Alternative Linguistics

Alternative Linguistics

Author: Philip W. Davis

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1996-01-31

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 9027276315

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The papers in this volume were presented at the Fifth Biennial Symposium of the Department of Linguistics, Rice University, March 1993. The participants were asked to concentrate in depth and in a self-reflective way upon some range of data. The intent was multifold. The first purpose was descriptive. It was expected that the participants would carry out their task in a retrospective way, exemplifying and building upon their previous work, but it was also expected that they would begin to demonstrate the configuration of some area in a more comprehensive picture of language. The point was to take (at least) one substantive step in the depiction of what we think language will ultimately be like. The contributions were both specific and generalizing, with focus as much upon methodology as upon hypotheses about language. In examining descriptive practice, we continued to concentrate upon issues which concerned us all, and at the same time we tried to advance the discourse by the results of such description. We hoped that problematic and recalcitrant data would make our own practice clearer to us and that it might also instruct us in the refinement of our conceptions of language.


Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

Author: Dwight Atkinson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1136825797

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This volume presents six alternative approaches to studying second language acquisition – 'alternative' in the sense that they contrast with and/or complement the cognitivism pervading the field. All six approaches – sociocultural, complexity theory, conversation-analytic, identity, language socialization, and sociocognitive – are described according to the same set of six headings, allowing for direct comparison across approaches. Each chapter is authored by leading advocates for the approach described: James Lantolf for the sociocultural approach; Diane Larsen-Freeman for the complexity theory approach; Gabriele Kasper and Johannes Wagner for the conversation-analytic approach; Bonny Norton and Carolyn McKinney for the identity approach; Patricia Duff and Steven Talmy for the language socialization approach and Dwight Atkinson for the sociocognitive approach. Introductory and commentary chapters round out this volume. The editor’s introduction describes the significance of alternative approaches to SLA studies given its strongly cognitivist orientation. Lourdes Ortega’s commentary considers the six approaches from an 'enlightened traditional' perspective on SLA studies – a viewpoint which is cognitivist in orientation but broad enough to give serious and balanced consideration to alternative approaches. This volume is essential reading in the field of second language acquisition.


The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure

The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure

Author: Caroline Féry

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 993

ISBN-13: 0199642672

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This book provides linguists with a clear, critical, and comprehensive overview of theoretical and experimental work on information structure. Leading researchers survey the main theories of information structure in syntax, phonology, and semantics as well as perspectives from psycholinguistics and other relevant fields. Following the editors' introduction the book is divided into four parts. The first, on theories of and theoretical perspectives on information structure, includes chapters on topic, prosody, and implicature. Part 2 covers a range of current issues in the field, including focus, quantification, and sign languages, while Part 3 is concerned with experimental approaches to information structure, including processes involved in its acquisition and comprehension. The final part contains a series of linguistic case studies drawn from a wide variety of the world's language families. This volume will be the standard guide to current work in information structure and a major point of departure for future research.


AN A B C OF LINGUISTICS

AN A B C OF LINGUISTICS

Author: Dr. (Prof.) Gurujiban Mukherjee

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2019-11-27

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1647335345

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An A B C of Linguistics is about linguistics that is suitable for graduate and postgraduate students of English. It is also an informational book for general readers. There aren’t many books on this subject. Therefore, I chose to write this book. People with an educational background in English will benefit more from this book.


Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure

Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure

Author: Mark R. Baltin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1989-07-10

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780226036427

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In the early years of generative grammar it was assumed that the appropriate mechanism for generating syntactic structures was a grammar of context-free rewriting rules. The twelve essays in this volume discuss recent challenges to this classical formulation of phrase structure and the alternative conceptions proposed to replace it. Each article approaches this issue from the perspective of a different linguistic framework, such as categorical grammar, government-binding theory, head-driven phrase structure grammar, and tree-adjoining grammar. By contributing to the understanding of the differing assumptions and research strategies of each theory, this volume serves as an important survey of current thinking on the frontier of theoretical and computation linguistics.


Activity and Understanding

Activity and Understanding

Author: V. S. Fa?n

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9789810218379

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Computer understanding of natural language (NL) is commonly considered as extracting ?sense? from NL texts. This deprives the problem of determinity, since the notion of ?sense? lacks a formal definition. However, with a man-to-computer NL dialogue involved in some working process, any address by humans is nothing but a task for the computer to fulfil. Then it is immaterial whether the computer understands the address text sense and even the very notion of ?sense?. Only the address task is to be accomplished. This means not revealing morphologic, syntactic and other text structures, but only extracting data on the task. As a result, a new theory of NL dialogue understanding has been created, called ?orientated linguistics?. This theory has been brought to life as several practical systems, which have demonstrated an extremely reliable and correct understanding of a quite free and easy NL, a tiny resource consumption and simple readjustment between various subject areas and, what is more, national languages.


