A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology
\Alessandro Duranti (ed.)
By
* Publisher:Blackwell Publishing, Incorporated
* Number Of Pages:648
* Publication Date:2004-01-01
* Sales Rank:1623349
* ISBN / ASIN:0631223525
* EAN:9780631223528
* Binding:Hardcover
* Manufacturer:Blackwell Publishing, Incorporated
* Studio:Blackwell Publishing, Incorporated
Book Description:
Within the social sciences and the humanities, it is now widely accepted that the role of language in social life cannot be understood without a study of the interface between linguistic forms and the cultural practices that they help constitute. Linguistic anthropologists have been at the forefront of such a study for decades.A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology continues in the same tradition by providing a series of in-depth explorations of key concepts and approaches by some of the scholars whose work constitutes the theoretical and methodological foundations of the contemporary study of language as culture. Senior scholars who have shaped the field in the last twenty to thirty years are joined by more junior colleagues who provide a fresh perspective on well-established areas of inquiry and new conceptualizations. The volume also includes a comprehensive bibliography of over 2000 entries designed as a resource for anyone seeking a guide to the literature of linguistic anthropology.
Language Learnability (Cognitive Science Series)
By Steven Pinker
* Publisher:Harvard University Press
* Number Of Pages:435
* Publication Date:1996-02-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0674510534
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780674510531
Product Description:
In this influential study, Steven Pinker develops a new approach to the problem of language learning. Now reprinted with new commentary by the author, this classic work continues to be an indispensable resource in developmental psycholinguistics.
Summary: Rules of Convenience
Rating: 2
At first glance, this appeared to be a more formidable effort than "The Language Instinct", which seemed aimed at a very wide (and perhaps more credulous) audience.
However, the argument seems fairly simple:
1. A grammar can be abstracted from speech (in this case, English speech) based on observed regularities.
2. We can observe a change in a child's speech as he/she moves from simpler to more complex grammatical forms. So we can identify each such change in terms of the starting and ending forms.
3. For any such changes, we surmise the child has come up with one or more rules to enable him/her to acquire the more complex form.
The focus seems to be predominantly on the lexical and syntactical forms. Semantics seemed to be mentioned but not much of a concern here. Behaviorists, on the other hand, tend to emphasize the function of speech (although not discounting the importance of syntax).
So, as a probably very naive example, consider a child who can say "Give me the apple". Pinker may have noted that the syntax is correct but omits the use of an adjective. Skinner may be wondering whether the child's statement will be reinforced by being given an apple. Now suppose at some later time there are two apples in sight, a red one and a green one. The child now says "Give me the red apple." Pinker has never heard the child use an adjective before and notes that as a development in language acquisition. Skinner wonders if the child's statement will be reinforced by being given the red apple and may be pleased to see that child was able to request that red one.
The child's syntax, for whatever reason, was correct but it happened in service of the child's request for an apple. It's wonderful he/she was able to say it in that way, but it also seems wonderful that he/she got an apple.
In such a situation, one can really see the red apple. One can really hear the child ask for it and really see the child get it. One really heard the request. How real was the syntax? Well, it may not be explicit in the sense the child or listener are aware of it as syntax. But it may make a big difference if the syntax were wrong in that the child's request could fail. So perhaps we can say the syntax is real (and diagram it if we like). Now can we say that the rule is real that allowed the child to go from the request without the adjective to the request with the adjective. Maybe, but it seems less clear. It also seems less clear how the child made the step. Did he/she create the rule somehow using an innate langauge ability? Or did he/she imitate something he/she had heard? But what if the child had heard a request for a "green apple" and could tell what "red" was but had never heard of a "red apple". Or what if the child had heard of a "red apple".
Now I've gotten myself into trouble. Do I turn to Pinker or Skinner for the answer? Is it an either/or? Does it matter that the child wants something to eat or only that he/she is demonstrating an innate capacity for grammar?
So where did the syntax come from? Where did the rules come from? Who ate the apple?
Grammarians find grammar. Cognitive scientists find mind. One way or another, the child got the apple. Which of these does natural selection seem to favor?
Summary: Language and Grammar
Rating: 5
Almost without exception, children are able to learn how to speak the language of the adults around them. They do this using only the example those adults supply by speaking. While adults do simplify their speech when talking to very young children, we rarely have a formal program of language instruction in mind. Rather, we simplify our speech so that we can be understood. From this input children are able to learn to distinguish words, understand the meaning of words and combine them into sentences. In no time a child is speaking his language and speaking it correctly.
How this process occurs is the topic of Steven Pinker's monograph "Language Learnability and Language Development". He focuses on how a child can learn the grammar of his language. His approach is quite formal and technical, as is fitting for a professor of linguistics writing for an audience of professional researchers. The ultimate goal is to define a set of algorithms that processes the input (the sentences heard by the child) and creates a set of rules that define the grammar of the language the child is hearing.
Pinker's description of this process begins with the question of word order. A child must determine in what order his language puts words. Should he put the subject before the verb (He runs. vs. Runs he.), should an adjective precede a noun (white house in English, casa blanca in Spanish)? Where should an indirect object go? This isn't easy work. All the child has to go on are the sentences she hears and some non-verbal signals (pointing, tone of voice, the context of the utterance). Actually, the child has a little bit more; Pinker argues, as do many linguists, that we are all born with a mental framework for grammar. This can be imagined as a series of rules with some blanks to be filled in. All of the world's grammars can be described by filling in the blanks differently. So the child is not without some guidance.
