Linguistics in America, 1769-1924: A Critical History
Routledge History of Linguistic Thought Series
by Tetel, Julie.
Publication: London, New York Taylor & Francis Routledge, 1990.
Subject:
Linguistics--History.--United States
Linguistique--Histoire.--蓆ats-Unis
larpcal--Linguistica
gtt--Taalwetenschap.
gtt--Wetenschapsbeoefening.
gtt--7.150.
United States--Linguistics, history
Language: English
Product ID: 169426
eBook ISBN: 9780203192481
ISBN: 9780415022286
Full Metadata
From Inside the eBook
PREFACE: AMERICAN LINGUISTICS CIRCA 1925 It is the privilege and, in fact, business of the historian to “cheat”: to peek ahead at any given moment in the historical record, to see “what happens next.” Exercising this privilege to the limit, I will begin my story at the end, that is, on December 28, 1924, the date of the founding of the Linguistic Society of America. The lead article in this issue is Edward Sapir’s “Sound Patterns in Language.” Here Sapir argues against the position that phonetic processes can be understood in mechanical terms, as relatively simple sensorimotor habits (i.e. the basic nineteenth-century position),
Working Minimalism (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Samuel David Epstein (Editor), Norbert Hornstein (Editor) "A central question posed within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995) is this: how perfect is the computational component of the human linguistic system (CHL)?..." (more)
Key Phrases: lexical shell, kakav krov, countercyclic derivation, Linguistic Inquiry, Department of Linguistics, Extension Condition (more...)
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The essays in this book present explicit syntactic analyses that adhere to programmatic minimalist guidelines. Thus they show how the guiding ideas of minimalism can shape the construction of a new, more explanatory theory of the syntactic component of the human language faculty.
Contributors: Zeljko Boskovic, Samuel David Epstein, Robert Freidin, Erich M. Groat, Norbert Hornstein, Hisatsugu Kitahara, Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, Jairo Nunes, Norvin Richards, Juan Uriagereka, Amy Weinberg
Current Studies in Linguistics No. 32
About the Author
Samuel David Epstein is Associate Professor in the Program in Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Norbert Hornstein is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Product Details
Paperback: 371 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (November 26, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262550326
ISBN-13: 978-0262550321
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
Representation Theory (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Edwin Williams (Author) "First, the problem with bracketing paradoxes..." (more)
Key Phrases: kevés ember, long topicalization, complement embedding, Checking Theory, Mirror Principle, Relativized Minimality (more...)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Minimalism has inspired many different attempts at making precise in what sense the architecture of grammar is 'economical.' Williams's theory that grammar is constituted by a restricted number of levels of representation linked by shape-preserving mappings constitutes an original and unorthodox blend of linguistic theorizing. It is a controversial idea that yields strikingly insightful analyses, tied together into a cogent and engaging argument."
—Gennaro Chierchia, Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy
"Williams's Representation Theory sheds new light on every linguistic paradigm that has been widely discussed in the government and binding and minimalist literatures. For a range of problems for which derivational solutions have remained unsatisfying, Williams proposes simple one-step explanations in terms of mismatches between his levels of representation. This return to a theory of levels in many ways recalls the best insights of much traditional grammar."
—Joseph Emonds, Kobe Shoin University
Product Description
In this theoretical monograph, Edwin Williams demonstrates that when syntax is economical, it economizes on shape distortion rather than on distance. According to Williams, this new notion of economy calls for a new architecture for the grammatical system—in fact, for a new notion of derivation. The new architecture offers a style of clausal embedding—the Level Embedding Scheme—that predictively ties together the locality, reconstructive behavior, and "target" type of any syntactic process in a way that is unique to the model. Williams calls his theory "Representation Theory" to put the notion of economy at the forefront. Syntax, in this theory, is a series of representations of one sublanguage in another.