Style and Social Identities

Style and Social Identities

Author: Peter Auer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-09-25

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 3110198509

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This volume presents an interactional perspective on linguistic variability that takes into account the construction of social identities through the formation of social communicative styles. It shows that style is a useful category in bridging the gap between single parameter variation and social identity. Social positioning, i.e., finding one's place in society, is one of its motivating forces. Various aspects of the expression of stylistic features are focused on, from language choice and linguistic variation in a narrow sense to practices of social categorization, pragmatics patterns, preferences for specific communicative genres, rhetorical practices including prosodic features, and aesthetic choices and preferences for specific forms of taste (looks, clothes, music, etc.). These various features of expression are connected to multimodal stylistic indices through talk; thus, styles emerge from discourse. Styles are adapted to changing contexts, and develop in the course of social processes. The analytical perspective chosen proposes an alternative to current approaches to variability under the influence of the so-called variationist paradigm.


Terminology and Language Planning

Terminology and Language Planning

Author: Bassey Antia

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2000-08-15

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 9027298645

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Changing socio-political landscapes, the dynamics of ‘glocalisation’, among other factors, are spawning new policy attitudes towards multilingualism, and again putting language planning (LP) on the map – in a manner reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s. With respect to terminology, this book suggests that to be relevant and sustainable, current LP would have to define its mission as the deregulation of access to specialised knowledge, and correspondingly be founded on substantially different methods and theoretical bases: epistemology and ontology of specialised domains; research on language for special purposes (LSP) and collocations; corpus linguistics; knowledge extraction and knowledge representation; language engineering technologies. On the one hand, the book recommends itself to decision-makers and language planning project managers. On the other, it should be of interest to students of LSP and terminology, language planning, concept and object theories, knowledge modelling, artificial intelligence, text and corpus management, translation process analysis, text and African linguistics.


Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics

Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics

Author:

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2005-11-24

Total Pages: 26924

ISBN-13: 0080547842

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The first edition of ELL (1993, Ron Asher, Editor) was hailed as "the field's standard reference work for a generation". Now the all-new second edition matches ELL's comprehensiveness and high quality, expanded for a new generation, while being the first encyclopedia to really exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics. * The most authoritative, up-to-date, comprehensive, and international reference source in its field * An entirely new work, with new editors, new authors, new topics and newly commissioned articles with a handful of classic articles * The first Encyclopedia to exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics through the online edition * Ground-breaking and International in scope and approach * Alphabetically arranged with extensive cross-referencing * Available in print and online, priced separately. The online version will include updates as subjects develop ELL2 includes: * c. 7,500,000 words * c. 11,000 pages * c. 3,000 articles * c. 1,500 figures: 130 halftones and 150 colour * Supplementary audio, video and text files online * c. 3,500 glossary definitions * c. 39,000 references * Extensive list of commonly used abbreviations * List of languages of the world (including information on no. of speakers, language family, etc.) * Approximately 700 biographical entries (now includes contemporary linguists) * 200 language maps in print and online Also available online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. The first Encyclopedia to exploit the multimedia potential of linguistics Ground-breaking in scope - wider than any predecessor An invaluable resource for researchers, academics, students and professionals in the fields of: linguistics, anthropology, education, psychology, language acquisition, language pathology, cognitive science, sociology, the law, the media, medicine & computer science. The most authoritative, up-to-date, comprehensive, and international reference source in its field


Alternative Histories of English

Alternative Histories of English

Author: Peter Trudgill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-09-06

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1134569343

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This groundbreaking collection explores the beliefs and approaches to the history of English that do not make it into standard textbooks. Orthodox histories have presented a tunnel version of the history of the English language which is sociologically inadequate. In this book a range of leading international scholars show how this focus on standard English dialect is to the detriment of those which are non-standard or from other areas of the world. Alternative Histories of English: * reveals the range of possible 'narratives' about how different varieties of 'Englishes' may have emerged * places emphasis on pragmatic, sociolinguistic and discourse-oriented aspects of English rather than the traditional grammar, vocabulary and phonology * considers diverse topics including South African English, Indian English, Southern Hemisphere Englishes, Early Modern English, women's writing, and politeness. Presenting a fuller and richer picture of the complexity of the history of English, the contributors to Alternative Histories of English explain why English is the diverse world language it is today.