Once the child has identified the basic meanings of some of the words this framework for grammar and the algorithms Pinker proposes work together to determine how sentences are constructed. As the child learns more words and more of the basic grammar rules, more difficult notions can be tackled. The text proceeds through topics such as noun-verb agreement, verb forms and irregular verbs, auxiliary verbs (including the troublesome word "do" in English) and the formation of passive constructions. For each issue Pinker describes a framework and a series of rules for filling the blanks.
The fundamental constructs and the nature of the rules require the reader to have some understanding of formal grammars (the transformational grammars of Chomsky or the LFG that Pinker bases his arguments on). Your understanding doesn't have to be deep, but it would be difficult to work your way through the book without some familiarity with the subject. Further the algorithms are given reasonably formally (not purely mathematically, but certainly it requires some effort to piece them together). In some sections of the text you may be forced, as I was, to simply skim over the details in an attempt gain some understanding.
This is an older text (1984 for the first edition) and Pinker was trying not only to present his results, but--and perhaps most interestingly--develop a method for analyzing any theory of language acquisition. He even uses these criteria to judge his own theories. He can tell us where his ideas on language acquisition succeed, admits where they fail, and hypothesizes how they can be improved. This methodology defined a successful research program that continues today Pinker makes his case through careful, clear, and compelling arguments. This discipline isn't easy. Most of the experiments one would need to run, in order to validate the theory, would be highly unethical (let's speak to a child only in the passive voice, let's never ask a child a question and see what happens). So the theories have to be verified by the sentences children speak and a few experiments, usually with made up words. Unfortunately, the sentences children speak do not unambiguously tell us the grammar they used to construct them.
I am no expert in this subject matter. I picked up the book because I had enjoyed the books Steven Pinker has written for the interested layman, such as "The Language Instinct", "Words and Rules" and "How the Mind Works". I did have to work hard to try to understand the text and I am sure I didn't fully understand some of the more technical arguments. However, as a soon to be father of a new language learner, I will watch with heightened appreciation my child's fascinating ability to learn English.
Summary: Unreadable
Rating: 1
Well, maybe it is like wise mana from heaven to other linguists. But I am a parent in a trilingual household who was looking for some insights into how my 3 year old's language development was going on. I will now pull two phrases out of the book COMPLETELY AT RANDOM to show why I gave up:
"Braine concludes that in every instance in which a child frequently utters both possible orders of a pair of categories, either (a) both orders are found in the adult language, and the child has learned the two orders separately (evidence for this is the fact that one order typically predominates at first and then is supplemented by the alternative order; or (b) there is independent evidence that the utterances reflect a pregrammatical "groping pattern" in which the child wants to communicate a semantic relation, lacks the grammatical means to do so, and strings words together randomly in the hope of being understood."
That one is not so bad, actually. How about,
"When a paradigm is split in response to a violation of the Unique Entry principle for a given cell, the child in effect "expects" to find alternative entries for each of his or her other existing affixes that do not already have alternatives with strong lexical entries".
Having three post graduate degrees and learned to speak a second language fluently as an adult, so I actually know something about the subject of language acquisition and am not afraid of dense prose. But this book defeated me after a few pages.
It is in my view supremely ironic that, given their field of study, linguistic scholars seem to be abominably poor at communication.
Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies
By C. Jan Swearingen
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:344
* Publication Date:1991-09-05
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0195063627
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780195063622
Product Description:
This pathbreaking study integrates the histories of rhetoric, literacy, and literary aesthetics up to the time of Augustine, focusing on Western concepts of rhetoric as dissembling and of language as deceptive that Swearingen argues have received curiously prominent emphasis in Western aesthetics and language theory. Swearingen reverses the traditional focus on rhetoric as an oral agonistic genre and examines it instead as a paradigm for literate discourse. She proposes that rhetoric and literacy have in the West disseminated the interrelated notions that through learning rhetoric individuals can learn to manipulate language and others; that language is an unreliable, manipulable, and contingent vehicle of thought, meaning, and communication; and that literature is a body of pretty lies and beguiling fictions. In a bold concluding chapter Swearingen aligns her thesis concerning early Western literacy and rhetoric with contemporary critical and rhetorical theory; with feminist studies in language, psychology, and culture; and with studies of literacy in multi- and cross-cultural settings.
Review "Her achievement is an example of serious, detailed scholarship that both challenges established terms and concepts and also uses historical analysis to look at a number of contemporary issues....A significant contribution to studies in rhetoric and literacy. Swearingen has foregrounded the dialogic complexity and liberating potential of both classical and contemporary rhetoric and literacy."--College Composition and Communication
"Swearingen combines solid erudition with provocative viewpoints, and raises questions of crucial interest to us all....An enjoyable book."--Philosophy & Literature
"Scholars interested in both classical and contemporary rhetorical theory will find many of Swearingen's discussions provocative....Rewards the reader with much useful information about the philosophical dimension of classical rhetoric and the high stakes of current deliberation about ambiguity of meaning in discourse."--Journal of Advanced Composition
"Making conjoint use of orality-literacy studies and of deconstruction, Swearingen here opens deep new insights into the meaning and use of rhetoric and all that goes with it in the West from the Preplatonic age to the present. Her close reading and sensitive interpretations will interest rhetoricians, philosophers, literary critics, logicians, and many others as she shows the vulnerability of many accepted views and draws patiently to her conclusion that truth is held communally or not at all."--Walter Ong, Saint Louis University
"Swearingen has written a lively, well-informed study of the shift from oral to literate rhetoric in the later ancient world, which helped to create the ambivalent status of the Western concept of'literature.' Her book can be read for the light it sheds on ancient and modern problems of literacy."--Brian Stock, Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology
By Dennis R. Preston
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages:480
* Publication Date:1999-09
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1556195346
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781556195341
Part of the set: Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology: 2 Volumes (set).
