Linguistics : oso

Spreading Patterns

Hendrik De Smet — 2013-01-24

Author:: Hendrik De Smet
ISBN:: 9780199812752
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812752.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book examines the emergence and spread of three types of complements from the Middle English period to the present day. The three types of complements are examined in detail. The first type is subject-controlled gerund complements (The cat loves being stroked, absolutely loves it!). The second type is for…to-infinitives (We couldn't afford for it to go wrong.). The last type is subject-controlled participial complements (The receptionist is busy filling a fifth box.). This first half of the book addresses the theoretical issues by summarizing a number of major approaches to the study of complementation, and by focusing on how and why a particular change spreads (a process that the book calls “diffusion”). In the second half, which is descriptive and largely corpus-based, the text tests these mechanisms on the three complement types. This work demonstrates how diffusion interacts with the grammatical system of complementation; how diffusion proceeds, step-by-step; and why diffusion is directional.

Rich Languages From Poor Inputs

Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and Robert C. Berwick — 2013-01-24

Author:: MassimoPiattelli-PalmariniDepartment of Linguistics, University of ArizonaRobert C.BerwickDepartment of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISBN:: 9780199590339
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590339.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book addresses one of the most famous and controversial arguments in the study of language and mind, the Poverty of the Stimulus (POS). Presented by Chomsky in 1968, the argument holds that children do not receive enough evidence to infer the existence of core aspects of language, such as the dependence of linguistic rules on hierarchical phrase structure. The argument strikes against empiricist accounts of language acquisition and supports the conclusion that knowledge of some aspects of grammar must be innate. In the first part of this book, chapters consider the general issues around the POS argument, review the empirical data, and offer new and plausible explanations. This is followed by a discussion of the processes of language acquisition, and observed ‘gaps’ between adult and child grammar, concentrating on the late spontaneous acquisition by children of some key syntactic principles, basically, though not exclusively, between the ages of 5 to 9. Part 3 widens the horizon beyond language acquisition in the narrow sense, examining the natural development of reading and writing and of the child's growing sensitivity for the fine arts.

Possession and Ownership

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon — 2013-01-24

Author:: Alexandra Y.AikhenvaldCairns Institute, James Cook UniversityR. M. W.DixonCairns Institute, James Cook University
ISBN:: 9780199660223
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660223.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

Every language has a way of expressing possessive relationships. The marking and the conceptualization of these vary across languages and cultures. This volume aims at investigating the varied facets of possession and associated notions, including association and modification. We focus on correlations between language and culture in the ways in which possessive relationships can have their linguistic correlates. The volume starts with a typological introduction outlining the marking, and the meaning, of possession within a noun phrase, a clause, and a sentence, focusing on correlations between possessive structures, and cultural and social aspects of its conceptualization by the speakers. It is followed by revised versions of fourteen of the fifteen presentations from the International Workshop ‘Possession and Ownership’, held at the Language and Culture Research Group, the Cairns Institute, James Cook University, 27 September - 2 October 2010.

Parameter Theory and Linguistic Change

Charlotte Galves, Sonia Cyrino, Ruth Lopes, Filomena Sandalo, and Juanito Avelar — 2013-01-24

Author:: CharlotteGalvesDepartment of Linguistics, State University of CampinasSoniaCyrinoDepartment of Linguistics, State University of CampinasRuthLopesDepartment of Linguistics, State University of CampinasFilomenaSandaloDepartment of Linguistics, State University of CampinasJuanitoAvelarDepartment of Linguistics, State University of Campinas
ISBN:: 9780199659203
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659203.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book focuses on some of the most important issues in historical syntax. In a series of close examinations of languages from old Egyptian to modern Afrikaans, chapters present work on Afro-Asiatic, Latin and Romance, Germanic, Albanian, Celtic, Indo-Iranian, and Japanese. The book revolves around the linked themes of parametric theory and the dynamics of language change. The former is a key element in the search for explanatory adequacy in historical syntax: if the notion of imperfect learning, for example, explains a large element of grammatical change, it is vital to understand how parameters are set in language acquisition and how they might have been set differently in previous generations. The book tests particular hypotheses against data from different times and places with the aim of understanding the relationship between language variation and the dynamics of change. Is it possible, for example, to reconcile the unidirectionality of change predominantly expressed in the phenomenon of ‘grammaticalization’, with the multidirectionality predicted by generativist approaches?

Motion Encoding in Language and Space

Mila Vulchanova and Emile van der Zee — 2013-01-24

Author:: MilaVulchanovaDepartmetn of Modern Foreign Languages, Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyEmilevan der ZeeSchool of Psychology, University of Lincoln
ISBN:: 9780199661213
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661213.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This volume in the Explorations in Language and Space series contains a unique collection of chapters on the way in which motion is encoded in language. Although the way in which people encode motion in language has been an object of study for some time, the chapters in this volume show that many aspects of linguistic motion encoding are still unexplored, that current theories in this area do not capture all main aspects of linguistic motion encoding, and that the research area of linguistic motion encoding is very much alive and evolving. The chapters in this volume take different theoretical and methodological approaches in exploring possible new parameters in linguistic motion encoding, in describing new empirical research on how direction of motion is represented in language, and in presenting original insights into how motion is encoded at different levels of spatial resolution or granularity in language. This collection of chapters presents both advanced students and researchers in linguistics, computer science, psychology, and cognitive science with a set of new explorations and challenges in the area of spatial language.

The Morphology and Phonology of Exponence

Jochen Trommer — 2013-01-24

Author:: JochenTrommerInstitute for Linguistics, Leipzig University
ISBN:: 9780199573721
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573721.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

Exponence is the mapping of morphosyntactic structure to phonological representations, a research area which is not only the traditional bone of contention between phonology and morphology, but also approached in fundamentally diverse ways in different theoretical frameworks such as Optimality Theory and Distributed Morphology: by morphological rules carrying out complex phonological operations, highly abstract morphophonological representations, and/or by phonological constraints which are sensitive to morphological information. This volume presents a synopsis of the state-of-the-art in research on exponence, based on a novel conception: Every chapter systematically discusses a specific aspect of exponence from the point of view of current theoretical morphology, but also from a theoretical phonology perspective. Topics include nonconcatenative morphology, allomorphy, iconicity, dissimilation and truncation processes. Two detailed chapters formulate a new coherent research program for exponence which integrates the central insights of the last decades and provides important new challenges for years to come.

Kayardild Morphology and Syntax

Erich R. Round — 2013-01-24

Author:: Erich R. Round
ISBN:: 9780199654871
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654871.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book presents new data and a formal analysis of the inflectional system and syntax of Kayardild, a typologically striking language of Northern Australia. It sets forth arguments for recognizing an intricate syntactic structure that underlies the exuberant distribution of inflectional features throughout the clause, and for an intermediate, ‘morphemic’ level of representation that mediates morphosyntactic features' realization as morphological forms. The book differs from existing treatments of Kayardild in unifying the explanation of shared morphological exponents, positing a detailed, empirically-grounded underlying syntax, identifying new clausal and nominal structures, simplifying the analysis of Kayardild's dual tense system, rejecting an analysis according to which some case markers are morphologically ‘verbalizing’ and some tense markers ‘nominalizing’, and arguing that upper bounds on syntactic complexity are inherently syntactic rather than derivative of constraints on morphology. Analyses are expressed formally in terms of syntactic structures and morphosyntactic features which will be interpretable to a broad range of theories. Early chapters provide overviews of Kayardild phonology and morphological structure in general, and a final chapter implements the analysis in constraint-based grammar. Example sentences are glossed across four or five lines, furnishing explicit analyses at multiple levels of representation, and an appendix gathers over one hundred example sentences to provide large-scale empirical support for the syntactic analysis of tense inflection. Kayardild Morphology and Ssyntax will appeal to the formal or typological syntactician, morphologist, or phonologist, to advanced students, and to all who wish to understand more about the typological significance of Kayardild.

Electronic Lexicography

Sylviane Granger and Magali Paquot — 2013-01-24

Author:: SylvianeGrangerDirector, Centre for English Corpus Linguistics, The Catholic University of LouvainMagaliPaquotResearch Fellow, The Catholic University of Louvain
ISBN:: 9780199654864
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Lexicography, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654864.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book introduces the rapidly evolving field of electronic lexicography. The aim is to provide a wide overview of the full process of electronic dictionary production and present some of the challenges faced by publishers, editors and lexicographers as well as the benefits offered to a wide range of users language learners, translators and professionals. Throughout the book particular focus is placed on user needs and the functionalities of electronic dictionaries that are designed to meet them. The volume contains chapters introducing some innovative dictionary projects and surveys of dictionary use. One of the hallmarks of the volume is that it is not limited to English but touches on a range of other languages (Bantu languages, French, German, Russian, Slovene, Spanish as well as sign language). Another key feature of the volume is that it embraces a wide range of lexicographic theories and practices.

Count and Mass Across Languages

Diane Massam — 2013-01-24

Author:: DianeMassamDepartment of Linguistics, University of Toronto
ISBN:: 9780199654277
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654277.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This volume explores the expression of the concepts count and mass in human language and probes the complex relation between seemingly incontrovertible aspects of meaning and their varied grammatical realizations across languages. In English, count nouns are those that can be counted and pluralized (two cats), whereas mass nouns cannot be, at least not without a change in meaning (two rices). The chapters in this volume explore the question of the cognitive and linguistic universality and variability of the concepts count and mass from philosophical, semantic, and morpho-syntactic points of view, touching also on issues in acquisition and processing. The volume also significantly contributes to our cross-linguistic knowledge, as it includes chapters with a focus on Blackfoot, Cantonese, Dagaare, English, Halkomelem, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Mandarin, Ojibwe, and Persian, as well as discussion of several other languages including Armenian, Hungarian, and Korean. The overall consensus of this volume is that while the general concepts of count and mass are available to all humans, forms of grammaticalization involving number, classifiers, and determiners play a key role in their linguistic treatment, and indeed in whether these concepts are grammatically expressed at all. This variation may be reflect the fact that count/mass is just one possible realization of a deeper and broader concept, itself related to the categories of nominal and verbal aspect.

Computational Phenotypes

Sergio Balari and Guillermo Lorenzo — 2013-01-24

Author:: Sergio Balari, Guillermo Lorenzo
ISBN:: 9780199665464
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665464.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This is a book about language as a species-typical trait of humans. Linguists customarily describe it as an extremely exceptional capacity, even when compared with the biological endowment of closely related species, and this is the source of the many quarrels that exist around the aim of explaining its evolutionary origins. This book argues that language is not so exceptional after all, as according to the text it is just the human version of a rather common and conservative organic system that they refer to as the Central Computational Complex. The book argues that inter-specific variation of this organ is restricted to (i) accessible memory resources, and (ii) patterns of external connectivity, both being the result of perturbations in the system underlying its development. The book thus offers a fresh perspective on language as a naturally evolved phenomenon.

Canonical Morphology and Syntax

Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina, and Greville G. Corbett — 2013-01-24

Author:: DunstanBrownSurrey Morphology Group, University of SurreyMarinaChumakinaSurrey Morphology Group, University of SurreyGreville G.CorbettSurrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey
ISBN:: 9780199604326
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604326.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This is the first book to present Canonical Typology, a framework for comparing constructions and categories across languages. The canonical method takes the criteria used to define particular categories or phenomena (e.g. negation, finiteness, possession) to create a multidimensional space in which language-specific instances can be placed. In this way, the issue of fit becomes a matter of greater or lesser proximity to a canonical ideal. Drawing on the expertise of world-class scholars in the field, the book addresses the issue of cross-linguistic comparability, illustrates the wide range of areas—from morphosyntactic features to reported speech—to which linguists are currently applying this methodology.

Agent, Person, Subject, Self

Paul Kockelman — 2013-01-24

Author:: Paul Kockelman
ISBN:: 9780199926985
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199926985.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book offers both a naturalistic and critical theory of signs, minds, and meaning-in-the-world. It provides a reconstructive rather than deconstructive theory of the individual, one which both analytically separates and theoretically synthesizes a range of faculties that are often confused and conflated: agency (understood as a causal capacity), subjectivity (understood as a representational capacity), selfhood (understood as a reflexive capacity), and personhood (understood as a sociopolitical capacity attendant on being an agent, subject, or self). It argues that these facilities are best understood from a semiotic stance that supersedes the usual intentional stance. And, in so doing, it offers a pragmatism-grounded approach to meaning and mediation that is general enough to account for processes that are as embodied and embedded as they are articulated and enminded. In particular, while this theory is thereby focused on human-specific modes of meaning, it also offers a general theory of meaning, such that the agents, subjects and selves in question need not always, or even usually, map onto persons. And while this theory foregrounds agents, persons, subjects and selves, it does this by theorizing processes that often remain in the background of such otherwise erroneously individuated figures: ontologies (akin to culture, but generalized across agentive collectivities), interaction (not only between people, but also between people and things, and anything outside or in-between), and infrastructure (akin to context, but generalized to include mediation at any degree of remove).

Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and the Composition of the Left Periphery

Liliane Haegeman — 2013-01-24

Author:: Liliane Haegeman
ISBN:: 9780199858774
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858774.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book uses the cartographic theory to examine the left periphery of the English clause and compare it to the left-peripheral structures of other languages. The book argues that the dissimilar surface characteristics of these languages (primarily English and Romance, but also Gungbe, Hungarian, Hebrew, Dutch, and others) can be explained by universal constraints, and that the same structures apply across the languages. The book focuses on main clause transformations—movement operations that can only take place in main clauses.