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Product Details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (January 17, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262731509
ISBN-13: 978-0262731508
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
The View from Building 20: Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger (Current Studies in Linguistics) by Kenneth Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser (Paperback - Sep 2, 1993)
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Product Description
These seven original essays commissioned in tribute to MIT Philosophy Professor Sylvain Bromberger present some of the most exciting research being conducted today in linguistics. Each essay is informed by Bromberger's ongoing inquiry into how we "come to know that there are things in the world that we don't know." Included in the collection is the edited version of Noam Chomsky's minimalist paper.
About the Author
Samuel Jay Keyser is the Peter de Florez Professor Emeritus in Linguistics and Special Assistant to the Chancellor at MIT.
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Product Details
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (September 2, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262581248
ISBN-13: 978-0262581240
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Change in Language: Whitney, Breal and Wegener (History of Linguistic Thought) (Hardcover)
by Brigitt Nerlich (Author)
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Product Description
The aim of this book is to provide a fresh view of the history of nineteenth-century language study by focusing on the writings of three linguists (Whitney, Breal and Wegener) in three countries (the United States, France and Germany). The standard histories of linguistics portray the period between the 1840s and the 1890s as comprising a steady increase in philological knowledge, the discovery of sound laws and the astute study of minute philological curiosities. The three writers discussed here illustrate another trend in the evolution of the science of language. They are witnesses to an increasing interest on questions of 'general' linguistics, semantics and the study of human communication - new points of view from which they study the origin of language, language change and linguistic creativity. The life and work of these three outstanding scholars, their relationships with their friends and enemies and their efforts to free linguistics from the unreflecting use of biological metaphors, give a new insight into the evolution of language study in an interdisciplinary and international context.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 213 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 25, 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 041500991X
ISBN-13: 978-0415009911
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
Semantic Structures (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Ray S. Jackendoff (Author)
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Product Description
Semantic Structures is a large-scale study of conceptual structure and its lexical and syntactic expression in English that builds on the system of Conceptual Semantics described in Ray Jackendoff's earlier books Semantics and Cognition and Consciousness and the Computational Mind.
Jackendoff summarizes the relevant arguments in his two previous books, setting out the basic parameters for the formalization of meaning, and comparing his mentalistic approach with Fodor's Language of Thought hypothesis. He then takes up the Problem of Meaning, extending the range of semantic fields encompassed by the Conceptual Semantics formalism, and the Problem of Correspondence, formalizing the relation between semantic and syntactic structure. Both of these problems must be fully addressed in order to develop a general theory of language that is concerned with syntax and semantics and their points of connection.
Few books on lexical semantics present such a comprehensive analysis of such a wide range of phenomena from a unified perspective. Besides discussing the conceptual structures of hundreds of words and constructions, Jackendoff extends and deepens the theory to come to grips with such crucial issues as Θ-roles and Θ-marking; arguments, modifiers, and adjuncts; binding and control; and the thematic linking hierarchy.
Ray Jackendoff is Chairman of the Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Brandeis University.
About the Author
Ray Jackendoff is Professor in the Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Brandeis University.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (August 29, 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262100436
ISBN-13: 978-0262100434
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
Flexibility Principles in Boolean Semantics: The Interpretation of Coordination, Plurality, and Scope in Natural Language (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Yoad Winter (Author) "Two aspects are central to any theory of natural language semantics..." (more)
Key Phrases: Van Benthem, Montague Raising, Montague Grammar (more...)
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Review
"In this book, Yoad Winter places his influential work on coordination, choice functions, and plurality in the context of a general theory of semantic composition. This is essential reading for anybody interested in possible universals guiding semantic interpretation."
—Angelika Kratzer, Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"This book represents one of the most thorough studies carried out within the program of 'flexible types' in semantics. Using some quite general 'type-shifting' operations, Dr. Winter is able not only to account for an impressive array of challenging phenomena but also—even more excitingly—to illuminate a number of intricate interactions among these phenomena. This study shows a rare and refreshing integration of formal rigor, mathematical precision, and rich empirical coverage."