Perceptual dialectology investigates what ordinary people (as opposed to professional linguists) believe about the distribution of language varieties in their own and surrounding speech communities and how they have arrived at and implement those beliefs. It studies the beliefs of the common folk about which dialects exist and, indeed, about what attitudes they have to these varieties. Some of this leads to discussion of what they believe about language in general, or “folk linguistics”. Surprising divergences from professional results can be found. For the professional, it is intriguing to find out why and whether the folk can be wrong or whether the professional has missed something.
Volume 1 of this handbook aims to provide for the field of perceptual dialectology:
* a historical survey;
* a regional survey, adding to the earlier preponderance of studies in Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States;
* a methodological survey, showing, in detail, how data have been acquired and processed;
* an interpretive survey, showing how these data have been related to both linguistic and other socio-cultural facts;
* a comprehensive bibliography.
The results and methods of perceptual dialectical studies should be interesting not only to linguists, variationists, dialectologists, and students of the social psychology of language but also to sociologists, anthropologists, folklorists, and other students of culture as well as to language planners and educators.
Table of contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Series Editor’s Introduction
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Dennis R. Preston
I: The Dutch Contribution: ‘Little Arrows’
Informant Classification of Dialects
W.G. Rensink
Dialects
Jo Daan
The Netherlands-German National Border as a Subjective Dialect Boundary
Ludger Kremer
II: The Japanese Controversy: ‘Subjective’ and ‘Objective’
Consciousness of Dialect Boundaries
Takesi Sibata
Consciousness of Linguistic Boundaries and Actual Linguistic Boundaries
Kikuo Nomoto
Dialect Consciousness and Dialect Divisions: Examples in the Nagano-Gifu Boundary
Yoshio Mase
On Dialect Consciousness: Dialect Characteristics Given by Speakers
Yoshio Mase
The Discussion Surrounding the Subjective Boundaries of Dialects
Willem Grootaers
On the Value of Subjective Dialect Boundaries
Antonius A. Weijnen
Dialects and the Subjective Judgments of Speakers: Remarks on Controversial Methods
Ton Goeman
III: Images, Perceptions and Attitudes
Classification of Dialects by Image: English and Japanese
Fumio Inoue
Subjective Dialect Division in Great Britain
Fumio Inoue
Geographical Perceptions of Japanese Dialect Regions
Daniel Long
Mapping Nonlinguists’ Evaluations of Japanese Language Variation
Daniel Long
The Perception of Post-Unification German Regional Speech
Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain
Variation and the Norm: Parisian Perceptions of Regional French
Lawrence Kuiper
The Perception of Turkish Dialects
Mahide Demirci and Brian Kleiner
Regional Variation in Subjective Dialect Divisions in the United States
Donald M. Lance
A View from the West: Perceptions of U.S. Dialects by Oregon Residents
Laura Hartley
“Welshness” and “Englishness” as Attitudinal Dimensions of English Language Varieties in Wales
Nikolas Coupland, Angie Williams and Peter Garrett
Dialect Recognition
Angie Williams, Peter Garrett and Nikolas Coupland
A Language Attitude Approach to the Perception of Regional Variety
Dennis R. Preston
References
Additional Readings
About the Contributors and Translators
Index
“Dennis Preston has done the field of empirical linguistics great service in his earlier work on perceptual dialectology, both to raise our consciousness of the phenomenon and to document some facts about the perception of English varieties. Now he has done it again in the Handbook of Percpetual Dialectology, to expose the foundation of the study of perceptual dialectology and to extend our knowledge of it around the world.”
William A Kretzschmar Jr., University of Georgia
“The Handbook is recommended to everyone interested in sociolinguistics and the social psychology of language in general, and in dialectology, language attitudes and folk-linguistic awareness in particular.”
Hans J. Ladegaard in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
“Preston's volume is successful in communicating the problems as well as the insights of perceptual dialectology. The text is highly effective in arguing and illustrating the benefits of such a perspective for a wide array of linguistic subfields and other social sciences. Each chapter is useful in itself, and when linked together, the chapters proffer a well-constructed infrastructure of information. Undoubtedly, this collection will be come a valuable resource to language scholars and social scientists alike.”
Clare J. Dannenberg in Language 77:2, 2001
Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology
By Daniel Long, Dennis R. Preston
(January 2003)
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Co
* Number Of Pages:398
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:1556197578
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9781556197574
Product Description:
Perceptual dialectology investigates what ordinary people (as opposed to professional linguists) believe about the distribution of language varieties in their own and surrounding speech communities and how they have arrived at and implement those beliefs. It studies the beliefs of the common folk about which dialects exist and, indeed, about what attitudes they have to these varieties. Some of this leads to discussion of what they believe about language in general, or "folk linguistics." Surprising divergences from professional results can be found. For the professional, it is intriguing to find out why and whether the folk can be wrong or whether the professional has missed something. Volume 1 of this handbook aims to provide for the field of perceptual dialectology: -- a historical survey; -- a regional survey, adding to the earlier preponderance of studies in Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States; -- a methodological survey, showing, in detail, how data have been acquired and processed; -- an interpretive survey, showing how these data have been related to both linguistic and other socio-cultural facts; -- a comprehensive bibliography. The results and methods of perceptual dialectical studies should be interesting not only to linguists, variationists, dialectologists, and students of the social psychology of language but also to sociologists, anthropologists, folklorists, and other students of culture as well as to language planners and educators.
Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined
By urbandictionary.com
* Publisher:Andrews McMeel Publishing
* Number Of Pages:240
* Publication Date:2007-10-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0740768751
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780740768750
Summary: Tired of liberal politics shoved in my face
Rating: 1
Was interested in this book, but it insulted my intelligence by assuming that I too am a whiney-*** liberal who thinks the world owes me a living. The cracks about 9/11 "fear-mongering" are especially pungent. What, the authors think all of us were having our hair done that day, and missed the fact that terrorists attacked us?