Ways of Structure Building

Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria and Vidal Valmala — 2012-09-20

Author:: MyriamUribe-EtxebarriaDepartment of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque CountryVidalValmalaDepartment of English Language and Linguistics, University of Basque Country
ISBN:: 9780199644933
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644933.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This volume offers the reader a wide and updated view of some of the most important approaches to three key questions in contemporary syntactic theory: What are the operations available for (syntactic) structure-building in natural languages? What are the triggers behind those structure-building operations? Which constraints operate on the structure-building operations available? All the chapters in this book aim at providing new answers to these questions on the basis of a detailed discussion of a wide range of phenomena (gapping, Right-Node-Raising, Comparative Deletion, Across-the-Board (ATB) movement, tough-constructions, nominalizations, scope interactions, wh-movement, A-movement, Case and Agreement relations, among others), and using evidence from a rich variety of languages (Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, German, Icelandic, Japanese, Spanish, Vata, or Vietnamese, etc.). The proposals presented clearly illustrate the shift in the locus of the explanation of linguistic phenomena that characterizes contemporary linguistic theory. A shift, in many cases, from a model which relied on properties of systems external to narrow syntax (such as the Lexicon or the PF component), to one which relies on properties of the structure-building mechanisms available.

Telicity, Change, and State

Violeta Demonte and Louise McNally — 2012-09-20

Author:: VioletaDemonteSpanish National Research CouncilLouiseMcNallyUniversitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
ISBN:: 9780199693498
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693498.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This volume presents new work by leading researchers on a central theme in study of event structure: the nature and representation of telicity, change, and the notion of state, and the relation between them. The goal is to advance our understanding of these aspects of event structure by bringing foundational semantic research together with a series of case studies from a variety of languages that broaden the empirical base for testing theories of event structure by exploring telicity, change, and the notion of state not only within the verbal domain but also across a range of morpho-syntactic categories.

Sluicing: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives

Jason Merchant and Andrew Simpson — 2012-09-20

Author:: JasonMerchantDepartment of Linguistics, University of ChicagoAndrewSimpsonEast Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California
ISBN:: 9780199645763
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199645763.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book is a multi-authored volume of eleven chapters dedicated to the analysis of sluicing in a range of languages from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Sluicing is the term applied to sentences in which the ellipsis of a sequence of words following an embedded wh question word appears to occur, and hearers must somehow recover the content of missing material, as in English: Someone saw her, but I don’t know who …. Elliptical constructions of this type are now known to occur widely in the world’s languages in some form or another, and create interesting problems for linguistic analysis, involving complex interactions between syntax, semantics, and morphology, as well as prosody. Because of this interdependence of different subcomponents of language, sluicing is a phenomenon with a strong interface characteristic, requiring integrative analyses and a formal modeling of permissible connections between syntax, morphology, semantics, and certain aspects of phonology. The present volume brings together a set of significant, new pieces of research by a team of leading experts who analyze sluicing constructions in English, Dutch, Frisian, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Turkish, Malagasy, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, and Bengali. The collection of chapters critically expands our current understanding of the ways in which languages allow for ellipsis of the sluicing type to occur, and shows how sluicing constructions reveal important information about the general architecture of grammar. In addition to the nine chapters dedicated to specific languages, the volume features an introduction chapter and Haj Ross’s original (1969) landmark chapter on sluicing.

Modality, Subjectivity, and Semantic Change

Heiko Narrog — 2012-09-20

Author:: Heiko Narrog
ISBN:: 9780199694372
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694372.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book deals with the issue of subjectivity (and intersubjectivity) in modality from a synchronic perspective, and from a diachronic perspective more generally with semantic change in modality, including the tendencies of subjectification and intersubjectification. This book argues for a definition of modality in terms of factivity independent of subjectivity or speaker attitudes. Instead, (inter)subjectivity, re‐conceptualized as speech‐act orientation is taken as a dimension in identifying different types of modality together with volitivity. The following diachronic part of the book tries to demonstrate that diachronic change in modality is characterized by two major tendencies that are parallel to each other: First, a tendency towards more speech‐act‐oriented meaning, which includes speaker‐oriented (subjective), hearer‐oriented (intersubjective), and discourse‐oriented meaning, and second, a tendency to structurally higher positions in syntax. The book further shows that other categories, such as possibility vs. necessity, or participant‐internal vs. participant‐external do not define semantic change in modality, and that extension from deontic to epistemic meaning is only a limited tendency. Finally, investigations on semantic change between modality and other grammatical categories, such as voice and aspect, support the overall directionality of change proposed in this book.

The Mental Corpus

John R. Taylor — 2012-09-20

Author:: John R. Taylor
ISBN:: 9780199290802
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290802.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book argues that knowledge of a language can be thought of as a mental corpus, that is, as a repository of memories of previous linguistic encounters with the language. Features of incoming language resonate with items already stored. Similarities between stored items give rise to generalizations of varying degrees of certainty and precision, which in turn are able to sanction new and innovative expressions. The thesis is argued on the basis of both psycholinguistic and language-internal evidence. The former shows that speakers have implicit knowledge of distributional and statistical properties of encountered language, while language data testifies to speakers’ precise knowledge of idiosyncratic facts of usage.

Laws and Rules in Indo‐European

Philomen Probert and Andreas Willi — 2012-09-20

Author:: PhilomenProbertClassical Philology and Linguistics, University of OxfordAndreasWilliComparative Philology, University of Oxford
ISBN:: 9780199609925
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609925.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book examines the operation of laws, rules, and principles in the Indo-European language family; within this family, the book delves into the Celtic, Germanic, Italic/Romance, Armenian, Greek, and Indo-Iranian languages as well as Proto-Indo-European itself. Laws or rules are crucial to Indo-European studies: they constrain the reconstructions and etymologies on which our knowledge of the history and prehistory of ancient languages is based, and they allow processes of morphological change, semantic shift, and borrowing to be identified. Their relevance results from the recognition that phenomena such as sound change tend to be regular, and this in turn leads, for example, to the principle that etymologies are possible only if the sound changes they require apply to all relevant examples in the language in question. Laws and rules require constant re-examination in the light of new evidence, theory, and method. After an introduction reflecting on different conceptions and varieties of linguistic laws and rules, the book is divided into six parts. The first looks at pre-modern ways of talking about regularity in linguistic data, the second at principles of language change itself and their methodological implications, and the third at progress in fine-tuning the rules for specific sound changes. Part IV examines why and how linguistic changes begin, the time-frame they operate in, and the stages through which they pass. Part V considers systemic consequences whose relationship to an original law or rule is not necessarily straightforward. Part VI is devoted to synchronic laws of interest to historical linguists

The Language of Sexual Misconduct Cases

Roger Shuy — 2012-09-20

Author:: Roger Shuy
ISBN:: 9780199926961
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199926961.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book analyzes the many ways in which language plays a crucial role in sexual misconduct cases. The book describes eleven court cases for which the author served as an expert witness, and explains the issues at stake in each case for both lawyers and linguists. The book's attention is on aspects of sexual misconduct that have not previously received the attention they deserve, such as: the language evidence of sexual misconduct in the workplace; cases of adult-to-child sexual misconduct with the family; and adult-adult sexual misconduct cases. The book describes the often-used linguistic analytical tools that are available to both the prosecution and the defense, and argues that there is a particular sequence in which these tools should be used.

Jamieson's Dictionary of Scots

Susan Rennie — 2012-09-20

Author:: Susan Rennie
ISBN:: 9780199639403
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Lexicography, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199639403.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808) was the first complete dictionary of Scots and is a landmark in the development of historical lexicography. This book is the first full‐scale study of Jamieson’s work on both the Dictionary and the later Supplement of 1825. Using Jamieson’s correspondence and surviving manuscript sources, it traces the evolution of the Dictionary project, from Jamieson’s early linguistic fieldwork to the production and promotion of the Dictionary over twenty years later. It discusses Jamieson’s editorial methods and examines in detail the content of the Dictionary, highlighting Jamieson’s pioneering of the historical method, as well as his innovative use of contemporary and popular sources. It also reveals how Jamieson continually revised and updated his text, aided by a growing number of contributors and specialist consultants – among them Sir Walter Scott – and describes how his work was supplemented by later editors, ensuring that the Dictionary dominated Scots lexicography for over a century, providing inspiration to generations of creative writers, as well as source material for the major historical dictionaries of English and Scots that were to follow.

Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English

Anneli Meurman-Solin, Maria Jose Lopez-Couso, and Bettelou Los — 2012-09-20

Author:: AnneliMeurman-SolinUniversity of HelsinkiMaria JoseLopez-CousoUniversidad de Santiago de CompostelaBettelouLosRadboud University Nijmegen
ISBN:: 9780199860210
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860210.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book applies information structure as it relates to language change to a corpus-based analysis of a wide range of features in the evolution of English syntax and grammars of prose in long diachrony. Its unifying topic is the role of information structure, broadly conceived, as it interacts with the other levels of linguistic description, syntax, morphology, prosody, semantics, and pragmatics. The volume comprises twelve chapters by leading scholars who take a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Their work affirms, among other things, that motivations for selecting a particular syntactic option vary from information structure in the strict sense to discourse organization, or a particular style or register, and can also be associated with external forces such as the development of a literary culture.

A History of the Spanish Lexicon

Steven N. Dworkin — 2012-09-20

Author:: Steven N. Dworkin
ISBN:: 9780199541140
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Language Families
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541140.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This history of the Spanish lexicon is written from the interacting perspectives of linguistic and cultural change and in the light of advances in the study of language contact and lexical change. The book describes the language inherited from spoken Latin in the Iberian Peninsula during six centuries of Roman occupation and examines the degree to which it imported words from the languages — of which only Basque survives — of pre-Roman Spain. It then shows how Germanic words were imported either indirectly through Latin or Old French or directly by contact with the Visigoths. The book describes the importation of Arabisms following the eighth-century Arab conquest of Spain, distinguishing those documented in medieval sources from those adopted for everyday use, many of which survive in modern Spanish. It considers the influence of Old French and Old Provençal and identifies late direct and indirect borrowings from Latin, including the Italian elements taken up during the Renaissance. After outlining minor influences from languages such as Flemish, Portuguese, and Catalan, the book examines the effects on the lexicon of contact between Spanish and the indigenous languages of South and Central America, and the impact of contact with English.

Functional Heads

2012-09-20

Author:: LauraBrugéUniversity of VeniceAnnaCardinalettiUniversity of LinguisticsGiulianaGiustiUniversity of VeniceNicolaMunaroUniversity of VeniceCeciliaPolettoUniversity of Frankfurt
ISBN:: 9780199746736
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199746736.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

Ever since Chomsky’s Barriers, functional heads have been the privileged object of research in generative linguistics. But over the last two decades, two rival approaches have developed. The cartographic project considers evidence for a functional head in one language as evidence for it in universal grammar. On the other hand, minimalist accounts tend to consider structural economy as literally involving as few heads as possible. In the present volume, some of the most influential linguists who have participated in this long-lasting debate offer their recent work in short, self-contained case studies. The chapters cover all the main layers of recently studied syntactic structure, including such major areas of empirical research such as grammaticalization and language change, standard and non-standard varieties, interface issues, and morphosyntax. This book attempts to map aspects of syntactic structure following the cartographic approach, and in doing so demonstrates that the differences between the cartographic approach and the minimalist approach are more apparent than substantial.

External Influences on English

D. Gary Miller — 2012-09-20

Author:: D. Gary Miller
ISBN:: 9780199654260
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Lexicography
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654260.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

From its Germanic roots on the Continent, English has had many influences from other languages. This work documents the main influences on the lexicon and the structure. The earliest contacts were with the Romans, when many words were borrowed by the Germanic tribes from Vulgar Latin. In the British Isles, Roman influence continued but the primary influence, though largely substratal, was from Brythonic Celtic. In the later period the Latin influence became largely literary. Meanwhile, Danes settled northeast England, and the contact situation there was complicated but the major result was a high degree of koineization, reflected in major structural innovations shared with East Norse, primarily Old Jutland Danish. Subsequently, the French dominated southeast England and created a superstrate that resulted in Anglo-French on the one hand and the transfer of thousands of words to English on the other. As these words assimilated to the English lexicon, their affixes became an important part of English word formation, productivity beginning as early as the thirteenth century. The result of all this contact was that English preserved little of its Germanic heritage. Later influences were largely restricted to the lexicon and consisted mainly of learned Greek and latinate roots, many of which became standard English, though frequently of a higher register than native roots of similar import, and facilitated scientific word formation.

Emotion in Interaction

Anssi Perakyla and Marja-Leena Sorjonen — 2012-09-20

Author:: Anssi Perakyla, Marja-Leena Sorjonen
ISBN:: 9780199730735
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730735.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

The importance of emotion in everyday interactions has been acknowledged by researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and communication. This book offers a collection of original studies that explore emotion in naturally occurring spoken interaction. The chapters examine both the verbal and non-verbal resources for expressing emotional stance (lexicon, syntax, prosody, laughter, crying, facial expression), the emotional aspects of action sequences (e.g. news delivery and conflicts), and the role of emotions in institutional interaction (museums and galleries, psychotherapy, medical interaction and helpline calls). What unites the chapters is an understanding of the expression of emotion and the construction of emotional stances as a process that both shapes and is shaped by the interactional context. The chapters analyze how emotion is expressed and how its expression is responsive to the interactional context and embedded in sequences of action and structures of social interaction. The expression of emotion is constructed and managed as a collaborative process by the participants in interaction. The chapters here demonstrate how the sequential organization of action forms the key relevant unit for analyzing emotion in interaction: displays of emotion are located at specific sequential positions in interaction, and they are interpreted and responded to by reference to that context of occurrence.