—Pauline Jacobson, Professor, Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University
"This research monograph deals with some of the most exciting and widely discussed problems in present-day linguistic theory: coordination, plurals/collectives, indefinites, and scope. With ample background discussion of alternative proposals, the author presents a highly appealing account, emphasizing the interplay between the phenomena studied. The argument falls squarely within the Montague tradition of compositional semantics, brought to the contemporary research frontier with tools such as generalized quantifer theory, Boolean semantics, and type shifting principles. The book, which should interest any researcher or advanced student in the field, combines formal rigor and readable style with an impressive empirical coverage."
—Dag Westerst録l, Chair and Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Gothenburg University
"Well over a century ago, Boole published his findings on what he considered the mathematical form of the laws of thought. Winter's new book is an important contribution within this tradition. It contains a wealth of original and thought-provoking ideas on how quantification, plurality, and coordination work in language, revealing novel aspects of the way in which logic and grammar are intertwined."
—Gennaro Chierchia, Department of Psychology, University of Milan, Bicocca, Italy
Product Description
Since the early work of Montague, Boolean semantics and its subfield of generalized quantifier theory have become the model-theoretic foundation for the study of meaning in natural languages. This book uses this framework to develop a new semantic theory of central linguistic phenomena involving coordination, plurality, and scope. The proposed theory makes use of the standard Boolean interpretation of conjunction, a choice-function account of indefinites, and a novel semantics of plurals that is not based on the distributive/collective distinction. The key to unifying these mechanisms is a version of Montagovian semantics that is augmented by flexibility principles: semantic operations that have no counterpart in phonology.
This is the first book to cover these areas in a way that is both linguistically comprehensive and formally explicit. On one hand, it addresses questions of primarily linguistic concern: the semantic functions of words like and and or in different languages, the interpretation of indefinites and their scope, and the semantic typology of noun phrases and predicates. On the other hand, it addresses formal questions that are motivated by the treatment of these linguistic problems: the use of Boolean algebras in linguistics, the proper formalization of choice functions within generalized quantifier theory, and the extension of this theory to the domain of plurality. While primarily intended for readers with a background in theoretical linguistics, the book will also be of interest to researchers and advanced students in logic, computational linguistics, philosophy of language, and artificial intelligence.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 309 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (February 15, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262232189
ISBN-13: 978-0262232180
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
Acoustic Phonetics (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Kenneth N. Stevens (Author)
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Review
"Whenever anybody—linguist, speech pathologist, or communication engineer—wants to know why the acoustic structure of a particular sound is as it is, this is the book to which they will turn. There is absolutely no other book with anything like this depth of coverage."
—Peter Ladefoged, Professor of Phonetics Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
This book presents a theory of speech-sound generation in the human vocal system. The comprehensive acoustic theory serves as one basis for defining categories of speech sounds used to form distinctions between words in languages. The author begins with a review of the anatomy and physiology of speech production, then covers source mechanisms, the vocal tract as an acoustic filter, relevant aspects of auditory psychophysics and physiology, and phonological representations. In the remaining chapters he presents a detailed examination of vowels, consonants, and the influence of context on speech-sound production. Although he focuses mainly on the sounds of English, he touches briefly on sounds in other languages.
The book will serve as a reference for speech scientists, speech pathologists, linguists interested in phonetics and phonology, psychologists interested in speech perception and production, and engineers concerned with speech processing applications.
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Product Details
Paperback: 617 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (July 31, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262692503
ISBN-13: 978-0262692502
Plurals and Events (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Barry Schein (Author) "Underlying the semantics of how noun phrases (NPs) combine with predicate phrases is a primitive notion of what it means for a predicate to be..." (more)
Key Phrases: Carnegie Deli, Carnegie Hall, The New Yorker (more...)
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How do we make sense of sentences with plural noun phrases in them? In Plurals and Events, Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking "plural objects," with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. Schein's highly original argument should have significant impact on how natural-language semantics is done, with repercussions for philosophy and logic.
