volume focuses especially on the perspective of syntax and semantics. Within the minimalist architecture, this places our concern with the core computational mechanism and the (LF-)interface where recursive structures are fed to interpretation. Specific questions that the papers address are: What kind of recursive structures can the core generator form? How can we determine what the simplest recursive system is? How can properties of language that used to be ascribed to the recursive generator be reduced to interface properties? What effects do syntactic operations have on semantic interpretation? To what extent do models of semantic interpretation support the LF-interface conditions postulated by minimalist syntax?
Crosslinguistic Influence in Language and Cognition
By Scott Jarvis, Aneta Pavlenko
* Publisher:Lawrence Erlbaum
* Number Of Pages:287
* Publication Date:2007-10-26
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0805838856
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780805838855
* Binding:Hardcover
Product Description:
A cogent, clearly-written synthesis of new and classic work on crosslinguistic influences on language and thought, this book is intended as a text for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as a resource for instructors and scholars in applied linguistics, linguistics, and psycholinguistics courses. This topic is a perennial favorite in courses on bilingualism, psycholinguistics, and even cognitive psychology, and has come into even sharper focus over the past decade or so with the rapid increase in the availability of crosslinguistic data from languages other than English.