No, thanks.
Summary: Great buy
Rating: 5
This book was a great buy and has some funny slang words in it. I would buy from this user again.
Summary: Funny
Rating: 4
I like this book because I have teens so this book gives me insite to a different lingo.
Summary: Classic
Rating: 5
Between this and "Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined", these snapshots of popular culture and webculture are, even if debatable on certain entries, key in understanding the way people think nowadays. They may seem irrelevant now, but even in a few decades, they will provide a major source for linguistic research.
Summary: Great Insight into Urban Culture
Rating: 5
This is a great book for those who have no idea what is being said on MTV, VH1, or BET! I can now decode hip-hop songs and rather than just going along with what is being said (because I had no clue what "skeet-skeet" meant), I can now decide for myself whether it is something I want to support..
The Intersubjective Mirror in Infant Learning and Evolution of Speech (Advances in Consciousness Research)
By Stein Br錿en
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:351
* Publication Date:2009-07-29
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027252122
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027252128
The Intersubjective Mirror in Infant Learning and Evolution of Speech illustrates how recent findings about primary intersubjectivity, participant perception and mirror neurons afford a new understanding of children’s nature, dialogue and language.
Based on recent infancy research and the mirror neurons discovery, studies of early speech perception, comparative primate studies and computer simulations of language evolution, this book offers replies to questions as: When and how may spoken language have emerged? How is it that infants so soon after birth become so efficient in their speech perception? What enables 11-month-olds to afford and reciprocate care? What are the steps from infant imitation and simulation of body movements to simulation of mind in conversation partners?
Stein Br錿en is founder and chair of the Theory Forum network with some of the world’s leading infancy, primate and brain researchers who have contributed to his edited volumes for Cambridge University Press (1998) and John Benjamins Publishing Company (2007). (Series B)
Table of contents
List of illustrations
ix–x
List of tables
xi
Preface (with acknowledgments)
xiii–xxii
Part I. Background for questions and findings inviting a paradigm shift
Chapter 1 From the last century history of ideas on children’s nature and intersubjectivity
3–28
Chapter 2 Recent related findings making a difference: Mirror neurons and participant perception
29–56
Chapter 3 Introduction to child’s steps to speech in ontogeny and questions about cultural evolution
57–88
Part II. On the origin of (pre)speech and efficient infant learners
Chapter 4 On language evolution and imitative learning: What can computer simulations tell us?
89–118
Chapter 5 On cultural evolution of mother-centred learning: Comparing humans and chimpanzees
119–146
Chapter 6 On prosocial behaviour in adult apes and young children: Roots of genuine altruism?
147–162
Part III. Intersubjective steps to speech and mind-reading in ontogeny
Chapter 7 From newborns’ imitation: On primary intersubjectivity and perturbations
163–188
Chapter 8 From object-oriented joint attention and other-centred infant learning
189–208
Chapter 9 On children in conversation and in self-dialogue
209–244
Chapter 10 When conversation partners become virtual co-authors of what the other is saying
245–270
Chapter 11 When the intersubjective mirror has been biologically broken: The autistic spectrum
271–288
Chapter 12 The intersubjective steps in retrospect and guidance, and prospects for further research
289–304
Glossary
305–308
Bibliography
309–336
Author index
337–342
Subject index
343–352
“Stein Br錿en's last book provides an incredibly rich and original perspective on the evolution and development of infants' (pre)verbal intersubjectivity. Br錿en beautifully masters the most relevant literature in Philosophy, Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience and Computer Science guiding the reader in a fascinating journey. A must read for everyone interested to learn how the human mind develops.”
Vittorio Gallese, University of Parma
“In one of the most detailed and erudite treatises today, Stein Br錿en explains how we relate to each other driven by evolutionarily ancient impulses. Instead of the traditional focus on human intelligence, Stein Br錿en stresses the body and how it is moved by other bodies. A very compelling account of how we came to be such incredibly social primates.”
Frans de Waal, Emory University, Author of 'The Age of Empathy' (Harmony, 2009).
“Stein Br錿en recounts a startling idea that has become an inspiring theory of how we know one another and speak. When studying simulations of language, it came to him that several people discussing a problem could only communicate if each could somehow 'be' the other, participating in their experience as a 'virtual other'. A lifetime later, with original photographs and drawings showing his children and grandchildren 'being other people', and after hours comparing very young chimpanzees' 'mother-centered learning' in a Norwegian zoo, he develops his theory, now given powerful support from the neuroscience of how intentions pass immediately between brains. He gives us a masterly review of a revolution in the philosophy of personhood, of discoveries in infant imitation, of research on language as culture, on the nature of sympathy, altruism and alienation, and of the detachment of self and other in autism. This book has important implications for education, therapy and other fields of practice and research.”
Colwyn Trevarthen, University of Edinburgh
Cyclical Change (Linguistik Aktuell / Linguistics Today)
By Elly van Gelderen
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:329
* Publication Date:2009-07-29
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027255296
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027255297
Linguistic Cycles are ever present in language change and involve a phrase or word that gradually disappears and is replaced by a new linguistic item. The most well-known cycles involve negatives, where an initial single negative, such as not, is reinforced by another negative, such as no thing, and subjects, where full pronouns are reanalyzed as endings on the verb. This book presents new data and insights on the well-known cyclical changes as well as on less well-known ones, such as the preposition, auxiliary, copula, modal, and complementation cycles. Part I covers the negative cycle with chapters looking in great detail at the steps that are typical in this cycle. Part II focuses on pronouns, auxiliaries, and the left periphery. Part III includes work on modals, prepositions, and complementation. The book ends with a psycholinguistic chapter. This book brings together linguists from a variety of theoretical frameworks and contributes to new directions in work on language change.