The book opens with foundational arguments that the logical language should have four major features: reduction to singular predication via a Davidsonian logical form, amereology of events, a logical syntax that allows the constituents of a Davidsonian analysis to be predicated of distinct events and separated from one another by other logical elements, and descriptive anaphors that cross-refer to the events described by antecedent clauses. A semantics for plurality and quantification is developed in the remaining chapters, which address some of the empirical and formal questions raised by the variety of interpretations in which plurals and quantifiers participate.
About the Author
Barry Schein is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern California.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (May 10, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262193345
ISBN-13: 978-0262193344
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
Principle B, VP Ellipsis, and Interpretation in Child Grammar (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Rosalind Thornton (Author), Kenneth Wexler (Author) "This book examines children's interpretation of pronouns..." (more)
Key Phrases: coreference interpretation, referential parallelism, local coreference, Mama Bear, Flash Gordon, Papa Bear (more...)
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Product Description
Among the universal principles are those known as the principles of the binding theory. These principles constrain the range of interpretations that can be assigned to sentences containing reflexives and reciprocals, pronouns, and referring expressions. The principle that is relevant for pronouns, Principle B, has provided a fertile ground for the study of linguistic development. Although it has long been known that children make certain kinds of errors that appear to contradict this principle, further experimental and theoretical investigation reveals that the child does know the grammatical principle, but implements the pragmatic knowledge incorrectly. In fact, discoveries concerning children's knowledge of Principle B are among the most well-known in the study of language acquisition because of the dissociation between syntactic and pragmatic knowledge (binding versus reference).
In this book the authors deepen and extend the results of years of developmental investigation of Principle B by studying the interaction of Principle B with verb phrase ellipsis and properties of the interpretation of empty pronouns in ellipsis—properties of "strict" and "sloppy" interpretation. This is the first experimental study of these topics in the developmental literature. The striking results show that detailed predictions from the "pragmatic deficiency" theory seem to be correct. Many novel experimental results concern the question of how children interpret pronouns, including elided pronouns, and how they understand VP ellipsis. The authors present the necessary theoretical background on Principle B, review and critique previous accounts of childrens errors, and present a novel account of why children misinterpret pronouns. The book will thus be of interest not only to readers interested in the development of the binding theory, but to those interested in the development of interpretation and reference by children.
About the Author
Rosalind Thornton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Kenneth Wexler is Professor in the Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 254 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (September 17, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262201194
ISBN-13: 978-0262201193
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
Historical Linguistics 2003: International Conference On Historical Linguistics, Copenhagen, 11-15 August 2003 (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History ... IV: Current Issues in Linguistic Theory) (Hardcover)
by Michael D. Fortescue (Editor), Erik jens Mogensen (Author), INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HISTORICAL L (Author), Lene Schosler (Editor)
Hardcover: 315 pages
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co (April 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1588115860
ISBN-13: 978-1588115867
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Phrase Structure Composition and Syntactic Dependencies (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Robert Frank (Author) "Within the generative paradigm, our ability to exploit the system of connections between form and meaning afforded by human language is taken to derive from..." (more)
Key Phrases: top feature set, frontier nonterminal, derivational architecture, Shortest Move, Relativized Minimality, American English (more...)
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Review
"This work is an extremely lucid discussion of the proper interplay of formal framework and substantive linguistic theory, and should be of interest to anyone concerned with that issue. It contains a highly sophisticated treatment of a large number of current topics in syntax, and the syntactic analysis is quite thorough and insightful. I definitely recommend this book to syntacticians of all stripes." - Mark Baltin, Department of Linguistics, New York University
"This work is an extremely lucid discussion of the proper interplay of formal framework and substantive linguistic theory, and should be of interest to anyone concerned with that issue. It contains a highly sophisticated treatment of a large number of current topics in syntax, and the syntactic analysis is quite thorough and insightful. I definitely recommend this book to syntacticians of all stripes."