The Early English Impersonal Construction

Ruth Möhlig-Falke — 2012-09-20

Author:: Ruth Möhlig-Falke
ISBN:: 9780199777723
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777723.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book aims to demonstrate that an understanding of the functional and semantic aspects of impersonal verbs in Old and Middle English can shed light on questions that remain about these verbs today. The impersonal construction has been a topic of extensive research for over a hundred years. But three quandaries—their seemingly unsystematic development, the gradual loss of impersonal uses, and the difficulty of aligning this with structural changes in early English—have made explanations for their development unsatisfactory. The book offers a detailed analysis of impersonal verbs within the framework of cognitive and constructional grammar. It focuses on the loss of the impersonal construction as a consequence of a redefinition of the grammatical categories of subject and object, and describes the diachronic development of impersonal verbs as a result of the complex interaction of verbal and constructional meaning. The research carried out for this project comprises all verbs which are recorded in impersonal use in Old and Middle English, and takes account of their full range of syntactic uses.

Verbs

William Croft — 2012-05-24

Author:: William Croft
ISBN:: 9780199248582
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248582.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

“Verbs: aspect and causal structure” presents a model of event structure for the analysis of aspectual constructions and argument structure constructions in English and other languages. The central proposal is that the aspectual and causal structure of events should be clearly distinguished in their semantic representation, since each dimension makes a distinct contribution to the structure of grammatical constructions. In addition, aspect - the unfolding of events over time - must itself be analyzed in two dimensions, namely time and the qualitative states that an event enters or maintains over time. This geometric model of aspectual representation allows for a fine-grained and systematic analysis of aspectual types and their grammatical manifestation. The third dimension of event structure is the causal chain, the central semantic factor in argument realization. The aspectual and causal structures are integrated into a single model in which each participant in an event is represented by its own subevent, describing what that participant does (or has happen to it) as the event unfolds. The integrated event structure model is then used to analyze the types of events that are typically expressed in single verb constructions, with comparisons to selected complex predicate constructions such as resultative, depictive, converb and serial verb constructions.

The Theta System

Martin Everaert, Marijana Marelj, and Tal Siloni — 2012-05-24

Author:: MartinEveraertDirector of the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTSMarijanaMareljAssistant Professor of Linguistics, Utrecht UniversityTalSiloniAssociate Professor of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University
ISBN:: 9780199602513
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199602513.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

Taking the unique perspective of Reinhart's Theta system (Reinhart 1991, 1996, 2000, 2002 et seq.) as its anchor, this book contributes to the understanding of the interface between the system of concepts and the computational system directly, and the inference systems, indirectly. The volume presents the Theta system, evaluates its merits and shortcomings, and introduces proposals for its refinement, from both a theoretical and an experimental perspective. The fact that it nurtures an active dialogue between the competing lexicalist and syntactic approaches on a broad array of lexico-semantic issues gives this book an extra dimension. The authors are not only researchers adhering to different frameworks, but also researchers working in different fields (be it semantics, syntax, morphology, or language acquisition). In empirical terms, the volume not only examines some of the notorious puzzles from a new theoretical perspective, but also brings new data and findings to light.

The Phonology of Japanese

Laurence Labrune — 2012-05-24

Author:: Laurence Labrune
ISBN:: 9780199545834
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology, Language Families
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the phonology of Japanese, based on Japanese and Western materials and the author’s original research. It provides a rich source of materials and critical discussion of some current problems, reviewing previously published analyses and proposing solutions. Focussing on modern standard (Tôkyô) Japanese, with occasional excurses into major dialectical variations and historical backgrounds, the book offers both a critical synthesis of Japanese phonology and new analyses on some of its central features. Starting with the vowel inventory, the phonology of high vowel devoicing, insertion and elision, prosodic lengthening and shortening, and the status of diphthongs, it moves to the consonant system and the phonology of voicing, and to the so-called moraic segments. The chapter dedicated to the prosodic units provides a detailed and original analysis of the relation between the mora and syllable, one of the key issue of Japanese phonology, not to forget the foot and the prosodic word. It argues that the mora and the foot are sufficient for the comprehension and analysis of the phonology of Japanese. The final and longest chapter is devoted to accent, through descriptions and analyses of simplex and compound noun accentuation, default accentuation, the underlying accent of Sino-Japanese morphemes and that of numeral compounds to name just a few. It also addresses the question of the typological status of the Japanese accent in relation to tone.

Modals and Conditionals

Angelika Kratzer — 2012-05-24

Author:: Angelika Kratzer
ISBN:: 9780199234684
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234684.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

The book contains new editions of a selection of author’s works on modals and conditionals: What “Must” and “Can” Must and Can Mean, The Notional Category of Modality, Partition and Revision, Conditionals, An Investigation of the Lumps of Thought, and Facts: Particulars or Information Units? All chapters have been given new introductions and were revised and updated. Some sections were completely rewritten. The result is a new book that tells a single story about the semantics of modals and conditionals, and is responsive to recent developments and controversies in the field.

The Logic of Pronominal Resumption

Ash Asudeh — 2012-05-24

Author:: Ash Asudeh
ISBN:: 9780199206421
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206421.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

This book is a cross-linguistic investigation of resumptive pronouns and related phenomena. Pronominal resumption is the realization of the base of a syntactic dependency as a bound pronoun. Resumption occurs in unbounded dependencies, such as relative clauses and questions, and in the variety of raising known as copy raising. Processing factors may also give rise to resumption, even in environments where it does not normally occur in a given language. A new theory of resumption is proposed that is based on two key assumptions, one theoretical and one empirical/typological. The first assumption is that natural language is resource-sensitive (the Resource Sensitivity Hypothesis); this is captured through the use of a resource logic for semantic composition. The second assumption is that resumptive pronouns are ordinary pronouns in their morphological and lexical properties, based on typologically robust observations (McCloskey's Generalization). The theory is formalized in terms of Glue Semantics for semantic composition, with a Lexical-Functional Grammar syntax. The theory achieves a novel unification of hitherto heterogeneous resumption phenomena. It unifies two kinds of resumptive pronouns that are found in unbounded dependencies --- one kind behaves syntactically like a gap, whereas the other kind does not. It also unifies resumptive pronouns in unbounded dependencies with the obligatory pronouns in copy raising. The theory also provides the basis for a new understanding of processing-based resumption, both in production and in parsing and interpretation.

The Languages of the Amazon

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald — 2012-05-24

Author:: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
ISBN:: 9780199593569
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Language Families
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593569.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

Languages of the Amazon basin are among the most fascinating in the world. This is where one finds unusual sounds, unexpected ways of classifying nouns, elaborate positional verbs, to name just a few features. Most Amazonian languages have been in contact with each other for many generations. Many people are multilingual, and the unusual patterns of multilingualism have given rise to intriguing patterns of language contact, extensive linguistic areas, and numerous features shared due to contact between people There are over 300 languages grouped into over fifteen language families, plus a fair number of isolates. The six major linguistic families of the Amazon basin are Arawak, Tupí, Carib, Panoan, Tucanoan and Macro‐Jê; smaller families include Makú, Guahibo, Yanomami, Witotoan, Zaparoan, Tacana, Harakmbet, Arawá and Chapacuran. Discussion in the book also includes, albeit in more cursory fashion, language families spoken in the areas adjacent to Lowland Amazonia: Chibchan, Barbacoan, Choco, and Guaicuruan. The book starts with a potted history of Amazonian peoples and their languages, and the disastrous effects of the European invasion. After a brief discussion of cultural aspects and people's lifestyle, the profile of each major and minor family are outlined. There is then discussion of the unusual patterns of language contact and multilingual interaction. Further chapters discuss the sounds of Amazonian languages; the ways in which they express possession, gender, and time and tense. In many Amazonian languages one needs to always state how one knows things, known as the category of ‘evidentiality’. Amazonian languages are relatively poor in number words, but rich in elaborate speech styles and means of expression. The book offers extensive examples, many from author's own fieldwork in Amazonia.

Interpreting Motion

Inderjeet Mani and James Pustejovsky — 2012-05-24

Author:: Inderjeet Mani, James Pustejovsky
ISBN:: 9780199601240
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601240.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

Natural language allows for efficient communication of elaborate descriptions of movement without requiring precise specification of the motion. Interpreting Motion is the first book to analyze the semantics of motion expressions in terms of the formalisms of qualitative spatial reasoning, mapping motion descriptions in language to trajectories of moving entities based on qualitative spatio-temporal relationships. The book provides an extensive discussion of prior research on spatial prepositions and motion verbs, and devotes chapters to the compositional semantics of motion sentences, the formal representations needed for computers to reason qualitatively about time, space, and motion, and the methodology for annotating corpora with linguistic information in order to train computer programs to reproduce the annotation. The applications they illustrate include route navigation, the mapping of travel narratives, question-answering, image and video tagging, and graphical rendering of scenes from textual descriptions. The book is written accessibly for a broad scientific audience of linguists, cognitive scientists, computer scientists, and those working in fields such as artificial intelligence and geographic information systems.

The Interactive Stance

Jonathan Ginzburg — 2012-05-24

Author:: Jonathan Ginzburg
ISBN:: 9780199697922
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697922.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

The fine structure of conversational interaction is of significant interest for wide swathes of the behavioural sciences: linguists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, literary scholars, artificial intelligence researchers must all contend with issues relating to the nature of meaning and its sharing among interlocuters, the possibility of repair — the wide range of corrective actions that occur when ‘trouble’ arises in interaction — and the characterization of coherence in interaction. This book presents the results of attempting to create a precise, grammatically rooted, theory of conversation motivated by data from real conversations. It develops KoS, one of the most detailed theories of context in conversation, and uses this to analyze a variety of linguistic constructions characteristic of spoken interaction, many of which have not been previously analyzed formally. KoS has descriptive reach from the micro-conversational (e.g., self-repair at the word level) to macro-level phenomena such as multi-party conversation and the characterization of distinct conversational genres. It draws on extensive corpus studies of the British National Corpus, on evidence from language acquisition, and on computer simulations of language evolution. KoS provides accounts of the opening, middle game, and closing stages of conversation. KoS also offers a new perspective on traditional semantic concerns such as quantification and anaphora. It suggests a new methodological criterion — stronger than traditional compositionality — regulating allowable semantic denotations. All in all, KoS provides a highly detailed theory of relevance, taking in the illocutionary, metacommunicative, metadiscursive, and genre-based components of this complex notion. This book challenges orthodox views of grammar by arguing that grammar and interaction are intrinsically bound. It argues that, unless we wish to exclude from analysis a large body of frequently occurring words and constructions, the right way to construe grammar is as a system that characterizes types of talk in interaction.

From Latin to Romance

Adam Ledgeway — 2012-05-24

Author:: Adam Ledgeway
ISBN:: 9780199584376
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Language Families
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584376.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

This book examines the grammatical changes that took place in the transition from Latin to the Romance languages. The emerging language underwent changes in three fundamental areas involving the noun phrase, verb phrase, and the sentence. The impact of the changes can be seen in the reduction of the Latin case system; the appearance of auxiliary verb structures to mark such categories as tense, mood, and voice; and a shift towards greater rigidification of word order. The book considers how far these changes are interrelated and compares their various manifestations and pace of change across the different standard and non-standard varieties of Romance. It describes the historical background to the emergence of the Romance varieties and their Latin ancestry, considering in detail the richly documented diachronic variation exhibited by the Romance family. The book reviews the accounts and explanations that have been proposed within competing theoretical frameworks, and considers how far traditional ideas should be reinterpreted in light of recent theoretical developments. This account shows that the transition from Latin to Romance is not only of great intrinsic interest, but both provides a means of challenging linguistic orthodoxies and presents opportunities to shape new perspectives on language change, structure, and variation.

Dissolving Binding Theory

Johan Rooryck and Guido Vanden Wyngaerd — 2012-05-24

Author:: Johan Rooryck, Guido Vanden Wyngaerd
ISBN:: 9780199691326
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691326.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

This book adopts the strong Minimalist thesis that grammar contains no rules or principles specifically designed to account for anaphors and pronouns. Lexically, anaphors have unvalued φ-features, which need to be valued under Agree. This leads to the novel assumption that anaphors c-command their antecedents. This idea underlies the analysis of both simplex and complex reflexives. Simplex reflexives are merged in a configuration of inalienable possession, with the simplex reflexive c-commanding its antecedent inside a possessive small clause. Self-reflexives share the syntax of self-intensifiers and floating quantifiers, raising to a vP-adjoined position to c-command their antecedents. In contrast to anaphors, pronouns have lexically valued φ-features. Postsyntactic lexical insertion accounts for absence of Principle B effects observed in many languages. The behaviour of pronouns and self-forms in snake-sentences is related to the nature of the Axpart projection of the locative preposition. Semantically, the difference between simplex and complex reflexives derives from the way they refer to spatiotemporal stages of their antecedents.