Table of contents
List of contributors
vii–viii
Chapter 1. Cyclical change, an introduction
Elly van Gelderen
Part I. Negatives
Chapter 2. Jespersen recycled
Jack Hoeksema
Chapter 3. The Jespersen cycles
Johan van der Auwera
Chapter 4. The negative cycle in Early and Modern Russian
Olena Tsurska
Chapter 5. Jespersen off course? The case of contemporary Afrikaans negation
Theresa Biberauer
Part II. Pronouns, agreement, and topic markers
Chapter 6. Weak pronouns in Italian: Instances of a broken cycle?
Diana Vedovato
Chapter 7. The subject cycle of pronominal auxiliaries in Old North Russian
Kyongjoon Kwon
Chapter 8. Two instances of a broken cycle: Sentential particles in Old Italian
Cecilia Poletto
Part III. Copulas, auxiliaries, and adpositions
Chapter 9. The Copula cycle
Terje Lohndal
Chapter 10. RATHER – On a modal cycle
Remus Gergel
Chapter 11. Cycles of complementation in the Mayan languages
Clifton Pye
Chapter 12. The Preposition cycle in English
Cathleen Waters
Part IV. An experiment
Chapter 13. The study of syntactic cycles as an experimental science
Roeland Hancock and Thomas G. Bever
Author index
Subject index
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Code Switching (Studies in Bilingualism)
By Ludmila Isurin, Donald Winford, Kees de Bot
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:364
* Publication Date:2009-07-10
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027241783
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027241788
The volume presents a selection of contributions by leading scholars in the field of code-switching. In the past the phenomenon of code-switching was studied within different subfields of linguistics and they all took their own perspectives on code-switching without taking into account findings from other subdisciplines. This book raises a question of a much broader multidisciplinary approach to studying the phenomenon of code-switching; calls for integration of disciplines; and illustrates how frameworks from one subfield can be applied to models in another. The volume includes survey chapters, empirical studies, contributions that use empirical data to test new hypotheses about code-switching, or suggest new approaches and models for the study of code-switching, and chapters that discuss principles and constraints of code-switching, and code-switching vs. transfer. The book is easily accessible to anyone who is interested in the phenomenon of code-switching in bilinguals.
Table of contents
Aknowledgements
vii
Introduction
ix–xviii
Psycholinguistic studies
1. Empirical approaches to the study of code-switching in sentential contexts
Jeanette Altarriba and Dana M. Basnight-Brown
3–25
2. Language selection and performance optimisation in multilinguals
Renata F.I. Meuter
27–51
3. The neurocognition of switching between languages: A review of electrophysiological studies
Janet G. van Hell and Marijt J. Witteman
53–84
4. Sources of triggering in code switching
Kees de Bot, Mirjam Broersma and Ludmila Isurin
85–102
5. Triggered code switching: Evidence from Dutch – English and Russian – English bilinguals
Mirjam Broersma, Ludmila Isurin, Sybrine Bultena and Kees de Bot
103–128
6. Two speakers, one dialogue: An interactive alignment perspective on code-switching in bilingual speakers
Gerrit J. Kootstra, Janet G. van Hell and Ton Dijkstra
129–159
7. Language interaction as a window into bilingual cognitive architecture
Viorica Marian
161–185
Sociolinguistic and linguistic studies
8. Trying to hit a moving target: On the sociophonetics of code-switching
Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
189–206
9. Which language? Participation potentials across lexical categories in code-switching
Janice L. Jake and Carol Myers-Scotton
207–242
10. Adjectives and word order: A focus on Italian-German code-switching
Katja Francesca Cantone and Jeff MacSwan
243–277
11. On the unity of contact phenomena and their underlying mechanisms: The case of borrowing
Donald Winford
279–305
12. Codeswitching as one piece of the puzzle of language change: The case of Turkish yapmak
Ad Backus
307–336
13. Transfer and code-switching: Separate territories but common concerns on the border
Terence Odlin
337–358
Author index
359–361
Index of terms
363–364
Humor in Interaction (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)
By Neal R. Norrick, Delia Chiaro
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:238
* Publication Date:2009-07-03
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027254273
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027254276
This is the first edited volume dedicated specifically to humor in interaction. It is a rich collection of essays by an international array of scholars representing various theoretical perspectives, but all concerned with interactional aspects of humor. The contributors are scholars active both in the interdisciplinary area of humor studies and in adjacent disciplines such as linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics, gender and translation studies. The volume effectively offers an overview of the range of phenomena falling in the broad category of ‘conversational humor’, and convincingly argues for the many different functions humor can fulfill, bypassing simplistic humor theories reducing humor to one function. All the articles draw on empirical material from different countries and cultures, comprising conversations among friends and family, talk in workplace situations, humor in educational settings, and experimental approaches to humor in interaction. The book is sure to become an important reference and source of inspiration for scholars in the various subfields of humor studies, pragmatics and (socio-)linguistics.