—Mark Baltin, Department of Linguistics, New York University
Product Description
In Phrase Structure Composition and Syntactic Dependencies, Robert Frank explores an approach to syntactic theory that weds the Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG) formalism with the minimalist framework. TAG has been extensively studied both for its mathematical properties and for its usefulness in computational linguistics applications. Frank shows that incorporating TAG's formally restrictive operations for structure building considerably simplifies the model of grammatical competence, particularly in the components concerned with syntactic movement and locality. The empirical advantages of the resulting model, illustrated with extensive case studies of subject-raising constructions and wh-questions, point toward a conception of grammar that is sharply limited in its computational power.
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Product Details
Paperback: 388 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (September 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262562081
ISBN-13: 978-0262562089
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
The Syntax of Time (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Jacqueline Guéron (Editor), Jacqueline Lecarme (Editor) "An analysis of the syntax of time must include a syntax-based theory of tense construal and of event construal, and an algorithm for inserting events..." (more)
Key Phrases: spatially extended configuration, aspectual periphrases, noncancelable implicature, Placido Domingo, Linguistic Inquiry, New York (more...)
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Product Description
Any analysis of the syntax of time is based on a paradox: it must include a syntax-based theory of both tense construal and event construal. Yet while time is undimensional, events have a complex spatiotemporal structure that reflects their human participants. How can an event be flattened to fit into the linear time axis? Chomsky's The Minimalist Program, published in 1995, offers a way to address this problem. The studies collected in The Syntax of Time investigate whether problems concerning the construal of tense and aspect can be reduced to syntactic problems for which the basic mechanism and principles of generative grammar already provide solutions.
These studies, recent work by leading international scholars in the field, offer varied perspectives on the syntax of tense and the temporal construal of events: models of tense interpretation, construal of verbal forms, temporal aspect versus lexical aspect, the relation between the event and its argument structure, and the interaction of case with aktionsart or tense construal. Advances in the theory of temporal interpretation in the sentence are also applied to the temporal interpretation of nominals.
About the Author
Jaqueline Guéron is Professor of English Linguistics at the Université Paris III.
Jacqueline Lecarme is a researcher in the Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université Paris 7.
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Product Details
Paperback: 674 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (July 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262572176
ISBN-13: 978-0262572170
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 1.1 inches
Three Investigations of Extraction (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Paul M. Postal (Author) "I use the term extraction in this book to refer descriptively to relations like those in (1) between the sometimes null italicized constituents and the..." (more)
Key Phrases: selective island extraction, unlocked islands, selective islands, Conjunct Constraint, Foot Feature Principle, Indirect Object Constraint (more...)
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In this technical monograph, Paul Postal deals with several issues that inexplicably have been treated only marginally in the development of current linguistic theorizing. He focuses on three problems in syntactic theory that are connected to "extraction"—the occurrence of an element in a distinguished position distinct from its unmarked locus in simple clauses. He examines a largely ignored body of systematic contrasts among known extraction types, the status of the Coordinate Structure Constraint, and the phenomenon of Right Node Raising.
Current Studies in Linguistics 29
About the Author
Paul M. Postal is Research Professor in the Department of Linguistics at New York University.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 225 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (December 25, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262161796
ISBN-13: 978-0262161794
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
Verbal Complexes (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)
by Hilda Koopman (Author), Anna Szabolcsi (Author) "The syntax of complex verb formation (also known as verb raising, verb projection raising, or the "third" construction) constitutes one the most difficult areas of..." (more)
Key Phrases: nonneutral sentences, haza menni, fogok akarni, Doubly Filled Comp Filter, Universal Grammar, West Germanic (more...)
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In this book Hilda Koopman and Anna Szabolcsi propose a unified analysis of restructuring constructions in Hungarian, Dutch, and German that involves only overt phrasal movement and derives variation from the varying sizes of pied piping constituents.
Restructuring verbs in Hungarian exhibit three patterns: the will begin up-climb and the up will begin climb orders common in Dutch and the up-climb begin will order common in German. Traditionally these have been analyzed as involving no movement (or covert movement), phrasal movement, and head movement, respectively. The first goal of this book is to develop a unified analysis where (1) the same features are checked in all three orders, (2) all feature checking is achieved by overt movement, and (3) all three types involve phrasal movement. The second goal is to account for the significant variation across Hungarian, Dutch, and German, which is argued to arise from the varying sizes of the constituents pied piped in the course of movement.