Discourse-Related Features and Functional Projections

Silvio Cruschina — 2012-05-24

Author:: Silvio Cruschina
ISBN:: 9780199759613
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759613.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

This book examines discourse‐related features and their relevance for syntactic theory. This study adopts a cartographic approach to syntactic structures, and has two principal aims: (i) to determine the syntax of the functional projections associated with these types of features and (ii) to account for the various types of fronting phenomena observed in the Romance languages. Based primarily on data from Sicilian and Sardinian, this book sets out to show that contrary to standard assumptions, Focus Fronting in Romance is not restricted to contrastive interpretations, but is also possible with non‐contrastive (‘informational’) Focus. The synthesis of existing analyses and new empirical data from other Romance languages show that non‐contrastive Focus Fronting is a fairly widespread property of Romance, involving quantifiers and quantified expressions (QP‐Fronting) as well as constituents expressing new and unexpected information (Mirative Fronting). Drawing on this empirical evidence, and with the support of further relevant syntactic, prosodic, and interpretive differences, it is claimed that Contrastive Focus and Informational Focus constitute separate categories related to independent features and encoded in distinct focus projections. It is further proposed that a direct parallelism holds between the two focus categories and the two types of wh‐expressions identified in the literature, i.e. D‐linked wh‐phrases and non‐D‐linked wh‐phrases. The analysis of the interplay between word order and of the extension of the focus in different types of sentences reveals novel evidence for the interaction between focus and illocutionary and clause‐type operators. The focus of the clause is also sensitive to overt operators such as wh‐phrases, quantifiers, and focalizing adverbs. The association of focus with both overt and covert operators is therefore a key factor for the interface between syntax and information structure.

The Substance of Language Volume III

John M. Anderson — 2012-01-19

Author:: John M. Anderson
ISBN:: 9780199608331
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608331.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

As has been variously discussed in the past, phonology and syntax manifest analogical structural properties. This volume is concerned with establishing something of the extent of these and the factors limiting them. These analogies are based on perceived similarities between the two planes of languages and the common cognitive apparatus that structures them. They reflect similarities between the respective mental domains that are represented grammatically by phonology and syntax: sound-perception and cognition. And limitations on analogy similarly reflect the differing demands of these domains with which the two planes interface and their own interfacing via the lexicon. Representation by syntax of complex conceptualizations leads to greater structural elaboration, and the restricted perceptual domain grammaticalized by phonology, as well as physical constraints on its implementation as sound, imposes limitations not paralleled in syntax. The debate concerning the existence and nature of an autonomous universal grammar impinges on the notion of analogy, in so far as the latter depends on similarity in extralinguistic substance.The substantive basis, or groundedness, of both phonology and syntax is a basic analogy, as is hierarchization in terms of dependency. A range of further analogies and their compromises are also investigated: these include harmony phenomena, the redundancy of much of linearity, and the categorization of the basic unit, and associated phenomena such as contrastivity, neutralization, underspecification, polysystemicity, and grammaticalization. The greater complexity of syntax resides in properties not suitable or possible in the phonology, such as the distinction between functional and lexical categories, lexical derivation, and recursiveness and long-distance dependency.

The Substance of Language Volume II

John M. Anderson — 2012-01-19

Author:: John M. Anderson
ISBN:: 9780199608324
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608324.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book contributes to the exploration of a view of language wherein its elements are grounded, or substantively based. It looks in particular at the role of the lexicon, and morphology, as a complex interface relating the syntactic representations to the representations of phonology. Language structure is assumed to be modular, such that modules are defined by the particular aspect of extralinguistic mental content they grammaticalize. This establishes two basic modules: syntax, which is cognitively based, and phonology, based on sound perception. Morphology has no such distinctive basis, only bracketing into formatives of the phonological representation of a word on the basis of the syntactic categories expressed and such non-syntactic classifications as conjugation. The book focuses on inflectional morphology and in particular the expressive role of inflection. Mechanisms deriving from the need for expressiveness compensate for the commonly accepted unidirectionality of exponence, whereby the exponent does not influence what it expounds. Two manifestations of a mechanism of compensation are addressed. Firstly, it is outlined, and illustrated from Old English verb morphology, how the syntactic information that is eventually expressed in paradigms (morphosyntax) may be reorganized to facilitate formulation of the exponence relations (morphophonology). Secondly, on the basis of more general exemplification, there is outlined the mechanism whereby grammatical periphrases compensate for gaps in the finite verb paradigm. Finally, the volume argues that it is the substantive differences between verbs and nouns that account for the absence of periphrases in nominal structures and the marking of agreement, especially of gender, including via classifiers.

The Substance of Language Volume I

John M. Anderson — 2012-01-19

Author:: John M. Anderson
ISBN:: 9780199608317
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608317.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book explores the consequences for syntax of assuming that language is substantively based, or grounded, in extralinguistic cognition and perception. Groundedness does not just apply to the categories of syntax, like verb and noun, but also to other aspects of syntactic structure. Thus hierarchization (dependency), linearity, and phonological expression of categories, especially by intonation, are grammaticalizations of, respectively, cognitive salience, our perception of time, and our perception of sound. The major linguistic module of syntax is characterized by a set of categories based on distinctions in the perceived ontological status of what the categories represent, and this basis determines the distribution of categories, defined by category members that are prototypical. This is familiar from the tradition of notional grammar. Submodules in syntax are characterized by the substance they grammaticalize. The first part of the book traces the development in the twentieth century of anti-notionalism, culminating in the autonomy of syntax assumption. Subsequently the book addresses various syntactic phenomena, many of them involving the fundamental notion of finiteness, that illustrate the need to appeal to grounding. Among other things, groundedness permits a lexicalist approach that enables the syntax to dispense with structural mutations such as category change, and the invocation of ‘empty categories’, or of ‘universal grammar’ in general.

Spell‐Out and the Minimalist Program

Juan Uriagereka — 2012-01-19

Author:: Juan Uriagereka
ISBN:: 9780199593521
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593521.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

Since Juan Uriagereka originated the multiple spell-out model in 1999 it has been one of the most influential lines of research in syntactic theorizing. The model simplified a crucial element of the minimalist account of language making it a more accurate reflection of syntax and its acquisition. This book explores important consequences of the multiple spell-out hypothesis and of the linked notion of cyclicity. It combines the latest thinking in linguistics with perspectives drawn from physics, biology, and animal behaviour, aiming thereby to advance the field first described by Noam Chomsky as biolinguistics. Without simplifying, this book seeks to present the issues and their broader biological significance. The subjects discussed include the linearization of structure, the punctuated nature of a derivation (the multiple spell-out model), cyclicity and its consequences for locality, and the definition of c-command and its relevance to various types of grammatical dependency. The book discusses the evolutionary implications of Uriagereka's work, considering, for example, whether the punctuated nature of the derivation is a resolution of conflicting demands that yield an equilibrium found in nature more generally.

Spanish in New York

Ricardo Otheguy and Ana Celia Zentella — 2012-01-19

Author:: Ricardo Otheguy, Ana Celia Zentella
ISBN:: 9780199737406
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737406.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

The more than 2 million predominantly bilingual Spanish speakers from different parts of Latin America who live in New York City make it an ideal setting to study language contact and dialectal leveling. The Spanish feature under study is presence versus absence of subject personal pronouns (e.g., yo canto, “I sing” ~ canto, “I sing”). Variationist sociolinguistic research is conducted through bivariate analyses of pronoun occurrence rates and multivariate hierarchical analyses of the social, grammatical, and discourse-communicative factors that probabilistically condition the use of pronouns. Statistical results based on 60,000 pronouns extracted from interviews with a stratified sample of 140 first- and second-generation Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Mexicans, and Cubans show that contact with English and convergence between speakers from different Latin American regions are molding new forms of Spanish in New York. As predicted, pronoun occurrence rates are higher, and regional rate differences are smaller, in New York than in Latin America. Ranges and rankings of constraint hierarchies are also different in New York, as predicted by contact and leveling hypotheses. The book also studies the opposite force, namely, preservation of the patterns of the Latin American reference lects, even in the Spanish of English-dominant bilinguals. No relationship is seen between pronominal patterns affected by English and reduced proficiency, and a critique is offered of the connection between simplification and incomplete acquisition.

Rhetorical Style

Jeanne Fahnestock — 2012-01-19

Author:: Jeanne Fahnestock
ISBN:: 9780199764129
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764129.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

Rhetorical Style promotes a renewed appreciation of the persuasive potential of the English language by demonstrating how language choices argue. It combines advice about effective style from the rhetorical tradition with insights from stylistics and discourse analysis to provide a full spectrum of methods for text analysis. Using examples from political speeches, nonfiction works, and newspaper reports, it emphasizes the continuing relevance of rhetorical principles of stylistic analysis and their usefulness in understanding effective arguments. Rhetorical Style is comprehensive in its coverage. Part I reviews the historical layers of English, its methods of word formation, its registers and varieties. Part II covers sentence basics in a brief and accessible way, noting how sentence forms serve persuasion, especially those optimal “iconic” forms that epitomize their content. The interactive dimension of texts is covered in part III in accounts of how speakers, audiences, other voices, and even situations and occasions can be selectively presented to serve an arguer's purposes. Finally, part IV goes beyond the sentence level to passage construction, explaining how a coherent string of sentences can build into a sustained argument. The final chapter explains Amplification, the tour de force rhetorical performance that draws on features from all the levels. Throughout, the explanations and the examples from actual texts provide evidence linking language choices to argument forms and persuasive purposes. Rhetorical insights into how language argues have survived for centuries. Rhetorical Style was written to give these enduring principles wider circulation.

Reference in Discourse

Andrej Kibrik — 2012-01-19

Author:: Andrej Kibrik
ISBN:: 9780199215805
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215805.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book studies how people refer to entities in natural discourse. It contributes to the understanding of both linguistic diversity and the cognitive underpinnings of language and it provides a framework for further research in both fields. This book focuses on the way specific entities are mentioned in natural discourse, during which about every third word usually depends on referential choice. It considers reference as an overt representation of underlying cognitive processes and combines a theoretically-oriented cognitive approach with empirically-based cross-linguistic analysis. It begins by introducing the cognitive approach to discourse analysis and by examining the relationship between discourse studies and linguistic typology. The book discusses reference as a linguistic phenomenon, in connection with the traditional notions of deixis, anaphora, givenness, and topicality, and describes the way its theoretical approach is centred on notions of referent activation in working memory. The book argues that the speaker is responsible for the shape of discourse and that referential expressions should be understood as choices made by speakers rather than as puzzles to be solved by addressees. It examines the cross-linguistic aspects of reference and the typology of referential devices, including referring expressions per se, such as free and bound pronouns, and referential aids that help to tell apart the concurrently activated entities. This discussion is based on the data from about 200 languages from around the world. The book then proposes a comprehensive model of referential choice, in which it draws on concepts from cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, and applies this to Russian and English. The book also draws together empirical analyses in order to examine what light the analysis of discourse can shed on the way information is processed in working memory. The final part of the book offers a wider perspective, including deixis, referential aspects of gesticulation and signed languages.

The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese

Kristján Árnason — 2012-01-19

Author:: Kristján Árnason
ISBN:: 9780199229314
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology, Language Families
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199229314.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

The book presents a detailed comparative description of the phonological structure of Icelandic and Faroese and discusses problems in their analysis from a fairly broad theoretical perspective. The first part (Chapters 1–3) describes the historical relation between the languages and introduces some issues regarding their phonological analysis. Part II (Chapters 4–7) gives an overview of the segmental inventory of the two sound systems. Part III (Chapters 8–10) presents analyses of the syllable structure of the two languages and systemic relations between subsystems defined for different phonotactic positions. It also treats the rules for the distribution of long and short vowel nuclei. Part IV (Chapters 11–12) describes vocalic and consonantal morphophonemics, discussing the status, in inflectional paradigms and word formation, of umlaut and ablaut alternations and patterns such as those responsible for the distribution of preaspiration. Part V gives an overview of rhythmic relations in words and phrases in the two languages, ending with descriptions of intonational patterns in the two languages.

Phonological Architecture

Bridget D. Samuels — 2012-01-19

Author:: Bridget D. Samuels
ISBN:: 9780199694358
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694358.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This volume endeavors to bridge one of the gaps between linguistic theory and the biological sciences by presenting a comprehensive view of phonology which simultaneously addresses linguists and those who from other fields who would like to make contact with phonological theory. It proposes a new theory of phonological computation using representations and operations informed by a broader biolinguistic perspective, breaking the human language externalization system into component parts and investigating their possible origins in cognitive abilities found throughout the animal kingdom. Issues discussed include phonology in evolutionary perspective, the role of phonology within a Minimalist conception of the language faculty, phonological operations and representations, arguments for parallel cyclicity across linguistic modules, the order of operations at the syntax/phonology interface, diachronic phonology, the role of language acquisition in language change, and the sources of linguistic variation.

Morphological Autonomy

Martin Maiden, John Charles Smith, Maria Goldbach, and Marc-Olivier Hinzelin — 2012-01-19

Author:: MartinMaidenFaculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, University of OxfordJohn CharlesSmithFaculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, University of OxfordMariaGoldbachFaculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of OxfordMarc-OlivierHinzelinInstitut de Linguistique Romane Pierre Gardette, Universie Catholique de Lyon
ISBN:: 9780199589982
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589982.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book uses detailed analysis of data from Romance inflectional morphology to cast new light on the role of autonomous morphological structure in the diachrony and synchrony of the Romance languages. It constitutes a major contribution to Romance historical morphology in particular, and to our understanding of the nature and importance of morphomic (i.e. morphologically autonomous) structure in language change in general. It will therefore appeal both to Romance linguists and to morphological theorists at large.

Leadership, Discourse, and Ethnicity

Janet Holmes, Meredith Marra, and Bernadette Vine — 2012-01-19

Author:: Janet Holmes, Meredith Marra, Bernadette Vine
ISBN:: 9780199730759
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730759.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book is about workplace discourse and it examines the relationships among leadership, ethnicity, and language use. Taking a social constructionist approach to the ways in which leadership is enacted through discourse, the book problematizes the concept of ethnicity and demonstrates the importance of context—particularly the community of practice—in determining what counts as relevant in the analysis of ethnicity. The chapters analyze everyday workplace interactions supplemented by interview data to examine the ways in which workplace leaders use language to achieve their transactional and relational goals in contrasting “ethnicized” contexts, two of which are Māori and two European/Pākehā. The analysis pays special attention to the roles of ethnic values, beliefs, and orientations in talk.

The Language of Perjury Cases

Roger W Shuy — 2012-01-19

Author:: Roger W Shuy
ISBN:: 9780199795383
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795383.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book describes the contributions of linguistics to the intelligence gathering and analysis in the legal context by showing the way evidence is analyzed in eleven perjury cases. Beginning with a brief review of perjury law, it shows how the meaning of lexicon, grammatical structures, and ambiguities are important in such cases, stressing that it would be prudent for prosecutors and defense attorneys alike to begin their review in such cases with the larger units of language, by identifying the speech event, the schemas of the participants, the agendas of the participants as revealed by the topics they introduce and the responses they make to the topics of others. Other smaller language units, such as potentially ambiguous expressions, grammatical referencing, and lexical choices, which are often considered “smoking gun” evidence, often can be better understood when seen in the larger context of the overall discourse. The book suggests that in perjury cases both the prosecution and defense can use many of the tools of linguistics that may be relatively unknown to the legal profession. It further urges that often lawyers would be prudent to call on linguists to help them whether for the prosecution or defense. Eight of the case examples describe the inadequate intelligence gathering and analysis by the prosecution and the use of linguistic tools to resolve these problems. The other three cases show how district attorneys and judges repaired failed intelligence analyses.

Grammatical Change

Dianne Jonas, John Whitman, and Andrew Garrett — 2012-01-19

Author:: DianneJonasGoethe UniversityJohnWhitmanDepartment of Linguistics, Cornell UniversityAndrewGarrettDepartment of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
ISBN:: 9780199582624
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582624.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book advances research on grammatical change and shows the breadth and liveliness of the field. Leading international scholars report and reflect on the latest research into the nature and outcomes of all aspects of syntactic change including grammaticalization, variation, complementation, syntactic movement, determiner-phrase syntax, pronominal systems, case systems, negation, and alignment. The chapters deploy a variety of generative frameworks, including minimalist and optimality theoretic, and bring these to bear on a wide range of languages: among the latter are typologically distinct examples from Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Greek, Korean and Japanese, Austronesian, Celtic, and Nahuatl. They draw on sociolinguistic evidence where appropriate. Taken as a whole, the volume provides a stimulating overview of key current issues in the investigation of the origins, nature, and outcome of syntactic change.

Digital Discourse

Crispin Thurlow and Kristine Mroczek — 2012-01-19

Author:: CrispinThurlowUniversity of WashingtonKristineMroczekUniversity of Washington
ISBN:: 9780199795437
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

This book offers a distinctly sociolinguistic perspective on the nature of language in digital technologies. It starts by bringing new media sociolinguistics up to date, addressing technologies like instant messaging, text messaging, blogging, photo-sharing, mobile phones, gaming, social network sites, and video sharing. Chapters cover a range of communicative contexts (journalism, tourism, leisure, performance, public debate), communicators (professional and lay, young people and adults, intimates, and groups), and languages (Irish, Hebrew, Chinese, Finnish, Japanese, German, Greek, Arabic, French, and English). The volume is organized around topics of primary interest to sociolinguists and discourse analysts, including genre, style, stance, language ideology, and multimodality.

Secret Manipulations

Anne Storch — 2011-09-22

Author:: Anne Storch
ISBN:: 9780199768974
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199768974.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

This book deals with a specific form of language change: deliberate manipulations of a language by its speakers. These manipulations are based and depending on cultural and social contexts, they are often—if not always—considered to be secret, and are at the same time expressions of difference and power. The central thesis on which the explorations of manipulated language in this book are based is that language here—deliberately diverging from the norm—is central to the construction of social norms, and that exactly by manipulation and alteration identity may be explored and defined. Manipulated language and deliberate linguistic change are thus seen as the creation of a medium through which speakers attempt to preserve certain structures. The complexity and diversity of linguistic manipulation and how it is linked to the structure of society are dealt with in this book by referring to secrecy, mimesis, sacrilege, and ambiguity as leading concepts of power. This study concentrates on case studies from the Jukun-speaking areas of Nigeria, as well as Nilotic and Bantu-speaking parts of Uganda (and to a lesser extent Sudan), but also presents data on manipulated languages from many other parts and speaker communities of the continent, as well as examples from the African diaspora.

The Linguistic Cycle

Elly van Gelderen — 2011-09-22

Author:: Elly van Gelderen
ISBN:: 9780199756056
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756056.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement is another good example: full pronouns are reanalyzed as agreement markers and are renewed again. Demonstrative pronouns also participate in a cycle when they are reanalyzed as articles and then as affixes and then renewed. The aim of this book is not only to chronicle cycles cross-linguistically but also to account for them. It argues that change provides a unique perspective on the language faculty: if change is similar cross-linguistically, this has to be due to the internal make-up of humans when they acquire language. These internal mechanisms can be seen as Economy Principles present in the initial cognitive system or Universal Grammar of the child. The book argues that Economy Principles, in particular Feature Economy, are responsible for the various stages of linguistic change. Loss of semantic features occurs when full verbs such as Old English will with features such as volition, expectation [future] are reanalyzed as having only the feature [future] in Middle English. The features can then be considered grammatical rather than semantic. Semantic features are not economical in the computation (and are therefore reanalyzed) since they make the elements to be combined inert. Two further aims are (a) to argue that some of the cycles can be used to classify a language as analytic or synthetic and (b) to provide insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved.

Arabic, Self and Identity

Yasir Suleiman — 2011-09-22

Author:: Yasir Suleiman
ISBN:: 9780199747016
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747016.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

Language is not just a means of communication but also a powerful symbol of identity in society at the individual, Self, and group levels. This symbolic role of language comes to the fore under conditions of war, conflict, displacement and persistent cultural anxiety in society. Using autoethnography and autobiography, the book provides a novel way of investigating these issues in the Middle East using Arabic as a paradigmatic case. A study of personal names, the linguistic landscape, place names, and code-names further links language to war, conflict, displacement and diasporisation at the level of the group and the individual. In the process issues of trauma and globalization are woven into this array of themes, revealing the complexity of the language-identity link in society. The book frames its findings against a wide-ranging critique of the dominant, correlational approach in Arabic sociolinguitics. It argues that this approach does not exploit the link between language and the major narratives of identity and conflict in the Middle East. The book argues for combining this approach with qualitative studies that are nevertheless aware of the limits of interpretation and the positionality of the researcher. The book further argues that through this combined endeavour a richer and more complex understanding of the socio-political underpinnings of language can be generated to help bridge the gaps between the various disciplines and areas of study that converge on language a a field of investigation and analysis.

The “War on Terror” Narrative

Adam Hodges — 2011-05-01

Author:: Adam Hodges
ISBN:: 9780199759590
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759590.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

This book analyzes three types of data—presidential speeches, U.S. media discourse, and focus group interviews—to provide a longitudinal and holistic study of the formation, circulation, and contestation of the Bush administration’s narrative about the ‘war on terror.’ The narrative, which forwards a powerful set of assumptions and explanations about America’s response to terrorism since September 11, 2001, acts as a type of discursive formation that sustains, in Foucault’s terms, a ‘regime of truth.’ It places boundaries around what can meaningfully be said and understood about the subject. As the analysis illustrates, even as social actors resist the narrative and the policy it entails, they appropriate its language to be listened to and understood. While this often works to reproduce and strengthen the narrative, discourse is inevitably reshaped as it enters into new contexts. This recontextualization, therefore, leaves open the possibility for the introduction of new meanings; and therein rests the potential for resistance and social transformation. Thus, the book places a large emphasis on the intertextual process whereby prior discourse is re-presented—i.e. reanimated and reshaped—across different settings. It is argued that applying ideas on intertextuality to the analysis of political discourse is central to understanding the way micro-level discursive action contributes to the circulation—and even the contestation—of macro-level cultural narratives like the Bush ‘War on Terror’ Narrative.

Mapping the Left Periphery

Paola Benincà and Nicola Munaro — 2011-05-01

Author:: PaolaBenincàUniversity of PaduaNicolaMunaroUniversity of Venice
ISBN:: 9780199740376
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740376.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

The empirical work on sentence structure over the last several years has been advanced by the so-called cartographic program, which aims to provide a map of the functional projections in clausal architecture; in the framework of this project, a highly articulated functional structure has been developed, where specialised positions appear to have the same respective order across languages. This volume is the fifth in the cartographic series. For the first time, a whole volume is devoted to the functional articulation of a single structural layer, the so called complementizer system, the highest part of sentence structure: its left edge ‘looks outside’ the sentence, constituting the interface with the linguistic or situational context; its right edge ‘looks inside’, and connects the CP layer with positions located in the lower IP layer. The papers collected here identify — on the basis of substantial empirical evidence — new atoms of functional structure, which encode specific features out of the range of interpretive aspects that are prototypically expressed in the left-periphery; at the same time, the by now richly articulated CP structure is submitted to further crosslinguistic checking, finding encouraging consistencies and confirmation. The research work witnessed by this volume has led to the identification of new, important restrictions in the relative sequence of elements appearing in the left periphery (like complementizers and clause typing morphemes, wh-items/phrases, focalized constituents, topics); on the other hand, it sheds new light on the ‘pragmatic side’ of the left periphery, that is, those aspects of the utterance that are tied to the speaker’s point of view and to his individual perception of the event with respect to contextual factors.

Language Myths and the History of English

Richard J. Watts — 2011-05-01

Author:: Richard J. Watts
ISBN:: 9780195327601
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327601.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

This book aims to deconstruct the myths that are traditionally reproduced as factual accounts of the historical development of English, and to reveal new myths that are currently being constructed. Using concepts and interpretive sensibilities developed in the field of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and sociocognitive linguistics over the past 40 years, the book unearths these myths and exposes their ideological roots. Based on the assumption that conventional histories of English are histories of standard English rather than histories of the varieties of English, he sets his goal as being not to construct an alternative discourse, but rather to offer alternative readings of the historical data. It defines what we mean by a linguistic ideology and shows how language myths, rather than simply being untruths about language, are derived from conceptual metaphors of language and are crucial in the formation of hegemonic discourses on language. He argues, in effect, that no discourse—a hegemonic discourse, an alternative discourse, or even a deconstructive discourse—can ever be free of ideology. The book argues that a naturalized discourse is always built on a foundation of myths, which are all too easily taken as true accounts, and is a call to study alternative ways in which the full range of “Englishes” may ultimately be accounted for historically. But the book also issues the warning that, whatever new histories are proposed, they, too, will ultimately need to undergo a thorough investigation with regard to the myths that may underlie them.

Events, Phrases, and Questions

Robert Truswell — 2011-05-01

Author:: Robert Truswell
ISBN:: 9780199577774
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577774.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

This book proposes a novel, interface-based analysis of patterns of wh-movement in English in which constraints are stated over both syntactic and semantic representations. Firstly, a theory is presented of the internal structure of events as perceptual and cognitive units. The key question concerns the circumstances in which multiple smaller events, or subevents, can be perceived as jointly forming a single macroevent. Macroevent formation is possible if the subevents in question are perceived as related by one of two contingent relations, namely direct causation and enablement, where the latter is a relation holding among events that form part of an agent's plan. There is no single phrase-structural configuration which corresponds to enablement, so cognitive and semantic representations of event structure differ from syntactic representations of phrase structure in nontrivial ways. Certain patterns of extraction from adjuncts in English are amenable to simple descriptions stated over event-structural units and relations, but exhibit substantial differences from the patterns typically described by syntactic theories of locality. However, syntactic locality theories, as elaborated over the past 50 years, remain essential to an accurate description of the distribution of movement relations. The central challenge addressed by this work is therefore to allow syntactic and nonsyntactic factors to act jointly to constrain the syntactic operation of wh-movement without vitiating necessary assumptions about the modularity of the language faculty.

Paths to Post-Nationalism

Monica Heller — 2011-01-01

Author:: Monica Heller
ISBN:: 9780199746866
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199746866.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Nationalism has informed all our ideas about language, culture, identity, nation, and state. Those ideas are being profoundly challenged by globalization, neoliberal responses to it, and the emergent new economy. Language, culture, and identity are commodified; communication takes on a central role as work process and work product in the new economy; multilingualism becomes a salient element of managing the mobility of people, ideas, and goods, and, indeed, of their very value. Through a fine-grained ethnographic analysis of key sites of production of discourse constructing the idea of “francophone Canada” from the 1970s to the present, the author shows how hegemonic discourses of language, identity, and the nation-state are destabilized under new political economic conditions, in processes which, she argues, put us on the path to post-nationalism. Examining sociolinguistic practices in workplaces, schools, community associations, NGOs, state agencies, and sites of tourism and performance across francophone North America and Europe, she shows how the tensions of late modernity produce competing visions of social organization and competing sources of legitimacy in attempts to reimagine—or resist reimagining—who we are.

Negative Indefinites

Doris Penka — 2011-01-01

Author:: Doris Penka
ISBN:: 9780199567263
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567263.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This exploration of the syntax-semantics interface is concerned with negative indefinites like English ‘nobody’, ‘nothing’, etc. and their counterparts in other languages. A cross-linguistically unified analysis is proposed and applied to several languages. While negative indefinites are standardly assumed to be semantically negative quantifiers, this work argues for a different analysis. It is motivated by three phenomena, which negative indefinites give rise to in different languages and which are unexpected under the negative quantifier analysis. The first, negative concord, has been widely discussed in both semantic and syntactic literature. The fact that in many languages negative indefinites can co-occur with other seemingly negative elements without contributing a negation to the semantics motivates the assumption that these expressions are not inherently negative. Following recent work on negative concord, an analysis is elaborated that is based on the assumption that negative indefinites are semantically non-negative and must be licensed by a — possibly covert — negation. This analysis explains the behaviour of negative indefinites in a number of languages. In a next step, this analysis is extended to languages that do not exhibit negative concord. Motivation for this comes from the fact that even in non-negative concord languages, the negative quantifier analysis cannot account for the semantics of negative indefinites. Crucial evidence comes from the existence of split readings, in which another operator takes scope in between the negative and the indefinite meaning component. Moreover, in many languages the distribution of negative indefinites is subject to syntactic restrictions. It is shown how this follows from the proposed analysis and independently motivated syntactic properties.

Language without Rights

Lionel Wee — 2011-01-01

Author:: Lionel Wee
ISBN:: 9780199737437
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737437.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This volume is a book-length critique of the concept of language rights. It presents a balanced, though ultimately skeptical, evaluation of language rights. Through a sophisticated synthesis of insights from a variety of disciplines, including linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, sociology and political philosophy, it demonstrates how the appeal to language rights faces a number of conceptual and practical problems, particularly because the discourse of rights is fundamentally inconsistent with the socially variable nature of language. The book also explores an alternative that is more in tune with the complexities of language in social life by suggesting that issues involving language are better managed within a model of deliberative democracy.

Language Change and Linguistic Theory, Volume II

D. Gary Miller — 2011-01-01

Author:: D. Gary Miller
ISBN:: 9780199583430
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583430.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This book investigates a large range of changes and their motivations in all parts of the grammar and lexicon. The core argument is that, in the absence of a Grand Unification Theory in linguistics, a unified account of change is impossible without ignoring the bulk of natural language changes. Changes occur in successive formal grammars. Differences among successive I-languages constitute a change in the E‐language, but this work rejects the customary high premium on acquisition to the near exclusion of the role of adults and adolescents in the incrementation of change. Many innovations arise from competition in contact accommodation, but contact is only a catalyst. Features determine parametric variation and structures provide evidence (cues) for features. Since changes are typically not macroscalar, this work adopts a (micro)cue theory of parametric variation. The traditional view required a categorical (off/on) value setting. Through multiple binary cuts and different microcues, the new view permits a language to have, for instance, V2 in some structures but not others. With the reduction of UG (Universal Grammar) to a universal inventory of formal features, the once extravagant role of UG has been largely replaced by principles of efficient computation to explain crosslinguistically frequent changes. Additionally, neurolinguists have concluded that some constraints have evolved over time into a multilevel representation in the nervous system. Taking this and structure-building features into account, this work argues that some changes are grounded in synchronic cognitive constraints, a large number in principles of computation, many in extralinguistic factors, some in processing and functional motivations, and some just accidents of history.

Language Change and Linguistic Theory, Volume I

D. Gary Miller — 2011-01-01

Author:: D. Gary Miller
ISBN:: 9780199583423
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583423.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This book investigates a large range of changes and their motivations in all parts of the grammar and lexicon. The core argument is that, in the absence of a Grand Unification Theory in linguistics, a unified account of change is impossible without ignoring the bulk of natural language changes. Changes occur in successive formal grammars. Differences among successive I‐languages constitute a change in the E‐language, but this work rejects the customary high premium on acquisition to the near exclusion of the role of adults and adolescents in the incrementation of change. Many innovations arise from competition in contact accommodation, but contact is only a catalyst. Features determine parametric variation and structures provide evidence (cues) for features. Since changes are typically not macroscalar, this work adopts a (micro)cue theory of parametric variation. The traditional view required a categorical (off/on) value setting. Through multiple binary cuts and different microcues, the new view permits a language to have, for instance, V2 in some structures but not others. With the reduction of UG (Universal Grammar) to a universal inventory of formal features, the once extravagant role of UG has been largely replaced by principles of efficient computation to explain crosslinguistically frequent changes. Additionally, neurolinguists have concluded that some constraints have evolved over time into a multilevel representation in the nervous system. Taking this and structure‐building features into account, this work argues that some changes are grounded in synchronic cognitive constraints, a large number in principles of computation, many in extralinguistic factors, some in processing and functional motivations, and some just accidents of history.

A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries

Julie Coleman — 2011-01-01

Author:: Julie Coleman
ISBN:: 9780199567256
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Lexicography
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567256.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Although there are continuities with earlier slang lexicography, particularly in the work of Eric Partridge, the period covered by this volume sees a number of marked social and lexicographical changes. The post-war cultural dominance of the United States is evident throughout, as is the influence of African‐American music and language. Slang dictionaries also document attempts by Britain and its colonies to (re)define their sense of national identity. Musical and cultural trends each produced their own characteristic slang, which was manipulated by commercial interests to target the youth market. Homosexual slang was documented first as a diagnostic tool for psychiatrists, but later became an expression of gay pride. Attempts to associate homosexuality with communism label gay rights as a significant threat to the structure of society. Drugs were another threat that became dominant in this period, and the punitive response saw a rapidly increasing prison population. Dictionaries of crime during this period tend to concentrate on the language used inside prisons rather than by criminals at large. But slang is not just for left-wingers. British dictionaries of rhyming slang and dictionaries of Australian slang both express anxieties about immigration through their attempts to construct a working‐class national identity. Right-wing pressure groups in the United States produced dictionaries of slang to reveal the threat represented by homosexuality and rock music. The biggest backlash is found in the numerous dictionaries of CB radio, which allowed blue‐collar white southerners to reconstruct themselves as freedom‐fighting urban cowboys.

Deaf around the World

Gaurav Mathur and Donna Jo Napoli — 2011-01-01

Author:: GauravMathurGallaudet UniversityDonna JoNapoliUniversity of Swarthmore
ISBN:: 9780199732548
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732548.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This is a compendium of work by scholars and activists involved in deaf matters. The introduction chapter sets up the global context; it is followed by twelve chapters, seven of which deal with the creation, context, and form of sign languages, and five of which deal with social issues and civil rights of Deaf communities. Each chapter has a response by one, or sometimes two pre-eminent people in the field, typically viewing the issue of the chapter from a different perspective or in a different geographic context. Luminaries shed light on issues and give histories and overviews that have not been written down anyplace else. The book addresses issues of interest in linguistics, psychology, economics, public policy, public health, cognitive science, anthropology, and education. The major thesis of the book is that the interaction of activists and scholars is synergistic: activists find support in the work of scholars and scholars both have a responsibility toward the community they study and do better work when they understand activists’ concerns. Thirty-one scholars and activists (sixteen deaf, one hearing of deaf parents, and fourteen hearing) contributed to this volume with the optimistic goal that the joint work can help improve our understanding of both deaf matters and the daily lives of deaf people. The chapters deal with gestures, sign languages, deaf issues, and deaf communities in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. The picture that emerges shows a great amount of similarity and continuity in the Deaf World.

The Bishop's Grammar

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade — 2011-01-01

Author:: Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
ISBN:: 9780199579273
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579273.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This book examines the life, language and grammar of Robert Lowth (1710–1787), founder of prescriptivism. Drawing on private documents, it maps his social networks and compares his own language to the grammar's model of correctness. By analysing his role in the establishment of the prescriptive canon, it portrays Lowth as a precursor to usage guides like Fowler's Modern English Usage.

Mapping Spatial PPs

Guglielmo Cinque and Luigi Rizzi — 2010-09-01

Author:: Guglielmo Cinque, Luigi Rizzi
ISBN:: 9780195393675
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393675.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

The present volume intends to contribute to our understanding of the grammar of spatial prepositional phrases by focusing on one particular aspect of their syntax that has remained relatively neglected: the fine-grained articulation of their internal structure. The analyses presented in the book, in spite of their being based on rather different data and considerations, reach strikingly convergent conclusions on the existence of a rich internal structure for spatial PPs. These, in addition to being introduced by (overt or covert) directional and stative prepositions comprise degree phrases, deictic, viewpoint and orientation particles, and an often nonpronounced N ‘place.’

Investigating Variation

Nancy C. Dorian — 2010-09-01

Author:: Nancy C. Dorian
ISBN:: 9780195385939
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385939.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

Linguistic variation has been studied primarily in communities with the dominant social organization of our time: ethnic diversity, socioeconomic stratification, and a population size precluding community‐wide face‐to‐face interaction. In such communities literacy introduces extra‐community linguistic norms, and variation correlates with ethnicity and class. This study investigates variation in the ancestral language of a population with a very different social structure: small size, dense kinship ties, common occupation, absence of social stratification. Their Gaelic shows a high level of socially neutral individual variation, with variants originating in settlement‐period dialect mixture; a subsequent history of social isolation, endogamy, and regular face‐to‐face interaction eliminated any need for linguistic accommodation, while social homogeneity and absence of extra‐community norms permitted the variants to remain socially neutral. Examination of the theoretical assumptions and established methodologies prevailing in dialectology and descriptive linguistics offers a number of explanations for delayed recognition of linguistic variation unrelated to social class or other social sub‐groupings. Detailed examination of the social structure of one community offers explanations for the strikingly divergent usage of close kin and age‐mates. Reports of similar variation phenomena in locations with similar social‐setting and social‐organization features (minority‐language pockets in Ireland, Russia, Norway, Canada, and Cameroon) permit the recognition of factors that contribute to the emergence and persistence of socially neutral inter‐speaker and intra‐speaker variation. Facets of language use related to social structure remain to be investigated in communities with still other forms of social organization before the few communities that represent them disappear altogether.

The Grammar of Q

Seth Cable — 2010-09-01

Author:: Seth Cable
ISBN:: 9780195392265
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392265.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

This book puts forth a novel syntactic and semantic analysis of wh-questions based upon in-depth study of the Tlingit language, an endangered and under-documented language of North America. A major consequence of this new approach is that the phenomenon classically dubbed pied-piping does not actually exist. The book begins by arguing that wh-fronting in Tlingit does not involve a syntactic relationship between interrogative C and the wh-word. Rather, it involves a probe/Agree relation between C and an overt ‘Q-particle’ (or ‘Q’) c-commanding the wh-word. Fronting of the wh-word in Tlingit is thus a mere by-product of fronting the QP projected by this Q. Given the strong similarity between the wh-constructions of Tlingit and those of more widely studied languages, this ‘Q-based’ analysis is applied to a range of other languages. Regarding so-called pied-piping structures, the Q-based theory provides an analysis in which the very concept of ‘pied-piping’ is eliminated from the theory of grammar. Furthermore, the account provides an especially minimal semantics for pied-piping structures, in which no mechanisms are needed beyond those required for simple wh-questions. Finally, the Q-based theory is able to capture certain constraints on pied-piping, as well as aspects of its variation across languages. Beyond its treatment of pied-piping, the Q-based theory also yields a novel syntax and semantics for multiple wh-questions that ties the presence of Superiority Effects to the absence of Intervention Effects. Furthermore, the account predicts a previously unnoticed Intervention Effect in English pied-piping structures. Finally, the Q-based theory provides a novel account of the ill-formedness of P-stranding and left branch extractions in many of the world’s languages.

Features

Anna Kibort and Greville G. Corbett — 2010-09-01

Author:: AnnaKibortUniversity of Cambridgehttp://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/ling/staff/ak243/Greville G.CorbettUniversity of Surreyhttp://www2.surrey.ac.uk/english/people/greville_g_corbett/
ISBN:: 9780199577743
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577743.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

This book presents a critical overview of current work on linguistic features and establishes new bases for their use in the study and understanding of language. Features are fundamental components of linguistic description: they include gender (feminine, masculine, neuter); number (singular, plural, dual); person (1st, 2nd, 3rd); tense (present, past, future); and case (nominative, accusative, genitive, ergative). Despite their ubiquity and centrality in linguistic description, much remains to be discovered about them: there is, for example, no readily available inventory showing which features are found in which of the world's languages; there is no consensus about how they operate across different components of language; and there is no certainty about how they interact. This book seeks both to highlight and to tackle these problems. It brings together perspectives from phonology to formal syntax and semantics, expounding the use of linguistic features in typology, computer applications, and logic. Linguists representing different standpoints spell out clearly the assumptions they bring to different kinds of features and describe how they use them. Their contrasting contributions highlight the areas of difference and the common ground between their perspectives. The book brings together original work by leading international scholars. It will appeal to linguists of all theoretical persuasions.

Experience, Evidence, and Sense

Anna Wierzbicka — 2010-09-01

Author:: Anna Wierzbicka
ISBN:: 9780195368000
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368000.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

This book is based on two ideas: first, that any language—English no less than any other—represents a universe of meaning, shaped by the history and experience of the men and women who have created it; and second, that in any language certain culture-specific words act as linchpins for whole networks of meanings, and that penetrating the meanings of those key words can therefore open our eyes to an entire cultural universe. This book demonstrates that three uniquely English words—evidence, experience, and sense—are exactly such linchpins. Using a rigorous plain language approach to meaning analysis, the book unpackages the dense cultural meanings of these key words, disentangles their multiple meanings, and traces their origins back to the tradition of British empiricism. In so doing the book reveals much about cultural attitudes embedded not only in British and American English, but other global varieties of English.

The Complementizer Phase

E. Phoevos Panagiotidis — 2010-09-01

Author:: E. PhoevosPanagiotidisAssistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Cyprushttp://www.new.ucy.ac.cy/en-US/~phoevos.aspx
ISBN:: 9780199584352
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584352.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

This book draws together nine original investigations by leading linguists and promising young scholars on the syntax of complementisers (eg that in She said that she would) and their phrases. The chapters are divided into two parts, each of which highlights aspects of the behaviour and function of complementisers. The first part looks at how and when subjects, or parts of subjects, can and cannot move outside their canonical position in a sentence. Each chapter examines and compares the relevance of a number of syntactic factors in languages such as English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Brazilian Portuguese, and Bavarian. In the second part, the focus turns to the nature and function of complementisers themselves, with discussions drawing on evidence from Italian, Italian dialects, Hebrew, and Dutch.

Tense, Aspect, and Indexicality

James Higginbotham — 2010-05-01

Author:: James Higginbotham
ISBN:: 9780199239313
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Theoretical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239313.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

James Higginbotham's work on tense, aspect, and indexicality discusses the principles governing demonstrative, temporal, and indexical expressions in natural language, and presents new ideas in the semantics of sentence structure. The book brings together his key contributions to the fields, including his recent intervention in the debate on the roles of context and anaphora in reference. The book's chapters are presented in the form in which they were first published, with afterwords where needed, to cover points where the author's thought has developed.

Television Dramatic Dialogue

Kay Richardson — 2010-05-01

Author:: Kay Richardson
ISBN:: 9780195374056
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374056.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

When we watch and listen to actors speaking lines that have been written by someone else, a common experience if we watch any television at all, the illusion of “people talking” is strong. These characters are people like us—or else the illusion would not work—but they are also different, products of a dramatic imagination, and the talk they exchange is also not quite like ours either. This book examines, from an applied sociolinguistic perspective, and with reference to television, the particular kind of “artificial” talk that we know as dialogue: onscreen/on‐mike talk delivered by characters as part of dramatic storytelling in a range of fictional and nonfictional TV genres. As well as trying to identify the place that this kind of language occupies in sociolinguistic space, it seeks to understand the conditions of its production by screenwriters and the conditions of its reception by audiences, and offers two case studies, one British (Life on Mars) and one American (House).

The Spatial Foundations of Language and Cognition

Kelly S. Mix, Linda B. Smith, and Michael Gasser — 2010-05-01

Author:: Kelly S.MixMichigan State Universityhttp://www.educ.msu.edu/content/default.asp?contentID=907Linda B.SmithIndiana Universityhttp://psych.indiana.edu/faculty/pages/smith.aspMichaelGasserIndiana Universityhttp://www.soic.indiana.edu/people/profiles/gasser-michael.shtml
ISBN:: 9780199553242
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553242.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

In this book, we ask how space, language, and thought interact in learning and development. This encompasses not only how children learn about space and spatial language, but also how language and cognition are grounded in space. People think and act in a spatial medium. How does this impact language learning? How does it frame human concepts? Does the acquisition of language change the way we experience space? The chapters gathered here represent a broad range of perspectives on these questions. They are authored by experts in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics.

The Sound Patterns of Syntax

Nomi Erteschik-Shir and Lisa Rochman — 2010-05-01

Author:: NomiErteschik-ShirBen-Gurion Universityhttp://www.bgu.ac.il/~shir/LisaRochmanBen-Gurion Universityhttp://www.bgu.ac.il/kreitman_foundation/fellows/humanities.htm
ISBN:: 9780199556861
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556861.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

In this book leading scholars address the issues surrounding the syntax‐phonology interface. These principally concern whether the phonological component can influence syntax and if so how far and in what ways: such questions are a prominent component of current work on the biolinguistics of speech production and reception. The problematic relationship between syntax and phonology has long piqued the interest of syntacticians and phonologists: the connections between sound and structure have played a key role in generative grammar from its inception, initially relating to focus and the prosodic marking of constituent structure and more recently to word‐order constraints. This book advances this work in a series of critical and interlinked presentations of the latest thinking and research. In doing so it draws on data from a wide range of languages, evidence from disordered language, and related work in language acquisition.

The Prehistory of Language

Rudolf Botha and Chris Knight — 2010-05-01

Author:: RudolfBothaUniversity of StellenboschChrisKnightUniversity of East Londonhttp://www.uel.ac.uk/hss/staff/knight-chris.htm
ISBN:: 9780199545872
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545872.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

‘When, why, and how did language evolve?’ ‘Why do only humans have language?’ This book looks at these and other questions about the origins and evolution of language. It does so via a diversity of perspectives, including social, cultural, archaeological, palaeoanthropological, musicological, anatomical, neurobiological, primatological, and linguistic. Among the subjects it considers are: how far sociality is a prerequisite for language; the evolutionary links between language and music; the relation between natural selection and niche construction; the origins of the lexicon; the role of social play in language development; the use of signs by great apes; the evolution of syntax; the evolutionary biology of language; the insights offered by Chomsky's biolinguistic approach to mind and language; the emergence of recursive language; the selectional advantages of the human vocal tract; and why women speak better than men. The authors are prominent linguists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, archaeologists, primatologists, social anthropologists, and specialists in artificial intelligence. As well as explaining what is understood about the evolution of language, they look squarely at the formidable obstacles to knowing more: the absence of direct evidence, for example; the problems of using indirect evidence; the lack of a common conception of language; confusion about the operation of natural selection and other processes of change; the scope for misunderstanding in a multi-disciplinary field, and many more. Despite these difficulties, the authors in their contributions to this book are able to show just how much has been achieved in this area of research in the social, natural, and cognitive sciences.

Lexical Semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure

Malka Rappaport Hovav, Edit Doron, and Ivy Sichel — 2010-05-01

Author:: MalkaRappaport HovavThe Hebrew University of Jerusalemhttp://www.huji.ac.il/dataj/controller/ihoker/MOP-STAFF_LINK?sno=9548470EditDoronThe Hebrew University of Jerusalemhttp://pluto.huji.ac.il/~edit/edit/IvySichelThe Hebrew University of Jerusalemhttp://www.huji.ac.il/dataj/controller/ihoker/MOP-STAFF_LINK?sno=9839837
ISBN:: 9780199544325
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544325.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

This book focuses on the linguistic representation of temporality in the verbal domain and its interaction with the syntax and semantics of verbs, arguments, and modifiers. Leading scholars explore the division of labour between syntax, compositional semantics, and lexical semantics in the encoding of event structure, encompassing event participants and the temporal properties associated with events. They examine the interface between event structure and the systems with which it interacts, including the interface between event structure and the syntactic realization of arguments and modifiers. Deploying a variety of frameworks and theoretical perspectives they consider central issues and questions in the field, among them whether argument‐structure is specified in the lexical entries of verbs or syntactically constructed so that syntactic position determines thematic status; whether the hierarchical structure evidenced in argument structure find parallels in sign language; should the relation between members of an alternation pair, such as the causative‐inchoative alternation, be understood lexically or derivationally; and the role of syntactic category in determining the configuration of argument structure.

Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766-1976

Peter Mackridge — 2010-05-01

Author:: Peter Mackridge
ISBN:: 9780199214426
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214426.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

This book provides a history of the great language controversy that has occupied and impassioned Greeks — sometimes with fatal results — for over two hundred years. It begins in the late 18th century when a group of Greek intellectuals sought to develop a new, Hellenic, national identity alongside the traditional identity supplied by Orthodox Christianity. The ensuing controversy focused on the language, fuelled by a desire to develop a form of Greek that expressed the Greeks' relationship to the ancients, and by the different groups'contrasting notions of what the national image so embodied should be. The purists wanted a written language close to the ancient. The vernacularists — later known as demoticists — sought to match written language to spoken, claiming the latter to be the product of the unbroken development of Greek since the time of Homer. The book explores the political, social, and linguistic causes and effects of the controversy in its many manifestations. Drawing on a wide range of evidence from literature, language, history, and anthropology, it traces its effects on spoken and written varieties of Greek and shows its impact on those in use today. The book describes the efforts of linguistic elites and the state to achieve language standardization and independence from languages such as Turkish, Albanian, Vlach, and Slavonic. The sense of national and linguistic identity that has been inculcated into generations of Greeks since the start of the War of Independence in 1821 has, in the last twenty-five years, received blows from which it may not recover. Immigration from Eastern Europe and elsewhere has introduced new populations whose religions, languages, and cultures are transforming Greece into a country quite different from what it has been and from what it once aspired to be.

Greek Prepositions

Pietro Bortone — 2010-05-01

Author:: Pietro Bortone
ISBN:: 9780199556854
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556854.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

New prepositions in Greek express solely spatial meanings, simultaneously lost by their older synonyms, whose use becomes restricted to non‐spatial senses—unless a recent synonym is not available. In time, new prepositions too develop non‐spatial meanings, eventually losing their spatial ones completely, repeating the life‐cycle of their predecessors.

The Event Structure of Perception Verbs

Nikolas Gisborne — 2010-05-01

Author:: Nikolas Gisborne
ISBN:: 9780199577798
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577798.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Perception verbs – such as look, see, taste, hear, feel, sound, listen, and observe – present unresolved problems for linguistic theories. This book examines the predictability of relations between their semantics and syntactic behaviour, the different kinds of polysemy they exhibit, and the role of evidentiality in verbs like seem and appear. After an opening chapter explaining the nature of the issues, there is a concise introduction to Word Grammar. Chapter 3 considers the implications of the approach for a general theory of event structure, and looks at how Word Grammar can be applied to causation, argument linking, and the modelling of polysemy. Chapter 4 explores the polysemy of see; chapter 5 looks at relations between verbs of active perception like listen, and verbs of involuntary perception such as hear; chapter 6 explores the semantics of non‐finite predicative complementation; and chapter 7 discusses verbs of appearance. Chapter 8 presents some conclusions.

Endangered Languages of Austronesia

Margaret Florey — 2010-05-01

Author:: MargaretFloreyMonash University
ISBN:: 9780199544547
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544547.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

This book explores challenges to linguistic vitality confronting many minority languages in the highly diverse and geographically far-flung Austronesian language family. The contributions bring together Indigenous language activists and academic researchers with a long-standing commitment to language documentation in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, East Timor, and Vanuatu. Working in partnership with Indigenous communities, the research in this book is the forefront of the development of innovative capacity building strategies and is part of cutting edge, practical solutions for language revitalization.

Adpositions

Claude Hagège — 2010-05-01

Author:: Claude Hagège
ISBN:: 9780199575008
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575008.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

This pioneering study is based on an analysis of over 200 languages, including African, Amerindian, Australian, Austronesian, Indo-European and Eurasian (Altaic, Caucasian, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Dravidian, Uralic), Papuan, and Sino-Tibetan. Adpositions are an almost universal part of speech. English has prepositions; some languages, such as Japanese, have postpositions; others have both; and yet others, kinds that are not quite either. As grammatical tools they mark the relationship between two parts of a sentence: characteristically one element governs a noun or noun-like word or phrase while the other functions as a predicate. From the syntactic point of view, the complement of an adposition depends on a head: in this last sentence, for example, a head is the complement of on while on a head depends on depends, and on is the marker of this dependency. Adpositions lie at the core of the grammar of most languages, their usefulness making them recurrent in everyday speech and writing. The author examines their morphological features, syntactic functions, and semantic and cognitive properties. He does so for the subsets both of adpositions that express the relations of agent, patient, and beneficiary, and of those which mark space, time, accompaniment, or instrument. Adpositions often govern case and are sometimes gradually grammaticalized into case. The author considers the whole set of function markers, including case, which appear as adpositions and, in doing so, throws light on processes of morphological and syntactic change in different languages and language families.

Why Do You Ask?

Alice Freed and Susan Ehrlich — 2010-02-01

Author:: AliceFreedMontclair State Universityhttp://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=freedaSusanEhrlichYork Universityhttp://dlll.yorku.ca/linguistics/People/susan.html
ISBN:: 9780195306897
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This volume is a study of question use in institutional discourse, the first volume of its kind to make questions and questioning the explicit focus of its investigation. It brings together studies that bridge a wide range of institutional settings from traditionally studied contexts such as medicine, law, and the mass media to little‐considered settings such as call centers, new types of counseling environments, and helplines. In the introduction, the editors draw upon the research in the assembled chapters to identify commonalities in the use of questions in a variety of institutions; this in turn provides the basis for drawing generalizations about the use of questions. The goal is not only to expand the understanding of questioning and answering in institutional discourse but also to document the ways that social change has both transformed the nature of institutional encounters in more traditional settings and increased the sorts of institutional encounters in which people engage, particularly those associated with service‐related activities. The volume contributes to a comprehensive definition of questions that includes both functional and sequential considerations, extends our understanding of the relationship between questions and their role in institutional discourse, and addresses the nature of ordinary versus institutional talk.

Vowel Prosthesis in Romance

Rodney Sampson — 2010-02-01

Author:: Rodney Sampson
ISBN:: 9780199541157
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541157.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book presents for the first time an in‐depth historical account of vowel prosthesis in the Romance languages. Vowel prosthesis is a change which involves the appearance of a non‐etymological vowel at the beginning of a word: a familiar example is the initial e which appears in the development of Latin sperare to Spanish esperar and French espérer ‘to hope’. Despite its widespread incidence in the Romance languages, it has remained poorly studied. In his wide‐ranging comparative coverage, Professor Sampson identifies three main categories of vowel prosthesis that have occurred and explores in detail their historical trajectory and the relationship between them. The presentation draws freely throughout on the rich philological materials available from Romance and brings to light various unexpected changes in the productive use of prosthesis through time. For example in French and Italian (which is Tuscan‐based), one category of prosthesis became well established in the early Middle Ages only to lose productivity and subsequently become moribund. With its extensive use of empirical data and findings from theoretical linguistics, the book offers a thorough and revealing account of a fascinating chapter in the phonological history of Romance.

Theories of Lexical Semantics

Dirk Geeraerts — 2010-02-01

Author:: Dirk Geeraerts
ISBN:: 9780198700302
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198700302.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Theories of Lexical Semantics offers a comprehensive overview of the major traditions of word meaning research in linguistics. In spite of the growing importance of the lexicon in linguistic theory, no overview of the main theoretical trends in lexical semantics is currently available. This book fills that gap by charting the evolution of the discipline from the mid nineteenth century to the present day. It presents the main ideas, the landmark publications, and the dominant figures of five traditions: historical‐philological semantics, structuralist semantics, generativist semantics, neostructuralist semantics, and cognitive semantics. The theoretical and methodological relationship between the approaches is a major point of attention throughout the text: going well beyond a mere chronological enumeration, the book does not only describe the theoretical currents of lexical semantics, but also the undercurrents that have shaped its evolution.

The Syntax of Ellipsis

Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck — 2010-02-01

Author:: Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck
ISBN:: 9780195375640
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195375640.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book investigates a number of elliptical constructions found in Dutch dialects within the framework of the Minimalist Program. It argues that both the PF-deletion and the pro-theory of ellipsis are needed to account for the full range of elliptical phenomena attested in natural language. In chapters 2–9 the book focuses on two instances of stranding under sluicing: stranding with prepositions in English (What about?) and stranding with demonstrative pronouns in southern Dutch dialects (Wie dat? ‘who that’). Both these phenomena are given a PF-deletion analysis, and are shown to be the result of the interaction between the split CP-hypothesis and the syntax of wh-movement. The second half of the book is concerned with Short Do Replies in southern Dutch dialects, a type of reply that expresses verum focus and that at first sight bears a close resemblance to English VP-ellipsis. It is shown that in this case the ellipsis site is best represented as a null, structureless proform that is licensed by the head of a high polarity projection. This pronominal is then argued to occur in two other dialectal constructions as well: contradictory replies of the type Da's nie ‘that.is not’ found in Brabant Dutch, and the occurrence of subject clitics and agreement endings on the polarity items yes and no in Southern Dutch dialects (e.g. Ja-n-s ‘yes-plural-they’).

The Logic of Language

Pieter A. M. Seuren — 2010-02-01

Author:: Pieter A. M. Seuren
ISBN:: 9780199559480
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559480.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

The Logic of Language opens a new perspective on logic. Seuren first argues that the logic of language derives from the lexical meanings of the logical operators. These meanings, however, prove not to be consistent. To solve this problem, the author distinguishes between a default ‘basic‐natural’ and two nondefault ‘strict‐natural’ versions of natural predicate logic, all different from standard modern logic. Basic‐natural logic is shown to derive from an ontology of entities and properties, combined with a basic‐natural set theory, reflecting the way humans deal cognitively with plural sets. A new measure for ‘logical power’ shows the extreme weakness of standard predicate logic as against the maximal power of one version of strict‐natural logic, traditional, post‐Aristotelian predicate logic, or the ‘Square of Opposition’. It is shown that Aristotle's original logic as reconstructed by Abelard is logically faultless (unlike the Square, which suffers from ‘undue existential import’) and also more powerful than standard logic, though less so than the Square or basic‐natural logic. The latter two are shown to be maximally functional for natural linguistic interaction. In the last five chapters, a general theory of discourse‐bound interpretation is developed, covering discourse incrementation, anaphora, presupposition (with its logic) and topic—comment structure. The ‘donkey‐anaphora’ problem is solved by an appeal to discourse structures. The great defect of the Square, its ‘undue existential import’, is remedied by means of a protecting presuppositional ‘mantle’ creating a third truth value of radical falsity, assigned to propositions suffering from presupposition failure and causing inconsistency with preceding true discourse. Finally, topic—comment structure is shown to correspond to a question—answer game directing the building up of discourse domains and to be not of a pragmatic but of a truth‐conditional, hence semantic, nature. Anaphora, presupposition, and topic—comment structure are thus seen to form the ‘cement’ of discourse structure.

The Language of Defamation Cases

Roger W. Shuy — 2010-02-01

Author:: Roger W. Shuy
ISBN:: 9780195391329
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391329.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book shows how linguistic analysis can be useful to lawyers on either sides of defamation lawsuits. It gives a brief overview of the parts of defamation law that linguistics can address, and then illustrates how phonetics, grammar, semantics, speech acts, pragmatics, conveyed meaning, and lexical choices were used in eleven defamation cases. The book also assesses what progress has been made from the early days in which language disputes were settled by bloody duels to the modern days of their replacement by libel and slander lawsuits.

Information Structure

Malte Zimmermann and Caroline Féry — 2010-02-01

Author:: MalteZimmermannUniversity of PotsdamCarolineFéryUniversity of Potsdamhttp://www-old.ling.uni-potsdam.de/people/index-e.html
ISBN:: 9780199570959
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570959.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book brings together leading figures to present an overview of different approaches to the formal expression of information structure in language and how it works in human communication. Information structure concerns the ways in which aspects of grammar including semantics, pragmatics, syntax, morphology, prosody, and intonation interact in the communication and reception of information. It is also concerned with the neurolinguistics of the production and cognition of meaning. This book reflects recent research in all central aspects of the subject. It examines the concepts of focus versus background, topic versus comment, and given versus new, and the kinds of inferences required to make sense of different combinations of words, syntax, intonation, and context. The chapters combine theoretical and experimental approaches and include examination of variations of information structure across different languages and within the same language over time.

How Words Mean

Vyvyan Evans — 2010-02-01

Author:: Vyvyan Evans
ISBN:: 9780199234660
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234660.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book is concerned with word meaning, and the role of words in meaning construction. The specific problem addressed concerns how best to account for the inherent variation of word meaning in language use. That is, the books seeks to provide an account for the way in which the meaning associated with any given word form appears to vary each time it is used, in terms of the conceptualization that it, in part, gives rise to. The book develops a new theoretical synthesis building upon developments in cognitive science: in particular cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology. The model proposed is termed the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models, or LCCM Theory for short. The theory is based upon two central theoretical constructs: the lexical concept and the cognitive model. The essential insight of the theory is that meaning construction in language understanding relies upon the interaction between distinct types of knowledge representation — units of semantic structure: lexical concepts, and units of conceptual structure: cognitive models — which inhere in distinct representational systems that evolved for different purposes: the conceptual system and the linguistic system. The book provides a joined-up account of lexical semantics and semantic compositionality which is at once descriptively adequate and psychologically plausible.

Degrammaticalization

Muriel Norde — 2010-02-01

Author:: Muriel Norde
ISBN:: 9780199207923
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207923.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This is a book about degrammaticalization, a rare type of linguistic change whereby grams become ‘less grammatical’, typical examples being shifts from affix to clitic, or from function word to lexical item. It discusses the alleged unidirectionality of semantic and morphosyntactic change, showing that change is in fact reversible on all levels. It also aims to classify degrammaticalization by examining primitive changes on several levels: semantics, pragmatics, morphology, syntax, and phonology. It is argued that there exist three separate types of degrammaticalization: degrammation, whereby a function word develops into a lexical item; deinflectionalization, whereby an inflectional affix becomes either derivational or enclitic, while gaining additional functions; and debonding, whereby a bound morpheme becomes a free morpheme, often without change on the semantic-functional level.

About the Speaker

Alessandra Giorgi — 2010-02-01

Author:: Alessandra Giorgi
ISBN:: 9780199571895
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571895.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

This book considers the syntax of the left periphery of clauses in relation to the extra‐sentential context. The prevailing point of view, in the literature in this field is that the external context does not intervene at all in the syntax of the sentence, and that the interaction between sentence and context takes place post‐syntactically. This monograph challenges this view and proposes that reference to indexicality is syntactically encoded in the left‐most position of the clause, where the speaker's temporal and spatial location is represented. To support this hypothesis, it analyses various kinds of temporal dependencies in embedded clauses, such as indicative versus subjunctive, and proposes a new analysis of the imperfect and the future‐in‐the‐past. The book also compares languages such as Italian and English with languages which have different properties of temporal interpretation, such as Chinese. Finally, analysis of the literary style known as Free Indirect Discourse also supports the hypothesis, showing that it may have a wide range of consequences.

When Languages Die

K. David Harrison — 2010-01-01

Author:: K. David Harrison
ISBN:: 9780195181920
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181920.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. The phenomenon known as language death has started to accelerate as the world has grown smaller. This extinction of languages, and the knowledge therein, has no parallel in human history. This book focuses on the essential questions: What is lost when a language dies?; What forms of knowledge are embedded in a language's structure and vocabulary?; And how harmful is it to humanity that such knowledge is lost forever? The book spans the globe from Siberia to North America to the Himalayas and elsewhere, to look at the human knowledge that is slowly being lost as the languages which express it fade from sight. It uses fascinating anecdotes and portraits of some of these languages' last remaining speakers, in order to demonstrate that this knowledge about ourselves and the world is inherently precious, and once gone, will be lost forever. This knowledge is not only our cultural heritage (oral histories, poetry, stories, etc.) but very useful knowledge about plants, animals, the seasons, and other aspects of the natural world—not to mention our understanding of the capacities of the human mind.

The Verbal Complex in Romance

Paola Monachesi — 2010-01-01

Author:: Paola Monachesi
ISBN:: 9780199274758
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274758.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This book explores the interface between syntax and the other components of the grammar, particularly phonology, morphology, and argument structure. It contains case studies, on subjects such as clitics and complex predicates (auxiliary and modal verbs) in Romance and grounding theoretical analysis in constant exemplification. It shows that a careful analysis of their properties can lead to a better understanding of the interaction of the various components of the grammar. The syntactic properties of clitics are considered in relation to their phonological and morphological characteristic. The properties of auxiliary verbs are analysed from the perspective of the interface between argument structure and syntactic structure. Modal verbs are examined at the interface between syntax and phonology. The analyses of clitics and auxiliaries shed new light on the link between Romanian and Balkan/Slavic.

The Unaccusativity Puzzle

Artemis Alexiadou, Elena Anagnostopoulou, and Martin Everaert — 2010-01-01

Author:: ArtemisAlexiadouUniversity of PotsdamElenaAnagnostopoulouUniversity of Cretehttp://www.philology.uoc.gr/staff/anagnostopoulou/MartinEveraertUtrecht Institute of Linguisticshttp://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.Everaert/personal/persoonlijke_pagina_everaert.htm
ISBN:: 9780199257652
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257652.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

The phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study of the complex properties of verb classes. The Unaccusative Hypothesis, first formulated in 1978, claimed that there are two classes of intransitive verbs: the unaccusative (Jill arrived) and the unergative or agentive (Jill sings). The hypothesis has provided a rich context for debating whether syntactic behaviour is semantically or lexically determined, the consequence of syntactic context, or a combination of these factors. No consensus has been reached. This book combines new approaches to the subject and contains several chapters reproducing papers that have achieved a significant status even though formally unpublished. Among the issues the chapters address are: the determination of the unaccusative class of verbs, the problem of unaccusativity diagnostics, the implications of special morphology for the structural representation of unaccusatives and the status of the external thematic role, the properties guiding the unergative versus unaccusative distinction in acquisition, and the properties of second-language lexicon.

Typological Change in Chinese Syntax

Dan Xu — 2010-01-01

Author:: Dan Xu
ISBN:: 9780199297566
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297566.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This new interpretation of the early history of Chinese argues that Old Chinese was typologically a ‘mixed’ language. It shows that, though its dominant word order was subject-verb-object, this coexisted with subject-object-verb. This book demonstrates that Old Chinese was not the analytic language it has usually been assumed to be, and that it employed morphological and lexical devices as well as syntactic means. The book describes the typological changes that have taken place since the Han period and shows how Chinese evolved into a more analytic language, supporting this exposition with abundant examples. The book draws where possible on archaeological findings in order to distinguish between versions of texts transmitted and sometimes modified through the hands of generations of copyists. The book focuses on syntactic issues, including word order, verbs, causative structures, resultative compounds, and negation, but also pays close attention to what the book demonstrates are closely related changes in phonology and the writing system.

Talking Proper

Lynda Mugglestone — 2010-01-01

Author:: Lynda Mugglestone
ISBN:: 9780199250622
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250622.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This book is a history of the rise and fall of the English accent as a badge of cultural, social, and class identity. The book traces the origins of the phenomenon in late 18th-century London, follows its history through the 19th and 20th centuries, and charts its downfall during the era of New Labour. The book provides a readable account of a fascinating subject, liberally spiced with quotations from English speech and writing over the past 250 years.

The Syntax of Old Norse

Jan Terje Faarlund — 2010-01-01

Author:: Jan Terje Faarlund
ISBN:: 9780199235599
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235599.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This is the first account of Old Norse syntax for a hundred years, and the first ever in a non-Scandinavian language. It presents a full analysis of the syntax of the language, and succinct descriptions of its phonology and inflectional morphology. Old Norse is the language used from the early ninth century till the late fourteenth century in Norway, Iceland, and the Faroes, and in the Norse settlements in the British Isles and Greenland. It was the language of the Vikings and of the Old Icelandic sagas, and it is the best-documented medieval Germanic language. The syntactic analyses in the book are supported by numerous prose examples taken from the most reliable Norwegian and Icelandic manuscript editions. The descriptive framework is generative grammar, but the description is informal enough to be understandable to any linguist, grammarian or philologist regardless of theoretical background.