Table of contents
Introduction: Humor and interaction
Neal R. Norrick and Delia Chiaro
ix–xvii
Part I: Conversation among friends and family
The occasioning of self-disclosure humor
Susan M. Ervin-Tripp and Martin Lampert
3–28
Direct address as a resource for humor
Neal R. Norrick and Claudia Bubel
29–48
An interactional approach to irony development
Helga Kotthoff
49–78
Multimodal and intertextual humor in the media reception situation: The case of watching football on TV
Cornelia Gerhardt
79–98
Part II: Doing gender with humor in talk at work
Using humor to do masculinity at work
Stephanie Schnurr and Janet Holmes
101–124
Boundary-marking humor: Institutional, gender and ethnic demarcation in the workplace
Bernadette Vine, Susan Kell, Meredith Marra and Janet Holmes
125–140
Part III: Failed humor and its interactional effects
Impolite responses to failed humor
Nancy Bell
143–164
Failed humor in conversation: A double voicing analysis
Beatrice Priego-Valverde
165–184
Part IV: Humor in bilingual interactions
Humor and interlanguage in a bilingual elementary school setting
Kristin Kersten
187–210
Cultural divide or unifying factor? Humorous talk in the interaction of bilingual, cross-cultural couples
Delia Chiaro
211–232
Name index
233–235
Subject index
237–238
“This fascinating volume offers a range of perspectives on humour in interaction, in contexts as diverse as the home, the workplace and the school, and also in experimental settings. The resulting collection will be an invaluable resource for scholars, and makes a significant contribution to the development of the burgeoning field of language and humour studies.”
Jennifer Coates, Professor of English Language & Linguistics, Roehampton University London
Towards a Derivational Syntax: Survive-minimalism (Linguistik Aktuell / Linguistics Today)
By Michael T. Putnam
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:269
* Publication Date:2009-07-29
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:902725527X
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027255273
This volume explores recent advancements in the Minimalist Program that adopt Stroik’s (1999, 2009) Survive Principle as the principle means of accounting for displacement phenomena in earlier versions of generative theory. These contributions bring to light many advantages and challenges that beset the Survive-minimalist framework, including topics such as the lexicon-syntax relationship, coordinate symmetries, scope, ellipsis, code-switching, and probe-goal relations. Despite the diverse, broad range of topics discussed in this volume, the papers are connected by a renewed investigation of Frampton & Gutmann’s (2002) vision of a crash-proof syntax. This volume provides new and interesting perspectives on theoretical issues that have challenged the Minimalist Program since its inception and will provide ample food for thought for syntacticians working in the Minimalist tradition and beyond.
Table of contents
List of contributors
vii–viii
Preface
ix–x
Part I. Introduction
Traveling without moving: The conceptual necessity of Survive-minimalism
Michael T. Putnam and Thomas Stroik
3–20
The numeration in Survive-minimalism
Thomas Stroik
21–38
Part II. Studies of movement phenomena and structure building in Survive-minimalism
Long-distance agreement without Probe-Goal relations
Omer Preminger
41–56
Musings on the left periphery in West Germanic: German left dislocation and ‘survive’
Gema Chocano
57–90
Tense, finiteness and the survive principle: Temporal chains in a crash-proof grammar
Kristin M. Eide
91–132
When grammars collide: Code-switching in Survive-minimalism
Michael T. Putnam and M. Carmen Parafita Couto
133–168
Using the Survive principle for deriving coordinate (a)symmetries
John R. te Velde
169–192
Part III. Covert and non-movement operations in Survive-minimalism
Syntactic identity in Survive-minimalism: Ellipsis and the derivational identity hypothesis
Gregory M. Kobele
195–230
Evidence for Survive from covert movement
Winfried Lechner
231–256
Language change and survive: Feature economy in the numeration
Elly van Gelderen
257–266
Towards a derivational syntax index
267–269
“This is an excellent collection, exploring deep, fundamental questions regarding the nature of the human faculty of language. These papers advance the Minimalist Program in important ways, from what it means for the syntax to be "optimally designed" in meeting the needs of the interfaces, to the form and function of the construct "numeration," to the very notion of "syntactic operation." The theoretical concerns here will prompt valuable discussion for a long time to come; and the volume is rich in empirical considerations, with wide appeal to all syntactic frameworks.”
T. Daniel Seely, Eastern Michigan University
The Structure of Stative Verbs (Linguistik Aktuell / Linguistics Today)
By Antonia Rothmayr
* Publisher:John Benjamins Publishing Company
* Number Of Pages:216
* Publication Date:2009-07-10
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9027255261
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789027255266
This book explores the nature of stative verbs, their eventuality structure, and the patterns of argument realization. The study shows that there is no single class of stative verbs. Rather, several distinct groups of verbs are found: Verbs that undergo a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity; verbs that allow for a stative reading only; and verbs that seem to have an intermediate status (verbs of position and verbs of internal causation). The study concludes that there is a discrete boundary between stative and eventive verbs, excluding any intermediate status. Stativity arises because the aspectual operators DO and BECOME are absent in the lexical-semantic structure. Eventivity arises if one of these is present. A minimalist view on argument realization and event structure completes the book: Theta features on the arguments are checked against the aspectual heads within the verb phrase.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
xiii–xiv
List of tables
xv–xvi
Chapter 1. Introduction
1–2
Chapter 2. Theoretical considerations
3–36
Chapter 3. Stative/eventive ambiguities
37–108
Chapter 4. Non-ambiguous statives
109–146
Chapter 5. Verbs of position
147–160
Chapter 6. Verbs of internal causation
161–172
Chapter 7. Event structure and theta features
173–198
Chapter 8. Conclusion
199–206
References
207–212
Author index
213
Subject index
215–216
Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax (Str眉ngmann Forum Reports)
By Derek Bickerton, E鰎s Szathmáry
* Publisher:The MIT Press
* Number Of Pages:430
* Publication Date:2009-10-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0262013568
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780262013567
Product Description:
Syntax is arguably the most human-specific aspect of language. Despite the proto-linguistic capacities of some animals, syntax appears to be the last major evolutionary transition in humans that has some genetic basis. Yet what are the elements to a scenario that can explain such a transition? In this book, experts from linguistics, neurology and neurobiology, cognitive psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and computer modeling address this question.
Unlike most previous work on the evolution of language, Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax follows through on a growing consensus among researchers that language can be profitably separated into a number of related and interacting but largely autonomous functions, each of which may have a distinguishable evolutionary history and neurological base. The contributors argue that syntax is such a function.
The book describes the current state of research on syntax in different fields, with special emphasis on areas in which the findings of particular disciplines might shed light on problems faced by other disciplines. It defines areas where consensus has been established with regard to the nature, infrastructure, and evolution of the syntax of natural languages; summarizes and evaluates contrasting approaches in areas that remain controversial; and suggests lines for future research to resolve at least some of these disputed issues.
Strüngmann Forum Reports
名称 Studies in general and English phonetics: essays in honour of Professor J.D. O'Connor
作者 Joseph Desmond O'Connor, Jack Windsor Lewis
编者 Joseph Desmond O'Connor, Jack Windsor Lewis
版本 插图版
出版商 Routledge, 1995
ISBN 0415080681, 9780415080682
页数 473 页
图书概述
Encompassing a formidable collection of short essays on phonetics,Studies in General and English Phoneticswas compiled as a tribute to Professor J. D. O'Connor, one of the world's most renowned teachers and writers of phonetics in the English language. The book's 38 articles bring together 45 of the most distinguished and respected names in the field of phonetics, and cover a wide range of fascinating topics in descriptive and experimental phonetics and phonology. Aside from familiar topics such as rhythm, intonation, pronunciation and lexicography,Studies in General and English Phoneticsalso addresses issues on the cutting edge of the field, including computer synthesized audio-communications, and procedures in forensic linguistics. This volume will not only be of interest to readers concerned with linguistics and phonetics, but also to those concerned with the teaching of English as a foreign language and other fields. With its comprehensive,up-to-date bibliography, it will prove an invaluable text to all interested readers.
Corpus Linguistics Beyond the Word: Corpus Research from Phrase to Discourse (Language & Computers 60) (Language & Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics)
By Eileen Fitzpatrick (Ed.)
* Publisher:Editions Rodopi BV
* Number Of Pages:283
* Publication Date:2006-12-20
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9042021357
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789042021358
Product Description:
This volume will be of particular interest to readers interested in expanding the applications of corpus linguistics techniques through new tools and approaches. The text includes selected papers from the Fifth North American Symposium, hosted by the Linguistics Department at Montclair State University in Montclair New Jersey in May 2004. The symposium papers represented several areas of corpus studies including language development, syntactic analysis, pragmatics and discourse, language change, register variation, corpus creation and annotation, and practical applications of corpus work, primarily in language teaching, but also in medical training and machine translation. A common thread through most of the papers was the use of corpora to study domains longer than the word. Not surprisingly, fully half of the papers deal with the computational tools and linguistic strategies needed to search for and analyze these longer spans of language while most of the remaining papers examine particular syntactic and rhetorical properties of one or more corpora. Contents: Preface Analysis Tools and Corpus Annotation: Leslie BARRETT, David F. GREENBERG, and Mark SCHWARTZ: A Syntactic Feature Counting Method for Selecting Machine Translation Training Corpora Angus B. GRIEVE-SMITH: The Envelope of Variation in Multidimensional Register and Genre Analyses Paul DEANE and Derrick HIGGINS: Using Singular-Value Decomposition on Local Word Contexts to Derive a Measure of Constructional Similarity Sebastian VAN DELDEN: Problematic Syntactic Patterns Mark DAVIES: Towards a Comprehensive Survey of Register-based Variation in Spanish Syntax Gregory GARRETSON and Mary Catherine O'CONNOR: Between the Humanist and the Modernist: Semi-automated Analysis of Linguistic Corpora Carson MAYNARD and Sheryl LEICHER: Pragmatic Annotation of an Academic Spoken Corpus for Pedagogical Purposes Mar铆a Jos茅 Garc铆a VIZCA肗O: Using Oral Corpora in Contrastive Studies of Linguistic Politeness Corpu
Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined
By Aaron Peckham
* Publisher:Andrews McMeel Publishing
* Number Of Pages:352
* Publication Date:2005-10-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0740751433
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780740751431
Product Description:
Urbandictionary.com is a wildly successful site that encourages users to define the world with their own unique terms. In Urban Dictionary, site founder Aaron Peckham culls his more than 170,000 definitions for the funniest, wittiest, and most provocative phrases that define the modern slang scene.
Within urbandictionary.com's lively lexicon are:
" business provocative-Attire used to provoke sexual attention in the workplace.
" compunicate-To chat with someone in the same room via instant messenging service instead of in person.
" dandruff-A person who "flakes out" and ditches their friends.
" wingman-A guy who takes one for the team by hooking up with a hot girl's ugly friend so his own friend can hook up with the hot girl.
Perfect for those who want to pick up some new slang and those who want to translate it, Urban Dictionary is a gritty and witty look at our ever-changing language.
Urban Dictionary covers the language that encompasses the trials and tribulations that anyone under 30 encounters-and leaves everyone over 30 scratching their heads but wanting to know more.
Summary: Backstage hit!
Rating: 5
I was recently in a show with a local theatre and bought this book as a gift for my friend to keep in the mens dressing room. It was an absolute hit. We've had a great time flipping through and picking out different phrases like "ricokulous" and "soup to nuts" urban dictionary is awsome!!!!
Summary: A poor rendition
Rating: 2
Basically missing all the best bits of the website. Buy it if you wanna support them and have something to rest your mug on. I've read it cover to cover and it was nowhere near as good as the website.
Summary: Love that dictionary
Rating: 5
I find it very useful, watching movie and looking for unknown words in the: Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined. 5 stars for creator of this book and everyone who made it possible. Now I win with it! It really, really helps me in every day life, from the morning news till internet chating. I also find shoping at Amazon very easy and useful, I can find what I want and buy what I need. Good work people!
Summary: a dictionary that knows how many beans make five
Rating: 4
Clear, entertaining definitions and great examples, all of which make the book fun to read just for the heck of it.
But I am still searching for the reverse slang dictionary: i.e., the one that will give me slang definitions of ordinary words. Be able to look up fast different ways to say prison? Or find different names for drugs? Doing time? Cars? etc... As someone who translates fiction into English it is sometimes frustrating when you have the original "foreign" slang expression and can't for the life of you remmber what its anglo-saxon equivalent is.
Summary: Very good book for non-english
Rating: 5
I know internet version of this dictionary. I was looking forward to see paperback version and I am satisfied. I am not native english-speaking person and some of the words were not understable for me. This book help me understand street words.
A+++ product
Reference and Computation: An Essay in Applied Philosophy of Language (Studies in Natural Language Processing)
By Amichai Kronfeld
* Publisher:Cambridge University Press
* Number Of Pages:185
* Publication Date:1990-08-31
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0521399823
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780521399821
Product Description:
This book deals with a major problem in the study of language: the problem of reference. The ease with which we refer to things in conversation is deceptive. Upon closer scrutiny, it turns out that we hardly ever tell each other explicitly what object we mean, although we expect our interlocutor to discern it. Amichai Kronfeld provides an answer to two questions associated with this: how do we successfully refer, and how can a computer be programmed to achieve this? Most studies of this problem confront either the philosophical or the computational aspects of reference. Reference and computation is unique in its integration of both perspectives: philosophical analysis helps to solve a computational problem.Beginning with the major theories of reference, Dr Kronfeld provides a consistent philosophical view which is a synthesis of Frege's and Russell's semantic insights with Grice's and Searle's pragmatic theories. This leads to a set of guiding principles, which are then applied to a computational model of referring. Students and scholars of Al and computational linguistics will find in this book a clear presentation of relevant philosophical doctrines, as well as a discussion of current computational problems. Many of the issues discussed, such as Donnellan's distinction, referring goals, and the pragmatics of belief statements, will also interest philosophers. For other readers, this book provides a clear yet sophisticated discussion of a major problem in the study of language and mind.
Contents:
Foreword by John Searle; Preface; 1. Methods and scope; 2. The descriptive approach; 3. First steps; 4. Referring intentions and goals; 5. Conversationally relevant descriptions; 6. Thoughts and objects; 7. Computational models; References; Index.
Elective Affinities: Testing Word and Image Relationships.
By Catriona MacLeod, Veronique Plesch, Charlotte Schoell-Glass
* Publisher:Rodopi
* Number Of Pages:422
* Publication Date:2009-06-20
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:9042026189
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9789042026186
Product Description:
This volume presents the impressive range of scholarly affinities, approaches, and subjects that characterize today's word and image studies. The essays, a selection of papers first presented in 2005 at the seventh international conference of the International Association of Word and Image Studies/Association Internationale pour l'蓆ude des Rapports entre Texte et Image that took place in Philadelphia, are case studies of the diverse configurations of the textual and the iconic. "Elective affinities" - a notion originally borrowed by Goethe for his 1809 novel of the same title from eighteenth-century chemistry - here refers to the active role of the two partners in the relationship of the pictorial and the verbal. Following the experimental modalities opened up by Goethe, the present volume is divided into three sections, which explore, respectively, how words and images can merge in harmony, engage in conflicts and contestations, and, finally, interact in an experimental way that self-consciously tests the boundaries and relations among verbal and visual arts. New perspectives on word and image relationships emerge, in periods, national traditions, works, and materials as different as (among many others) an installation by Marcel Duchamp and the manual accompanying it; the impact of artificial light sources on literature and art; nineteenth-century British illustrations of Native Americans; the contemporary comic book; a seventeenth-century Italian devotional manuscript uniting text, image, and music; Chinese body and performance art..
Dictionary of Language Games, Puzzles, and Amusements
By Harry Edwin Eiss
* Publisher:Greenwood Press
* Number Of Pages:295
* Publication Date:1986-10-21
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0313244677
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780313244674
Product Description:
Throughout recorded history, mankind has turned to language play as a source of entertainment and intellectual stimulation. This unique new reference provides comprehensive listings and explainations, together with samples and historical information, concerning the hundreds of letter and word games, puzzles, and linguistic entertainments that enrich our cultural life.
Simpler Syntax
By Peter W. Culicover, Ray Jackendoff
* Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages: 608
* Publication Date: 2005-08-22
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0199271097
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780199271092
* Binding: Paperback
* Publisher:Oxford University Press, USA
* Number Of Pages:608
* Publication Date:2005-09-15
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0199271089
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780199271085
Book Description:
This groundbreaking book offers a new and compelling perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract, and syntactic derivations have become ever more complex. Peter Culicover and Ray Jackendoff trace this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. They develop an alternative that is responsive to linguistic, cognitive, computational, and biological concerns. At the core of this alternative is the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis: the most explanatory syntactic theory is one that imputes the minimum structure necessary to mediate between phonology and meaning. A consequence of this hypothesis is a far richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through concrete analyses of numerous grammatical phenomena, some well studied and some new, the authors demonstrate the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach. Simpler Syntax is addressed to linguists of all persuasions. It will also be of central interest to those concerned with language in psychology, human biology, evolution, computational science, and artificial intellige