In addition to its novel theoretical claims, the book presents the first systematic description of Hungarian complex verbs and the first comparison of West-Germanic and Hungarian.
Current Studies in Linguistics No. 34
About the Author
Hilda Koopman is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Anna Szabolcsi is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Linguistics, New York University.
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Product Details
Paperback: 257 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (November 13, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262611546
ISBN-13: 978-0262611541
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words
By Bill Bryson
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Publisher:Broadway
Number Of Pages:224
Publication Date:2002-08-15
ISBN-10 / ASIN:0767910427
ISBN-13 / EAN:9780767910422
Binding:Hardcover
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Product Description:
One of the English language’s most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage.
As usual Bill Bryson says it best: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where ‘cleave’ can mean to cut in half or to hold two halves together; where the simple word ‘set’ has 126 different meanings as a verb, 58 as a noun, and 10 as a participial adjective; where if you can run fast you are moving swiftly, but if you are stuck fast you are not moving at all; where ‘colonel,’ ‘freight,’ ‘once,’ and ‘ache’ are strikingly at odds with their spellings.” As a copy editor for the London Times in the early 1980s, Bill Bryson felt keenly the lack of an easy-to-consult, authoritative guide to avoiding the traps and snares in English, and so he brashly suggested to a publisher that he should write one. Surprisingly, the proposition was accepted, and for “a sum of money carefully gauged not to cause embarrassment or feelings of overworth,” he proceeded to write that book–his first, inaugurating his stellar career.
Now, a decade and a half later, revised, updated, and thoroughly (but not overly) Americanized, it has become Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words, more than ever an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. With some one thousand entries, from “a, an” to “zoom,” that feature real-world examples of questionable usage from an international array of publications, and with a helpful glossary and guide to pronunciation, this precise, prescriptive, and–because it is written by Bill Bryson–often witty book belongs on the desk of every person who cares enough about the language not to maul or misuse or distort it.
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Summary: Fun to read, and a good reference
Rating: 4
This book is a light, fun read for people who enjoy the nuances of the English language and maybe would like to become better readers/writers/editors. I always have this book handy when I'm making editing corrections at work. While I don't consult it regularly, it has definitely clarified three or four things that I couldn't find explained clearly or concisely enough on the internet. Also, someone wrote a review about this book and claimed that it was obsolete because you can find everything that Bill writes about explained somewhere online. This may be true, but Bill's writing style is interesting, concise, thorough, and written colloquially enough to be easy to digest-- so you're more likely to retain this nuanced information of usages than trying to locate these things somewhere else.
Summary: The Lost Continent
Rating: 2
Rather mundane descriptive work. It is outdated by a quarter century. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
Summary: Obsolete
Rating: 2
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words may have been useful twenty-five years ago, when it was first published, but it has become redundant. Most entries clarify word spellings and meanings, which a normal dictionary does just as well (with the advantage that it lists all words, not an arbitrary selection). A Google or Yahoo search will instantly clarify the rest, such as corporate names. Grammatical or stylistic advice is rarely given, and adds little to Strunk & White's better-organised and clearer The Elements of Style. And because of the dictionary format, that advice is buried in distant entries and hard to find. Nor does Bryson's manual lend itself to reading `like a novel', even if he wrote it with his customary humour. This is most likely to sit on your shelf.
Summary: No problem for Bryson
Rating: 5
I like language and its ability to allow the communication of complex and profound ideas as well as making it possible the get a coffee from Starbucks. This book, born out of Bryson's need for clarity as a newspaper reporter, is a wonderful read. Although laid out alphabetically like a conventional dictionary it is possible to dip into at any point and at any time to find oneself informed and amused. Plural of mongoose, mongooses not mongeese, fascinating and worth a bonus point in any trivia quiz. Oh, and Bryson insists there is no problem using split infinitives which is good news for Captain Kirk whose job is "to boldly go" to new worlds. In a world where standards seem to be slipping, (what is the difference between "verbal" and "oral", does anyone know, does anyone care: similarly "affect" and "effect") and where "eff off" gets marks in GSCE English we should be grateful for Bryson for keeping the language flag flying. Buy this please, I did and subsequently bought two further copies for friends.
Summary: Nice read - maybe not the book for those who know some Latin or French
Rating: 4
This book covers a range of words that tend to get misspelled or misused in English publications. Many of them are words of French or Latin origin, which makes them a problem only for those who did not have to take one of these languages in school. The last chapter in the book is dedicated to punctuation - and that one is really helpful for any reader.
This book introduces the reader to the changing notions of the lexicon and dictionary-making, using a convergence of perspectives from computational linguistics, corpus linguistics, and computational lexicography/lexicology.
Computer Corpus Lexicography
作者：Vincent B. Y. Ooi, Vincent Ooi, B. Y.
由Edinburgh University Press出版, 1998
ISBN 074860815X, 9780748608157
243 页
The BNC Handbook: Exploring the British National Corpus with Sara (Paperback)
by Guy Aston (Author), Lou Burnard (Author) "This part of the BNC Handbook attempts to place the British National Corpus (BNC) within the tradition of corpus linguistics by providing a brief overview..." (more)
Key Phrases: solutions dialogue box, query dialogue box, scroll through the solutions, Query Builder, Word Query, Phrase Query (more...
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'The book provides valuable informationon the operation of SARA. Its instructions are clear, the tasks set thereader are natural and wide-ranging, and the skills it seeks to inculcatemake full use of the potentiality of corpus study'.Michael Hoey, Directo 'The book provides valuable informationon the operation of SARA. Its instructions are clear, the tasks set thereader are natural and wide-ranging, and the skills it seeks to inculcatemake full use of the potentiality of corpus study'.Michael Hoey, Directo
Product Description
This textbook is designed to provide a detailed understanding of the principles and practices underlying the use of large language corpora in exploratory learning and English language teaching and research. It focuses on the largest and most representative corpus of spoken and written data yet compiled - the British National Corpus - and on the search tool SARA (SGML Aware Retrieval Application). The method adopted is to provide a graded series of exercises, each introducing at the same time new features of the software and new techniques or applications for computer-assisted language learning. The book also includes an overview of previous work in corpus linguistics, a bibliography, and a reference manual for the SARA software.
* Graded self-paced tutorials
* Suggestions for further work
* Thorough coverage of corpus linguistics theories and practices
* State-of-the-art software
* Accessible non-specialist style
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Product Details
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press (February 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0748610553
ISBN-13: 978-0748610556
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
This book represents a new direction at the interface between the fields of stylistics and corpus linguistics, namely the use of a corpus methodology to investigate the ways in which people's words and thoughts are presented in written narratives. A 260,000 word electronic corpus of late 20th century written texts, including fiction, news reports and (auto)biographies is analysed by the authors, providing a detailed account of new theoretical insights, comparisons between different text types and detailed accounts of individual texts.
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Corpus Stylistics: Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing
作者：Elena Semino, Mick Short
由Routledge出版, 2004
ISBN 0415286697, 9780415286695
256 页
DISCOURSE MARKERS ACROSS LANGUAGES (Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics) (Hardcover)
by Siepmann Dirk (Author)
Key Phrases: multilingual translation corpus, zero connector, exemplificatory material, English French German, Full-text Reviews, United States (more...)
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
This book offers a corpus-based comparative study of an almost entirely unexplored set of multi-word lexical items serving pragmatic or text-structuring functions. Part One provides a descriptive account of multi-word discourse markers in written English, French and German, focussing on discussion of interlingual equivalence. Part Two examines the use of multi-word markers by non-native speakers of English and discusses lexicographical and pedagogical implications.
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Product Details
Hardcover: 357 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (May 16, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415349494
ISBN-13: 978-0415349499
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches